Page 31 - Kennemerland VOC ship, 1664 - Published Reports

The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology and Underwater Exploration (1974), 3.2: 257-268 The second season of work on the Kennemerland site, 1973
An interim report
Richard Price
Fort Bovisand, Plymouth and
Keith Muckelroy Jesus College, Cambridge
Introduction
Between June and September 1973 a team of divers from the Aston and Manchester Universities Sub-Aqua Clubs undertook a second season of work on the site of the wreck of the Dutch East Indiaman Ken- nemerland in the Out Skerries, Shetland Islands (Fig. 1). The first season, in 1971, had involved a preliminary search and survey of the remains by members of the Aston University Sub-Aqua Club; an interim report on the results of that work has already appeared in this journal (Forster & Higgs, 1973).In this present interim report, attention will be focused solely on the archaeological results of the 1973 investigations, in which search and survey were supplemented by the controlled excavation of sample areas.
The University divers, of whom there were up to 17 on site at any one time, were assisted by two members of 1 and 3 Training Regi- ment, Royal Engineers, who also provided two assault craft to act as boat cover. All the finds have been deposited with Mr Tom Henderson of the Zetland County Museum, who has since undertaken all necessary
conservation work on them; legally, they are in the hands of the Shetland Receiver of Wreck. It is hoped that they will be able to join the rapidly expanding nautical archae- ology collections of the Lenvick Museum. We are deeply indebted to Mr Henderson in innumerable ways; we have relied heavily on
his wisdom and advice from the very start of the project, and continue to do so.
The Kennemerland was wrecked on Stoura Stack on 20 December 1664 (N.S.) while out- ward bound from the Texel to Batavia, carrying a general cargo for the Cape Colony and Batavia. She was following the ‘achter om’ route around the north of the British Isles on account of the state of hostility which was then prevailing between Britain and the United Provinces, which was to lead to the declaration of war in February 1665. On the night in question, the ship was running before a southerly gale, and had no warning of the proximity of land before disaster struck. After the initial impact on Stoura Stack, local tradition tells us, the bulk of the wreckage was swept through the South Mouth into the harbour of the Out Skerries. A summary of the relevant documentary evidence was presented in the report on the 1971 season of work (Forster & Higgs, 1973); there is no need to repeat the details here. It is on the basis of this historical evidence that the
underwater investigations of the Kennemer- land site have proceeded.
Objectives and methods
The investigations of 1971 had established the main areas of the wreck site, and the location of many of the larger artefacts.
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