Wreck of the Zuytdorp in June 1712 – Phillip Playford

The Zuytdorp, one of the great ships of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), disappeared after leaving the Cape of Good Hope in April 1712. Its wreck was found by Tom Pepper in 1927 and was positively identified as that of the Zuytdorp by Phil Playford in 1958.

The third and final voyage of the Zuytdorp had been disastrous long before it was wrecked at the foot of towering cliffs south of Shark Bay.  When the ship had reached the Cape of Good Hope it had already lost 112 of the 286 people who had sailed from the Netherlands. The wreck was identified through coins that it carried, valued at about 250 000 guilders, which went down with the ship forming a 'carpet of silver' on the sea floor.

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