Page 11 - Kennemerland VOC ship, 1664 - Published Reports

weight bears the stamped date 1664 and is inscribed VI. This apparently served to increase an iron weight to the correct figure and the Roman numerals served to denote the number of pounds of 'trooise weight'; the two holes served for location and the outlines of the gaugers' stamps are apparent. Ingot no. 305 was relocated and raised off Stoura Stack; it was seen to bear the stamp RI in addition to MR but was stolen from Shetland Museum before being accurately weighed.
Navigational instruments: three complete or partial dividers were recovered.
Organic material: 68 complete and 13 fragments of plumstones (Prunus institutitia) were recognised in concretions, often with fragments of glass. Five stones were found inside a broken green glass case bottle, suggesting that the plums were stored in the bottle, in contrast to the 1973 discovery of peach stones in a stoneware flagon.
Stone: three fragments of a quernstone were found (comprising 85% of the whole). This is made of basalt, probably from the Eifel region of the Middle Rhineland.
Five objects found and recovered in 1978 about 50m N of the main site were identified by I Tait and D Stirk as the heads of golf clubs ('colfsloffen'). Together with those found on the wreck of the Lastdrager (HP50SW 8001) they form the earliest evidence for the spread of the game in Northern Europe. Each comprises a central wooden core with a lead alloy shell; three of the five were intended for left-handed play.
Decoration is apparent on the best-preserved example and may reflect the three saltires of the coat of arms of the City of Amsterdam. It is unclear from which part of the vessel they were laid down, but four of the five were found in close proximity, and may have been bound together at the head. They were apparently new when taken on board the vessel, probably as items of trade rather than private possessions.
The area of discovery of the golf club heads was subjected to detailed excavation and found to comprise a wide 'table' of rock with sand patches under dense kelp; unlike the rest of the site, no gullies were apparent. No disturbance was apparent in the nine years between successive excavations, and the artifacts found in the area comprised mostly abraded potsherds (mostly of salt-glazed stoneware) and green glass.
Summary by RCAHMS (RJCM) Undated
Sources: R Stenuit 1991; C T C Dobbs and R A Price 1991.
Specialist Report (1987)
In May 1985, C Martin studied the finds from the Kennemerland held in Shetland County Museum, Lerwick, and assessed the pipes to be a coherent group manufactured in or slightly before 1664. In general, very few pipes are identical although their shapes are distinctively similar. This must imply that they were acquired from a variety of sources, most probably by individuals for their own use rather than as discrete batch or cargo. Stem-bore dating has not been attempted for this body of material.
Also studied were four decorated brass tobacco boxes found within a single concretion matrix:
1. egg-shaped cast brass box with a hinged lid and hooked catch. The lid decoration shows a peasant couple courting.
2. box of similar form to (1). The lid is captioned BACHVS and shows the god with wineglass, bunch of grapes and cask. A townscape entitled DER GOV (Gouda) appears on the base.
3. oval box with brass lid and base, and copper sides. On the top is a scene which includes a turret post windmill with tiller beam, a tree and a house from whose upper window a flag or