GT1384
Vergulde Draeck was a Dutch East India Company (VOC) ship wrecked in 1656 off Ledge Point, in Western Australia. The ship was travelling from the Netherlands to Batavia (modern-day Jakarta, Indonesia) carrying valuable cargo including silver and trade goods.
Large quantities of African elephant tusks were exported to the Indies by the VOC in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This was part of a trade from West Africa, undertaken by the Dutch Geoctroyeerde Westindische Compagnie (GWC or Chartered West India Company) which exported ivory and slaves from the West African coast, taking slaves to the Americas, and the ivory to the Netherlands.
These elephant tusks were some of the first things seen by Graeme Henderson on the site’s rediscovery in 1963, along with bricks, cannon, anchors, and thousands of silver coins. This valuable cargo made the site a target for treasure hunters and looters, and it was soon protected with the introduction of Western Australian maritime archaeology legislation.
Tusk GT1384 was recovered by Museum divers in 1972, and is now on display at the WA Museum Boola Bardip, as part of the Indian Ocean world exhibit. Prior to its installation, Museum archaeologists recorded the tusk using 3D photogrammetry – taking 301 images of the object and reconstructing it as a 3D model, seen below. This object speaks to the global exploitative trade of the 17th Century VOC & GWC, and its brief, accidental arrivals on Australian shores.
Curators
