''Fortuyn'' (also spelled ''Fortuin'') was a ship owned by the Chamber of Amsterdam of the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...

( nl, Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, commonly abbreviated to VOC) that was lost on its maiden voyage in 1723. It set sail for

Batavia Batavia may refer to: Historical places * Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands * Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...

from

Texel Texel (; Texels dialect: ) is a municipality and an island with a population of 13,643 in North Holland, Netherlands. It is the largest and most populated island of the West Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea. The island is situated north of Den ...

in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

on 27 September 1723. The ship reached the Cape of Good Hope on 2 January 1724, and continued on its voyage on 18 January. ''Fortuyn'' was never seen again and its fate is a matter of speculation. It was approximately 800 tons with a carrying capacity of 280 tons and long. On its maiden voyage it was commanded by Pieter Westrik and had a crew of 225 men.

Location

Although VOC ships were not supposed to run within sight of the South Land ( Australia) at that time of the year, it may have inadvertently sailed too far east and been wrecked off the

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

n coast. Wreckage sighted in the

Houtman Abrolhos The Houtman Abrolhos (often called the Abrolhos Islands) is a chain of 122 islands and associated coral reefs, in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia, about west of Geraldton, Western Australia. It is the southernmost true coral ...

by survivors of in 1727, and by in 1840, could have been from ''Fortuyn'', or alternatively from , that disappeared in 1694, or less likely that disappeared in 1726. The

Australian National Shipwreck Database __NOTOC__ The Australasian Underwater Cultural Heritage Database (AUCHD) is an online, searchable database containing data on shipwrecks, aircraft that have been submerged underwater or wrecked on the shore, and other artefacts of cultural sig ...

records the ship as "possibly wrecked near

Cocos Island Cocos Island ( es, Isla del Coco) is an island in the Pacific Ocean administered by Costa Rica, approximately southwest of the Costa Rican mainland. It constitutes the 11th of the 13 districts of Puntarenas Canton of the Province of Puntarena ...

Location

See also

References

Further reading