Maritime record MDO47943 - Salmon 1632 Dutch cargo vessel

1632 wreck of a Dutch cargo vessel stranded near the Isle of Purbeck. The vessel was subsequently looted. She was a wooden sailing vessel, en route from Safi to an unknown destination, with a cargo including goatskins, wax, almonds and various gums. Status: Casualty

Wreck event and documentary evidence:

1632 wreck of a Dutch cargo vessel stranded near the Isle of Purbeck. The vessel was subsequently looted. She was a wooden sailing vessel, en route from Safi to an unknown destination, with a cargo including goatskins, wax, almonds and various gums. The cargo belonged to merchants of Amsterdam. (1)

Source (1) includes a translation of a letter written by the Dutch ambassador in London to the Privy Council, dated 21 January 1633:

‘But due to a fog and the gloom of the night, together with fear of enemies, she lost her course and ran aground in the Isle of Purbeck in the County of Dorset, where the master and company of the said ship went ashore the next day immediately that it got light, with their longboat (chaloupe), a few clothes or pieces of gear (quelqueshardes), and the great sail (et le grand voile), to look for aid in this danger. The Bailiff of the said Isle hurried to the shore on (hearing) the news of this accident, promising his help to the master and company in this calamity, and he (ordered) them to be taken to his house by his brother; but one of that country named William Chaldecott, son of Francis Chaldecott Esquire, dwelling in the said Isle, despoiled them of their said great sail and other clothes (equipment, gear - hardes), and in like manner took away the ship’s longboat, with which they were able to salvage several goods and merchandise. The same William Chaldecott, laying claim (pretendant) in the name of his father, that all belonged to him because the ship was on the rocks near the land of his father, encouraged several mariners to go aboard the said ship and remove and take all that they could, promising them half of all that they could carry ashore in their boats (barques). The said Bailiff also required some other boatmen (bateliers) to save the goods of the above-named ship, of which they wanted to do nothing, unless he had agreed with the master to have half of all that they brought to shore, making the master believe that this was the custom of the country. In the end all the goods and merchandise of the said ship were pillaged, the ship even cut into pieces and distributed around the area, notwithstanding that the weather was so calm for ten or eleven days after the ship went aground, that it was possible to easily unload all of the merchandise, as if the ship was moored to the Custom Quay at London…' (1)

Feb. 9 1633, Draft, corrected and endorsed , by Nicholas, of the warrant of the Lords of the Admiralty to the Commisioners in the Isle of Purbeck touching the "SALMON", a dutch ship cast away there. (2)

Master: John Arrenson (1)

Date of loss qualifier: Approximate date of loss

Additonal sources quoted in source (1):
SP 84/146, ff 13r-14v
SP 16/228, ff 17-18v
SP 16/233, 69 and 77
High Court of Admiralty 14/47, f 19 (No 361)
High Court of Admiralty 23/11



The building date for this vessel is an estimate based on an average age at wrecking of twenty years. This average is derived from those vessels wrecked on the Dorset coast whose age at wrecking is known.

<1> Bournemouth University, 2014, Swash Channel Wreck Post excavation assessment (Unpublished document). SDO20619.

<2> Calendar of State Papers Domestic, Charles I, 1625-49, Vol 534, No.8 (Monograph). SWX4893.

<3> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1616066 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Mar 31 2024 4:24PM