Vergulde Draeck (Gilt Dragon), 1656

Published

23 August 2025

Last Updated

3 September 2025

Ship

Vergulde Draeck

Country of Origin

Netherlands

Built

Amsterdam

Rig

Jacht

Tonnage (Gross)

260.00

Port Departed

Texel

Port Destination

Batavia

Wrecked

Off Ledge Point

Discovery

Primary discoverer Graeme Henderson, Secondary discoverers Alan Henderson, James Henderson and John Cowan

Protection

Commonwealth Underwater Cultural Heritage Act 2018

History

The jacht Vergulde Draeck (also popularly known by its English translation, Gilt Dragon) measuring 41.8 metres in length and weighing 260 tons, belonged to the Amsterdam Chamber of the Dutch United East India Company (VOC). On its second voyage to the East Indies, Vergulde Draeck sailed from Texel, Holland, bound for Batavia (present-day Jakarta, Indonesia), under skipper Pieter Albertsz. It carried 193 crew members and a substantial cargo of trade goods valued at 106,400 florins, eight chests of silver coins worth 78,600 florins, trade goods and over 8,000 clay bricks carried as paying ballast.

Shipwreck

On 28 April 1656, the Vergulde Draeck ran aground at night on an offshore reef and immediately fell apart, just south of present-day Ledge Point. Of the 193 crew, only 75 made it to shore in two boats. The smaller boat was sent to Batavia with the under steersman and six other crew members — they arrived 40 days later, before there was any concern in Batavia about the Vergulde Draeck’s overdue arrival. There, they reported that the ship had been lost on the west coast of the Southland, and that as they sailed away, the remaining survivors were trying to refloat the larger boat, which had capsized on the surf while landing.

Factors contributing to the wreck

Navigation

In the 17th century, seafarers were dependent on astronomical navigation and estimating their progress based on course, speed, and distance travelled—a technique known as dead reckoning. While they could determine their latitude (north-south position) reasonably well, if they had been unable to obtain any sights due to bad weather obscuring the skies (often the case in Southern hemisphere winter), it was difficult to calculate their precise longitude—how far east or west they had travelled. When combined with the difficulties of spotting shallow, offshore reefs at night, this was the primary reason for all the early East Indies ships wrecking upon Western Australian coast.

Search for Vergulde Draek

After the arrival of the Vergulde Draeck survivors in Batavia, Dutch East India Company officials immediately dispatched two ships—the fluit Witte Valk and the yacht Goede Hoep—with provisions and divers to recover the company’s goods, rescue the remaining survivors, and make accurate charts of the Southland. However they were unsuccessful in finding the survivors, and the Goede Hoop lost a longboat, and eleven crew.

The following year, in June 1657, the VOC dispatched the fluit Vincq from the Cape of Good Hope to conduct a search, which was also unsuccessful as winter weather kept the ship from approaching the coast too closely.

Hoping for better results in the summer season, the VOC dispatched two ships—Emeloort and Waeckende Boey—from the Cape of Good Hope in December 1657 to search for any surviving crew from the Vergulde Draeck and Goede Hoop. Abraham Leeman and crew from the Waeckende Boey landed on the mainland and reported finding many traces of the Vergulde Draeck, but no survivors. Landing on the coast a second time in bad weather, they were abandoned on the coast by the Waeckende Boey. Leeman and his crew were forced to sail to Java, arriving in Batavia nine months later—only five crew surviving the agonising journey.

Despite these searches, no further trace of the remaining 68 Vergulde Draeck or 11 Goede Hoop crew was ever found, and their fate remains one of Western Australia’s maritime mysteries.

Discovery

On 14 April 1963, the wreck of Vergulde Draeck was discovered by a group of spearfishers on an offshore reef lying about three kilometres offshore from Ledge Point. The group consisted of primary discoverer Graeme Henderson (who later became a well-known maritime archaeologist, author, and Director of the WA Maritime Museum), and secondary discoverers Alan Henderson, James Henderson, and John Cowan. Soon afterwards, the site was looted and damaged by treasure hunters using explosives, including Alan Robinson.

The finders transferred their rights to the WA Museum on condition that the site would be protected by legislation. In 1964, the WA Government enacted the world’s first legislation to protect a historic shipwreck with the Museum Act Amendment Act 1964, and later the Maritime Archaeology Act 1973.

WA Museum Expeditions

1971

First Vergulde Draeck expedition, with some limited excavation

1972

Second Vergulde Draeck expedition, with more extensive survey and excavation work. This was the first major underwater archaeological excavation ever undertaken in Australia.

1981

Third Vergulde Draeck expedition, with some limited excavation. The objectives were to excavate the main wreck areas that had been left at the end of 1971-72 expeditions. However, the planned work was hampered by bad weather conditions, with limited time able to be spent in the water.

1982

Fourth Vergulde Draeck excavation.

1983

Fifth Vergulde Draeck excavation. This expedition was a great success due to a long period of unusually calm weather, allowing 19 days of diving and a total of 332 hours underwater. Finds included a Southeast Asian smoking pipe (a very unusual find for the mid-17th century), several beardman jugs, and an astrolabe.

Overall, the excavations recovered a wide range of material including beardman jugs, clay tobacco pipes (including a box of complete pipes), bronze and brass utensils such as candlestick holders, tools, accessories, glass bottles, armament, over 8,000 clay bricks from the Netherlands (carried as paying ballast) and more than 8,500 silver coins, mainly silver Spanish reales.

Most of these artefacts are on display at the WA Shipwrecks Museum. They offer a rare glimpse into 17th century maritime trade, European exploration, and the human cost of long-distance sea voyages in the age of sail.