A shipwreck found in 1995 in Salcombe Bay off southern England contained more than 400 gold coins. The discovery began a three-decade effort to identify the vessel, which has now concluded. Historian Ian Friel traced records showing the ship was the Dutch merchant vessel Dom van Keulen, lost in 1633 while sailing from Morocco to Amsterdam. Details of date, location, Moroccan gold coins and other Dutch items recovered from the site all correspond. Researchers from the British Museum, Bournemouth University and the South West Maritime Archaeology Group have published their findings in a new book. Little of the hull survived, so identification relied on cargo that included jewelry, pottery, goat skins, a merchant seal and resin pills preserved in an earthenware jar. Coins minted up to 1632 provided a latest possible date for the loss. Court records from 1633 confirmed the ship encountered severe weather near the English coast and was abandoned. The find offers new evidence of 17th-century trade between the Netherlands, Morocco and Britain and represents the largest known collection of Sa’dian gold coins.
