A centuries-old shipwreck found off southern England with about 400 gold coins has been identified as the Dutch merchant vessel Dom van Keulen, which sailed from Morocco to the Netherlands in the autumn of 1633. The wreck had remained a mystery for nearly 30 years until a team from the British Museum, Bournemouth University and the South West England Maritime Archaeology Group completed the identification.
Researchers believe the ship ran into severe weather and sank near Salcombe in Devon, on England’s south coast. All crew members survived. Bournemouth maritime archaeology professor Dave Parham said the cargo included 150 sacks of gum arabic, 64 sacks of saltpeter, 320 goat skins and 9,000 Moroccan gold coins. He added that most of the cargo was probably salvaged at the time, but more than 400 coins remained on the seabed until the South West England Maritime Archaeology Group found them in 1995.
Parham said the find sheds light on the wealth and organization of the Saadian dynasty, which ruled Morocco from 1554 to 1659, and on African gold trade. He described the wreck as physical evidence of the thriving 17th-century maritime commerce linking Morocco, the Low Countries and Britain.
The 400 coins, along with other recovered material now held by the British Museum, came from the Barbary coast, now Morocco. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Dutch merchants traded goods for valuable, unrefined West African gold, and much of that imported gold was later melted down to make Dutch gold coins, which became widely used international trade currency. The ship’s exact appearance and size remain unknown because no contemporary description survives. British Museum research lead Dr. Jeremy D. Hill called the underwater discovery of African gold off Devon “amazing” and said solving the puzzle required experts working together. He said the ship’s story can now be told and that the find is of international importance.
