''Jonge Thomas'', also written as ''De Jonge Thomas'' was an 18th-century

East Indiaman East Indiaman was a general name for any sailing ship operating under charter or licence to any of the East India trading companies of the major European trading powers of the 17th through the 19th centuries. The term is used to refer to vesse ...

of the Dutch East India Company. ''Jonge Thomas'' was a merchant ship who sailed several times to the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...

and China. During her fourth voyage she wrecked at Table Bay. Wolraad Woltemade and his horse successfully entered the water seven times and rescued fourteen people. He and his horse died during the eighth attempt. The ship had 296-360 crew members, hunders of them would have drowned. A range of depictions were made of the sinking of the ship and the rescue operation; multiple of them are in the Yale Center for British Art collection and collection of the

Rijksmuseum The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the St ...

in Amsterdam.

Ship details

''Jonge Thomas'' was built in 1764 in Amsterdam for the . She was made of wood and was 150 feet long. She had a loading capacity of 1150 tons and a capacity for up to 360 crew members.

History and fate

On 25 October 1765 she made her first voyage to Batavia under command of Jacob Wiebe. She had an intermediate stop at

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...

for two weeks in March 1766 and arrived at Batavia on 25 June 1766. She continued the same year to Canton, China. In total the ship completed three voyages to the Dutch East Indies. During her fourth voyage to the Dutch East Indies, storm she lost her anchors during a storm and ran aground on a sand bar at Table Bay near

. Many lives were lost as the ship started to break up but a substantial number of survivors were left clinging to the hull. The stricken ship was not too far from dry land and many sailors attempted to swim ashore. Most of those who did so perished; the water was cold and the current from the nearby Salt River too great. Except for the very strongest swimmers, those who headed for the shore were carried out to sea.

Aftermath

A crowd of spectators stood on the beach. Some came to watch, others to try to help and yet others were hoping to loot the cargo that was being washed ashore. A detachment of soldiers was in attendance to keep order among the spectators. Governor Joachim van Plettenberg sent 30 soldiers to the beach, to guard the ship and prevent washed-up cargo from being stolen. Wolraad Woltemade, father of one of the soldiers, went to the beach to bring him food. After seeing the sinking ship he went with his horse into the water. Seven times he returned out of the water rescuing fourteen people; two people every time. During the eight rescue attempt he drowned with his horse due to fatigue and due to desperate sailors who cling to the horse. He became famous for his heroic deed. Among others in 1774 a VOC ship was named after him, and a statue was made of him.

Depictions

A number of depictions were made of the disaster of ''Jonge Thomas'', multiple of them are now in collections of museums, the Yale Center for British Art collection and collection of the

in Amsterdam. File:George Romney - Wolgemuth Rescuing the Shipwrecked off the Cape of Good Hope - Google Art Project.jpg, Drawing by George Romney
( Yale Center for British Art collection) File:Heldendood van Woltemade bij Kaap de Goede Hoop, 1773.jpg, Drawing by Walraad Nieuwhoff, after Haatje Pieters Oosterhuis
(

collection)

Wreck

The wreck is protected under the National Heritage Resources Act, No. 25 of 1999. The wreck of ''Jonge Thomas'' was reportedly salvaged by the African Salvage Corporation Ltd. However more information about the salvaging has not been published.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jonge Thomas Ships of the Dutch East India Company 1764 ships Maritime incidents in 1773 Shipwrecks of South Africa 1770s in the Dutch Empire 1770s in Africa 1770s disasters Ships built in Amsterdam