WITH ASSAY MASTER'S MARK OF GERRIT VAND DRIEL, MIDDELBURG, CIRCA 1752

In September 1752 the Dutch Council of Seventeen of the V.O.C. ordered the Chamber of Middelburg to send the Bredenhof via Ceylon (Sri Lanka) to Bengal. The Bredenhof, built in 1746 was a vessel of 136 feet and 800 tons. It sailed from Zeeland for the Cape on 31 December. On its return from the Cape it was wrecked on a reef some 120 miles south of Mozambique on 6 June 1753. The cargo consisted of twenty-nine chests of silver ingots and a chest of 5,000 gold ducats. The gold ducats were salvaged during the wreckage. The silver was destined for Bengal to be minted into silver Rupees. Due to the value of the cargo, the V.O.C. ordered two successive salvage attempts, in 1754 and in 1755. Both were unsuccessful; it was not until 1986 that the wreck was salvaged.