Updated

Updated · Fox News · Jul 24

Researchers Identify 1633 Dutch Shipwreck After 30 Years, Using 400 Moroccan Gold Coins

Updated

Updated · Fox News · Jul 24

Researchers Identify 1633 Dutch Shipwreck After 30 Years, Using 400 Moroccan Gold Coins

Q: What hidden archival clues finally solved the 30-year mystery of the Moroccan gold scattered across the Devon seabed?

The decisive clue came from **17th-century records in the UK National Archives** uncovered by historian **Ian Friel**. Those documents described the Dutch merchant ship **Dom van Keulen** sailing from **Safi, Morocco, in autumn 1633**, then running into **“tempestuous weather”** in the English Channel, **springing a leak**, and being lost near **Salcombe, Devon** with the crew surviving. Those archival details matched the archaeology unusually well. The wreck off Salcombe had already produced **more than 400 Moroccan gold coins**, and the records for the Dom van Keulen listed a cargo of **9,000 Barbary ducats**, along with **gum arabic, saltpeter and goat skins**—exactly the kind of North African commercial shipment researchers believed they were looking at. What solved the mystery was not a single artifact but the fit between **documentary evidence and material evidence**. The coin dates and Moroccan origin narrowed the time window, while the National Archives material provided a ship name, route, weather event and loss location consistent with the wreck. Together, those “hidden” archive references turned a famous but unidentified “Salcombe Gold Wreck” into a named vessel with a documented final voyage: the **Dom van Keulen**.

Q: How did the entire crew of a 17th-century Dutch trading ship survive a disastrous sinking in tempestuous English waters?

The crew survived because the **Dom van Keulen** did not vanish suddenly in deep water: after being battered by what records call **“much tempestuous weather,”** the ship **sprang a leak, managed to anchor about 400 meters offshore near Salcombe, and the sailors escaped in the ship’s boat to land**. That reconstruction comes from documents found by historian **Ian Friel** in the **UK National Archives**, which researchers used alongside the archaeological evidence from the wreck. Those records indicate the Dutch merchant vessel, sailing from **Morocco to the Netherlands in autumn 1633**, was damaged in rough conditions in the English Channel and then foundered off Devon. The wreck’s location also helps explain the survival. It lies relatively close to shore and in about **59 feet (18 meters) of water**, suggesting the crew had a realistic chance to abandon ship rather than being overwhelmed far out at sea. Researchers also believe **much of the cargo was salvaged at the time**, which further supports the idea that the sinking was serious but not so sudden that it prevented an organized evacuation. So while the weather was severe enough to sink the vessel, the leak appears to have developed gradually enough for the crew to anchor, launch their boat and reach safety. That is why a 17th-century disaster that left a shipwreck and hundreds of gold coins on the seabed did **not** become a mass-casualty loss of life.

1 articles · Updated · Fox News · Jul 24

Bournemouth University and partner researchers said a wreck found near Salcombe, Devon, in 1995 has been identified as the Dutch trading ship Dom van Keulen, which sank in 1633 after springing a leak.
More than 400 Moroccan gold coins recovered from the seabed were the key clue, helping historians link the site to a Dutch voyage that left Morocco for the Netherlands.
The roughly 98-foot wreck lies about 59 feet underwater, with cannons, anchors and other artifacts still scattered across the site.
Dave Parham said the ship had carried 150 bags of gum arabic, 64 bags of saltpeter, 320 goat skins and 9,000 Barbary ducats, though most cargo was likely salvaged at the time and all crew survived.
The identification, detailed in a new book, capped nearly three decades of work by divers, archaeologists and the British Museum, underscoring the wreck's international trade significance.

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Fox News6h ago

Researchers Identify 17th-Century Dutch Ship Dom van Keulen Off England's Coast

Could this newly identified 1633 shipwreck rewrite our understanding of the secretive African gold trade networks in Europe?

What hidden archival clues finally solved the 30-year mystery of the Moroccan gold scattered across the Devon seabed?

How did the entire crew of a 17th-century Dutch trading ship survive a disastrous sinking in tempestuous English waters?

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1 total

Fox News6h ago

Researchers Identify 17th-Century Dutch Ship Dom van Keulen Off England's Coast

Researchers Identify 1633 Dutch Shipwreck After 30 Years, Using 400 Moroccan Gold Coins

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