Voyage of the Beagle to Western Australia 1837-43 and her commanders’ knowledge of two VOC wrecks

Author/s Reay, J.

Year of publication 2014

Report Number: No.314

This report deals with the issue concerned with the knowledge and sources of that knowledge held by the commander of His Majesty’s Surveying Sloop Beagle, John Wickham, and the vessel’s senior Lieutenant John Stokes, about two merchant ships of the Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (Dutch East India Company – the VOC) which were wrecked on the Houtman's Abrolhos, a large archipelago of coral islands and reefs off the coast of Western Australia.