Lastrager: Crussa Ness, Bluemull Sound, Yell

HP50SW 8001 c. 5480 0283

N60 42.33 W0 59.75

NLO: Bluemull Sound [name centred HP 557 025]

Cullivoe [name centred HP 542 028]

Culli Voe [name centred HP 546 024].

Location formerly entered as HP c. 546 030 [N60 42.4 W0 60].

Lastrager: [max. date] 1653

640 tons 140 ft long 27 ft wide. Wreck excavated by Dr Robert Stenuit 1971-72

Archive Ref: TH 1985 p 192; OLM Vol. 1 p12; GD 150/2607/19; D.6/292/1/ p. 30; ST 6/1/1894; Nat. Geographic - Undersea Treasures J.C. Joffre

Source: Shetland Archive Service [undated].

MS/3025, no. 180.

Cullivoe, Shetland: Lastdrager. Coins, dividers, knife-handles [and] gold and brass rings from this Dutch East Indiaman, wrecked in 1653, were sold at Sotheby's on 8 November 1973, lots 118-145.

J Cherry 1974.

Assigned to class 4 ('dispersed and unstable').

K Muckelroy 1977.

(Location cited as approximately 60 42' 20"N 0 59' 45"W [N60 42.33 W0 59.75: HP 5480 0283]: for location plans see Stenuit 1974, 214, fig.1 and 220, fig. 3). This fluitschip (flute) of the Amsterdam chamber of the Dutch United Chartered East India Company (VOC) was lost off Yell on 2nd March 1653. Her discovery, partial excavation and record by R Stenuit in 1971 serves to illuminate the 17th development of the VOC, for which period the surviving documentary emphasis is relatively poor.

The Lastdrager ('loadcarrier', 'porter' or 'beast of burden') was not built in the shipyards of the VOC and so her dimensions remain unknown. She was recorded as being of 320 lasten (640 tons) gross burden, so that a length of between 140 and 145ft (42.67 and 44.19m) and a beam of between 27 and 28ft (8.23 and 8.53m) may be postulated. Her armament and cargo are unrecorded.

The ship was purchased in April 1648 and made two successful return voyages from Texel to Batavia before her loss. She sailed (apparently from Texel and bound for Batavia) in company with the jagt Avenhoorn on 4 February 1653, taking the north-of-Scotland route to avoid the military activity of the First Dutch War in the English Channel. Johannes Camphuijs was in command, and subsequently wrote a dramatic and detailed account of the stranding and of his own survival. Salvage operations were carried out by 'wrackman' William Irvine, apparently on a small scale and with poor results.

The incomplete remains of the wreck were discovered in an exposed situation off the tip of Crussa Ness, east of the beach of Crooks Ayre and north of Cullivoe. Only the forward portion was identified, lying in kelp at a depth of up to 10m on a heavily gullied seabed, The stern had apparently broken away, and was not found during magnetometer or diver survey over much of the deeper water of Blue Mull Sound the following year.

No articulated remains of the hull structure were identified but numerous fragments of lead strip, five large iron nails and a piece of spunyarn were found. No anchors were found, although two had previously been lifted by Irvine. Five iron guns (three of them undamaged and all within concretion) were found but not lifted, as were several eroded iron shot. No fragments of portable firearms were found, but there were many small shot ('bullets'), some of them linked.

The identifiable remains of the cargo or ballast included a single lead ingot (three others having apparently been found by Irvine) and numerous yellow bricks. These latter were crudely fired, irregular in form and similar to those found in the Kennemerland (HU67SE 8001) and other VOC wrecks. Several stamped clay pipe bowls, eighty six 'strong' copper nails, fragments of copper sheet, glass beads and pieces of fine glassware were found and probably also formed part of the cargo. Most of the specie from the cargo probably remains in the stern portion but 407 silver coins (including Spanish issues and rare types) were discovered, most of them concreted into piles.

'Shining puddles 'of mercury ('quicksilver') lay uncovered and without corrosion in depressions across the wreck, and indicate a hitherto-unrecognised trade in this commodity, presumably for use in gilding. The mercury was apparently contained in Bellarmine or other stoneware flagons or in pewter screw-capped vessels; fragments of these types were found.

Among the 2746 complete or fragmentary artifacts recovered there were navigational instruments (a sounding lead, a pocket sundial, some eighty navigational dividers and an astrolabe of brachiolus or hinged arm type) and a surgical instrument (a brass wimble for trephination). Everyday artifacts found included pewter spoons and forks of types typical of the period while small fragments of copper or bronze sheet may have formed parts of a cauldron, a cylindrical bucket and a strainer, all presumably from the galley. A brass revolving keg tap was also found. Golf-club heads found on this wreck are similar to those found on that of the Kennemerland.

Items of jewellery found included two large brass finger-rings (both stamped), a lady's gold wedding ring and a possible ear-ring. A bone dice, nine cast silver figurines or fragments (possibly toys), the silver pommel of a sword or rapier and three knife-handles were also found. Irvine records his discovery of a medal struck in 1623 to commemorate the defence of Hasselt.

The excavated finds were subsequently individually sold at auction.

[Stenuit 1974, 253, n. 1 lists VOC wrecks found to date].

R Stenuit 1974; K Muckelroy 1978; K Muckelroy 1980; J P Delgado 1998; C Martin 1998.

(Classified as East-Indiaman, with cargo of iron, copper and specie: date of loss cited as 2 March 1653). Lastdrager: this vessel was wrecked at Crook's Ayre, Cullivoe Ness.

Registration: Dutch. 640 tons burthern. Length: 43m. Beam: 8m.

(Location of loss cited as N60 42.25 W0 59.5).

I G Whittaker 1998.

The following artifacts from Stenuit's excavations of 1972-3 on the wreck of the VOC flute Lastdrager (lost on the Ness of Cullivoe, North Yell on 2 March 1653) are held in Shetland Museum, Lerwick:

(registration no. SEA 7538) brass dividers (steel points missing).

Also held in the museum there are:

(registration no. SEA 7473) cannon ball (cast iron, good condition, 10.5 cm diameter): one of a small number of round shot which have been preserved in Cullivoe, and are relics of this wreck, and

(registration no. CON 65691) enamelled bottle or flask of clear glass of 10 fl oz capacity, oblong in section with bevelled corners and decorated in multi-coloured enamel. There are flower designs on three sides and a woman in 'Elizabethan' costume on the fourth side; the pewter fitment on the neck has accommodated a screw stopper (lost). Formerly held in Cullivoe and traditionally from the 'Armada ship' (a designation locally applied to the Lastrager) the bottle is of early 17th century date and Dutch or (more probably) German manufacture.

All the other artifacts from Stenuit's excavations were sold at auction.

NMRS, MS/829/65.