What the ship was really called is not known. Researchers gave it the name Scheurrak SO1. In addition, it is not exactly clear when the ship sank. Fortunately, there is much that we do know, thanks in part to historian Geke Burger, PhD candidate at Leiden University. She spent four years researching the wreck and defended her thesis last spring. “We think the ship sank in or around 1590,” Geke says. “ Objects bearing dates have been removed from the ship. For example, there is a gunpowder fuse with the date 1590. We have also retrieved other objects from the ship, which we know are from the late 1580s.” Strange ripples The ship was anchored in the Texel sound, ready to set sail. It sank before it had even left. This was evident from the large amount of provisions and grain cargo on board. The ship probably sank due to a storm. Geke: At that time, the region was quite notorious. And we found no traces of fire or hostile attack." Due to the current, the wreck became covered with a layer of sediment, leaving it in perfect condition waiting for the researchers. However, that did take some centuries. It was not until some 400 years later, in 1984, that a fisherman noticed strange ripples in the water. "They call that a swirl. This is often caused by something underwater disrupting the flow.”

Lots of shoes A treasure chest at the bottom of the sea is what Geke calls the wreck: “There are more shipwrecks in that area. This is the only merchant ship from the 16th century whose contents have survived. This is quite unique. In the sixteenth century, many ships departed without leaving any records behind. On the seabed, we found information that we cannot obtain from written sources.” A major archaeological excavation began in 1987. Divers descended to the wreck, which lies some six to nine metres below the water surface. Although they found a lot, the search was not easy. “Visibility is particularly poor, about one metre. That makes it hard to see where you are.” Apart from grain and food remains, the divers also found clothing, the skull of a ship's rat, personal objects and tools. “And lots of shoes, as many as 72 pairs. Far too many for a crew of 18 to 30 men.”

Big profit Geke is pretty sure what the ship's destination was: the Mediterranean. She knows this through a combination of historical sources and seabed finds. “There was a famine in that region in 1590, especially in Italy. So the demand for food was high. At the time, the Dutch imported a lot of grain from the Baltic States, as that was cheap. Then they sold it for a big profit in Italy.” They also needed shoes there. “I found a letter from a commercial agent in Genoa to a merchant in the Netherlands. It states that the price of shoes was high in Genoa at the time. ‘So please send a shipment of shoes.’ We don't know how often shoes were traded, but that it happened is clear. That also explains the many shoes on board Scheurrak SO1.” Life on board From the finds inside the ship, Geke can see how the crew lived on board. From the archives, she extracted additional information. “The place of the crew was behind the mast on the upper deck. They slept on mattresses made of jute and straw. They worked in shifts and took turns keeping watch.” On board were at least a skipper, a helmsman, a cook, a carpenter and a gunner, supplemented by sailors. A relatively small crew, performing multiple tasks. “To fire a cannon, you need at least four people. So when there was danger, they all manned those cannons. Furthermore, the sailors' work consisted of working with the sails and ropes and pumping water out of the ship. The carpenter had a workshop in the fore ship. The cook prepared food in the galley three times a day. The helmsman and skipper worked together to navigate the ship using various instruments and charts.” At the bottom All objects recovered from the wreck are kept at the National Ship Archaeological Depot Batavialand in Lelystad. Under the right conditions – not too hot or too cold, not too dry or too humid – to preserve them as well as possible. And the ship itself? Geke: “It still lies at the bottom of the Wadden Sea, covered by two metres of sand.” ←

More information about the National Ship Archaeological Depot Batavialand in Lelystad can be found at www.batavialand.nl/en/.