Maritime record 13698 - ADELAAR: CEANN AIRD GHREIN, BARRA, ATLANTIC

NF60NE 8002 650 049
N57 0.8 W7 31.2

Formerly recorded as NF60NW 8001 at cited location NF c. 646 049 [N57 0.8 W7 31.6].

NLO: Ceann Aird Ghrein [name: NF 646 049].

(No accurate location cited). Greian Head, Isle of Barra, Inverness-shire: Adelaar. The scattered remains of this Dutch East Indiaman, wrecked in 1728, were found around the exposed reef known locally as Maolach Sgeir (Cursed Reef) in 1972.
Excavation, which began in that year, was completed in April 1974 by the Institute of Maritime Archaeology, St Andrews University. There were no structural remains. Examples of each of the five types of gun carried by the ship were recorded, and a bronze 6-pounder and a swivel gun bearing the VOC cipher were raised. Sixty lead ingots, of four types, were recovered: some carried a mark tentatively identified as that of the Bright smeltery in Sheffield. Many of the distinctive yellow bricks often carried by East Indiamen as paying ballast were also noted. A massive concretion deposit containing shot, iron tools, and nails was examined in detail, and selective recoveries were made. Small finds, which were not numerous, included a copper pan, pan-lid handles, fishing hooks, small shot of various gauges, copper bars, a pump valve, shoe and belt buckles, part of a pocket watch, a pair of dividers, glass, a single sherd of stoneware pottery, clay pipe fragments, some silver ducatons, and four pieces of gold jewellery.
Disposal of the finds, preferably to an appropriate museum, is at present under discussion with the Dutch government and the Receiver of Wreck. Publication is being prepared in conjunction with a closely parallel wreck in Australian waters (Zeewyk 1727).
J Cherry 1975.

Assigned to class 5 ('fragmentary').
K Muckelroy 1977.

(No accurate location cited). The Adelaar ('Eagle') was built in 1722 for the Zeeland chamber of the Dutch East Indies Company (VOC) and to the standard specification for a medium-sized ship on the Indies route. Her length, beam and laden draught were thus 44m, 11m and 4.7m respectively, while her laden displacement was about 700 tons. The ship carried 36 muzzle-loading guns, two of which (those nearest the compass) were of bronze and the rest of iron. In addition, eight light breech-loading pieces were set higher up to deter pirates in eastern waters.
The ship made two round trips to Batavia between 1722 and 1727, and sailed on a third under a new captain (William de Keyser) on 21 March 1728. She left Middleburg with a general cargo and seventeen chests of specie (mainly silver ingots and coins) to pay for her anticipated return cargo of spices, tea and porcelain. Lead ingots and characteristic yellow bricks (of size about 175 by 75 by 35mm) were also carried in considerable numbers, apparently as 'paying ballast' towards the same end.
The ship was wrecked on a shallow reef 220 yards off the lee shore of Barra in severe weather on 4 April, all 220 on board being lost. Salvage operations (remarkable for the day) were organised by Alexander Mackenzie, an official of the Court of Admiralty in Edinburgh, who employed Captain Joseph Rowe and his diving 'engine', in reality a closed cylinder or 'barrel'. Almost all the specie was recovered, and most of the available information regarding the wreck is derived from the subsequent legal proceedings.
The remains of the wreck were discovered and investigated by Colin Martin and the Scottish Institute of Maritime Studies in 1972 and 1974, explosives being used experimentally. The remains were found to have been severely 'scrambled' by post-depositional movement on a fissured and rocky seabed by virtue of their exposed situation and the salvage operations, but enough remained recognisable to allow the extensive documentation to be tested against the remains. The shingle within the seabed gullies was in a constant state of movement, the only objects to survive being held in concretion below this layer. The only diagnostic artifacts to survive were of metal, many of these being battered and distorted; those noted on the published plan include bronze, iron and swivel guns, grindstones and nails.
C J M Martin and A N Long 1975; K Muckelroy 1978; C Martin 1992; J P Delgado 1998.

Location cited as NF 650 049.
Information from Dr C Martin, 24 April 2002.

REPORT DATE: 16/05/2003