Shipwreck found in Australia

Researchers have discovered the probable location of a Dutch ship that sank on the coast of Australia more than 150 years ago.

Tweede’s Koning William was an 800 tons ship that was sailing near Robe, Australia del Sur when he sank in June 1857. Hundreds of Chinese miners had landed from the ship a few days before the sinking, said the National Maritime Museum of Australia on social networks.

The ship sailed with 25 crew members when it sank, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Sixteen of the crew members died in the sinking, ABC reported.

The Museum began working with the Silentworld Foundation, which studies the maritime history of Australia, as well as the University of Flinders and the Department of Environment and Water in Southern Australia. The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands also supported research efforts, the museum said.

Dr. James Hunter, with the Maritime Museum, told ABC that the researchers found parts of the ship at the bottom of the Guichen Bay Sea. Those pieces included the components of the ship’s winch, said Hunter.

The efforts to find the ship have been ongoing for approximately four years, said the Silentworld Foundation on social networks. Bad visibility underwater hindered the work, Hunter told ABC. The researchers believed that they had identified the ship in 2022, but it took until March 2025 to confirm the identity of the ship.

“The last visit to Robe … led to the probable identification of the shipwreck,” said the Silentworld Foundation on social networks. “Visibility was a challenge, but it is still enough for the team to make this incredible call!”

The Maritime Museum said on Facebook that the future monitoring will be held on the site. These visits will evaluate the site and work to “discover more of this important piece of maritime history,” said the museum.

The waters in front of the coast of Australia are full of shipwrecks and several have been found in recent months.

Last July, Australian scientists identified the Final Rest Place De la Noongah, a great freighter that sank into agitated seas in 1969, killing 21 of the 26 members of the crew on board.

Three months before that, a small underwater drone located a Centenary container in a region known as a “ship cemetery” on the coast of Australia. That discovery came only weeks after an expedition found the wreck of coal steam SS nemesis Outside the coast of Australia, more than a century after he sank.

In:
• Shipwreck
• Oceans
• Australia
• Netherlands