Ridderschap van Holland ('Knighthood of Holland') was a large retourschip ('return ship'), the largest class of merchantmen built by the Dutch East India Company (, commonly abbreviated to VOC) to trade with the East Indies. In 1694 the ship sailed for Batavia (now Jakarta, Indonesia) on her fifth voyage, but was never heard from again. She is now thought to have been shipwrecked off the west coast of Australia.

Construction details

She was built in Amsterdam, Dutch Republic in 1682 by the VOC, and registered at Vlissingen. She was 164 ft long and 39.5 ft wide, with a gross tonnage of about 520 tons.

Early voyages

Ridderschap van Holland completed four voyages before her final voyage.

Final voyage

On 11 July 1693, Ridderschap van Holland departed Wielingen on a voyage to Batavia under Captain Dirk de Lange. She arrived at the Cape of Good Hope on 9 January 1694, remaining there until 5 February. She sailed from the Cape with a crew of around 300, and two passengers, including Admiral Sir James Couper. She never reached her destination, and was never heard from again. Contemporary rumours suggested that she had sprung her mast rounding the Cape, limped north, and was captured by pirates based at Fort Dauphin, near the southeastern corner of Madagascar. However, Abraham Samuel, the pirate supposedly responsible, did not arrive in the area until 1697. In 1697, Willem de Vlamingh was sent with three ships to search for Ridderschap van Holland at Île Saint-Paul and Île Amsterdam, and then along the west coast of Australia. Nothing was found. Two years later, two ships made investigations while visiting Madagascar, but without success. It is probable that Ridderschap van Holland was actually wrecked in the Pelsaert Group of the Houtman Abrolhos islands off the coast of Western Australia. The crew of a later East Indiaman, Zeewijk, which was wrecked on Pelsaert Island in 1727, discovered the remains of a Dutch ship of approximately the right period on their island, together with numerous artifacts, such as bottles, that suggested some of a ship's crew had survived in the islands for a considerable time. John Lort Stokes, captain of HMS Beagle, also saw these artifacts in 1840. It is now widely thought that these artifacts were from Ridderschap van Holland, although it is possible that they came from Fortuyn, which disappeared in 1724 and is now thought to have been wrecked near Cocos Islands. Any archaeological remains were destroyed by guano mining on the island in the early 20th century, so positive identification of the wreck is now impossible.

Sources