The wreck of The Amsterdam, 1984

The Dutch East India Company ship AMSTERDAM, with 54 guns, has been entombed in the beach at Hastings since February, 1749. She was run ashore by a mutinous crew during a severe gale, whilst on her maiden voyage from Amsterdam to Java.

There was good reason for the mutiny, for in two weeks disease had killed 50 of her complement of 335, and her rudder had been torn off.

Captain Willem Klump beached his ship between Hastings and Bexhill on 26th January, 1749, and the Mayor of Hastings took charge of the survivors and guarded the ship from plunderers. When salvage eventually commenced, the ship was found to be sinking rapidly into the beach, and the cargo was inaccessible.

Today two-thirds of the hull survives, with the keel about 30 feet (9 metres) deep in the beach, and inside is most of her cargo and the possessions of the people on board.

Discoveries in 1969 of bottles still full of wine, bronze guns and a great variety of other objects, drew attention to the wreck, and an archaeological and historical study followed.

Bronze gun from The Amsterdam

Wine bottle from The Amsterdam

The ship was found to be the only known well-preserved example of an East Indiaman in the world, and was definitely worthy of preservation.

In 1973 she was protected as an historic monument under a new law, and in 1975 a ‘Save the AMSTERDAM Foundation’ was established in the Netherlands, to study how to excavate, raise and preserve the ship and its valuable contents, and return them to the city of Amsterdam.

The Foundation decided to undertake the first archaeological excavation in 1984 by using a Dutch- British team of archaeologists and divers to uncover part of the lower gun deck.

Although all discoveries will leave Britain for the Netherlands, the Foundation has offered to return a representative selection for permanent display in the Shipwreck Heritage Centre at Hastings.

Section of the 'Sussex Shipwrecks' poster
by Steve Martin