Ghost Ship Found: 19th-Century Dutch Wreck Discovered Off Australia’s Long Beach

For over a century and a half, the fate of the Koning Willem de Tweede has lingered in maritime lore — a ghost story told along Australia’s southern coast. Now, a group of marine archaeologists believe they’ve finally found what remained hidden beneath the surf and shifting sands since 1857.

In a statement released this week, the Australian National Maritime Museum confirmed that a survey team working as part of the Koning Willem de Tweede Shipwreck Project had identified a wreck site off Long Beach, near the South Australian town of Robe.

It’s an extraordinary breakthrough — not just in archaeology, but in cultural memory.

A Dutch Merchant Bound for Gold Country

The Koning Willem de Tweede wasn’t just any vessel. Launched from the Kinderdijk shipyards of South Holland in 1840, the 800-ton ship was a workhorse of European maritime trade — oak-hulled, fully rigged, and designed to carry both cargo and people across vast distances.

It had another name, originally — the Erfprinses van Oranje, or “Crown Princess of Orange.” But after a renaming to honor King William II of the Netherlands, the ship became part of a wave of European efforts to profit from Asia-Pacific trade routes and, eventually, from Australia’s booming gold economy.

That economic engine was exactly what brought the Koning Willem de Tweede to Hong Kong in the mid-1850s — and what led it to carry some 400 Chinese migrants from Hong Kong to the colony of Victoria in Australia.

Their destination? The booming goldfields that had transformed the Australian interior almost overnight.

June 1857: The Storm That Sealed Its Fate

After disembarking its passengers in South Australia, the Koning Willem de Tweede was anchored in Guichen Bay, riding out a bout of bad weather.

It never made it out.

On June 30, 1857, a ferocious storm ripped through the coast. The ship’s anchor chain snapped, and with it went the windlass — the vital gear mechanism used to haul anchors up and down. Suddenly helpless, Captain Hindrik Remmelt Giezen made a desperate call: try to beach the ship on Long Beach to avoid total loss.

It didn’t work.

The vessel ran aground, and the pounding surf began tearing it apart.

In the chaos, the crew attempted to escape by launching a small boat. But the rough seas capsized it. Sixteen sailors died — many of them within view of the beach. Giezen, by some miracle, survived. He clung to a floating cask until rescuers hauled him ashore.

The dead were buried in the dunes nearby, lost to the shifting coastal winds.

A Ship Lost — Then Found?

Despite the tragedy, the actual wreck of the Koning Willem de Tweede remained elusive. Over the decades, sandbars shifted, tides moved wreckage out of sight, and documentation from the 1850s was patchy at best.

Enter the Koning Willem de Tweede Shipwreck Project, launched in 2022 by the Australian National Maritime Museum in partnership with marine archaeologists and local historians. With new sonar technology and archival research, the team set out to find what had long evaded discovery.

Now, three years later, they believe they’ve succeeded.

According to the Museum’s statement, the team identified “anomalous features” along the seabed that match the shape, size, and construction materials associated with the lost Dutch ship — including oak timbers and iron fittings consistent with 1840s Dutch maritime design.

Though formal confirmation is still pending — further analysis and possible diving missions are expected — experts are cautiously optimistic.

Why It Matters: Migration, Memory, and Wreck Law

The wreck is more than a sunken ship. It’s a chapter in multiple histories — Dutch seafaring, Chinese migration, colonial expansion, and maritime tragedy.

Many of the 400 Chinese migrants brought aboard the Koning Willem de Tweede went on to work the goldfields of Victoria. Their journeys helped shape the Chinese-Australian community that exists today — even as they faced xenophobia, discriminatory taxes, and long treks on foot due to immigration restrictions at southern ports.

Then there’s the crew. Sixteen lives lost. Their final resting place — the dunes near Robe — remains unmarked except in sparse records and the occasional whisper of remembrance.

“Locating this wreck allows us to honor the individuals who perished and to acknowledge the broader historical narratives it represents,” said a project historian involved with the recovery effort.

A Treasure in Context, Not Coins

This isn’t a treasure hunt — no gold doubloons or mysterious cargo. But it is valuable.

Shipwrecks like this provide windows into 19th-century technology, maritime networks, and the human experience of migration, labor, and loss. Artifacts recovered — even broken wood, rusted nails, or ceramic fragments — can tell stories textbooks can’t.

According to maritime archaeologist Dr. Eliza Bennetts, “Every wreck we find helps piece together the cultural fabric of our region — who came here, how, and under what circumstances. The Koning Willem de Tweede was a carrier of people, not just cargo. That makes it deeply human.”

More Wrecks Waiting?

The discovery is one of several recent underwater finds in Australian waters — part of a broader resurgence in maritime archaeology driven by better sonar tech, AI-assisted analysis, and renewed public interest in colonial-era shipping routes.

Just last year, a separate research team identified what they believe to be the long-lost SS Warrnambool, and in 2023, parts of a previously undocumented Chinese junk were found off the coast of Queensland.

As for the Koning Willem de Tweede? Researchers will continue to assess the site, explore conservation options, and possibly recover small artifacts for museum display. But most of the wreck may remain underwater — a quiet monument to the perilous journey that cost so many lives