ZEEWIJK

[john sefton]

The ZEEWIJK a new ship of 38 guns belonging to the Dutch East India Company (V.Q.C.) hit the Half Moon Reef, near Gun Island, at night fail on 9th June 1727.

She did not sink immediatly and some 20 or 30 of her crew continued to live on her for 4 months. Others found safety on an artificial island formed by the masts and rigging, which drifted away from the wreck, and were afterwards ferried away, with provisions, to Gun Island.

12 men set out in the ships longboat to get help from Batavia but failed to arrive. On realising this the 88 survivors of the 208 who had originally sailed from Holland built themselves a small boat called the SLOEPIE from the wreckage of the ZEEWIJK. 82 of them reached Batavia safely on 30th April 1728.

Of the 60 members of the crew who died during the time spent on Gun Isiand, 2 were boys who were marooned and left to die on separate islands as a punishment for homosexuality. The captain of the ZEEWIJK, Jan Steynes, was charged with carelessness and with not following sailing orders, and also with having altered the ship's journals to cover up his offence.

He was convicted, all his belongings confiscated and he was banished for life from everywhere under the administration of the V.O.C. But first he was tied to a pole in the place of public execution with a board round his neck saying 'FALiSIFiER'.