The ship the LIEFDE (The Love) was the third ship of that name to be owned by the VOC. She was laid down in the Company's Amsterdam yard in 1698, and between 1701 and 1710 she made three return voyages (retours) to the East Indies. The ship was built according to standard VOC specifications for her class, with a length over the verticals of 150 ft and a beam of 40 ft. Her cargo capacity was registered as 250 lasten: the last being approximately equal to 2 tons or 2000 kg. The ship carried an armament of 40 guns, made up of 10 iron 12-pounders, 2 bronze 8-pounders, 18 iron 8-pounders, and 10 smaller guns (the latter including bassen, small breech-loading swivel guns).The two bronze 8-pounders were probably the pair of guns mounted under the half-deck nearest the compasses, common VOC practice to reduce deviation.

For her fourth voyage the LIEFDE was commanded by 38-year-old Barent Muijkens, and manned by a 300-strong crew of which about 100 were Company soldiers. The ship left Amsterdam in late October 1711 and negotiated the shoal waters of the Zuider Zee to Texel, where-as was customary-she took on the bulk of her heavy cargo and stores. On 3 November, in company with two smaller VOC ships MOSSEL and KOCKENGE, she set out on the first leg of her voyage to the Cape, Ceylon and Batavia by heading into the North Sea intent on a 'north-about' course around the British Isles and so into the Atlantic. In winter this route was often easier and less hazardous than beating against the prevailing winds in the narrows of the Channell. The northern seas, despite their own formidable hazards, at least provided more room in which to tack and manreuvre. The route also avoided a dangerous contact with the French coast, for in 1711 the United Provinces, allied with Great Britain, were engaged against France in the War of the Spanish Succession.

Little is known of the circumstances of the LIEFDE's wrecking on Mio Ness, near the southern tip of the Out Skerries in Shetland, for the catastrophe happened at night and there was only one survivor. Faulty navigation-perhaps overcast skies had prevented good latitude fixes during the preceding days-was undoubtedly to blame, since normal practice was to clear Shetland well to the north. News of the disaster reached the VOC's Court of Directors (Heeren XVII) in a dispatch from Lerwick, presumably sent by the masters of MOSSEL and KOCKENGE who had no doubt witnessed the aftermath of the wrecking when they attempted to re-establish contact with the LIEFDE at dawn.

The melancholy record in the Resolution Book of the Amsterdam Chamber of the VOC runs as follows: 'From letters we received from Laarwijk (Lerwick) in Hitland (Shetland) on the 17th and 29th December last, we learned that the Company's ships which sailed from Texel on 3rd November ran into a bad storm off Hitland, as a result of which one of them, the Liefde, was wrecked by sailing on to a reef named Mioni (Mio Ness) off Uutscheren (Out Skerries). There was only one survivor, the shipwreck was not far from the shore, and the bow of the ship under water.'

The VOC later sent two small salvage craft, the ARENT and the OTTER, in an attempt to salvage the considerable quantity of specie which had gone down with the LIEFDE. These operations were not successful, and the Company officer in charge was able to report that he found only the remains of some rigging. Local tradition suggests that much was recovered by the inhabitants of the island at the time. In the 1720's, underwater salvage was carried out by a Captain Jacob Row of London, who worked with a primitive but effective closed diving chamber; and a few years later a Shetland man, William Irvine, used a similar engine with some success.

Mio Ness is the headland at the southern tip of the Out Skerries. Dregging Geo, the traditional site of the LIEFDE's wreck, lies just round the corner to the east. The name 'Dregging' undoubtedly reflects the operations by which objects were at one time recovered by dragging the sea-bed with a special kind of grappling hook, known in Shetland as a 'clam'. In more recent times items from the wreck have occasionally been washed ashore in storms, particularly during the great gale of 1900 when a number of coins were found on the rocks.

In 1964 divers from the RN minesweeper HMS Shoulton visited the site and found an iron gun and two silver ducatons. During the same summer Eric Giles, aided by the local fishing vessel, Snowdrop, raised the gun. All these recoveries were turned over to the County Museum at Lerwick. The following year an expedition was arranged by John and Peter Bannon of Ealing. The wreck was located and securely identified as that of the LIEFDE by the discovery of freshly-minted coin dated 1711, and plans were accordingly laid for a large-scale excavation to take place in 1966.

In the course of that year, and over the two summers following, a substantial amount of excavation and survey work was carried out. The work was financed by Scientific Surveys Ltd, a company formed by the Bannon brothers, with on-site operations being directed by Alan Bax. Material from the wreck was lodged with the County Museum for cleaning and conservation by the curator, Tom Henderson, and was later studied and drawn by Colin J.M. Martin.The aspect of the LIEFDE's cargo to excite most interest, both in the past and in modern times, is that of the specie carried on board. Though the exact amount is not known for certain, it has been variously estimated at between 227,000 and 700,000 guilders, the ship was undoubtedly carrying a great deal of money, mostly in the form of silver ducatons. She was also carrying a consignment of new-minted gold ducats and copper dubbele stuivers. It is probable, in addition, that there was some bullion in gold and silver bars.

Bibliography and Sources:

Bruijn, J.R., Gaastra, F.S., Schöffer, I. Dutch-Asiatic Shipping In The 17th and 18th Centuries (3 Vols). The Hague, 1979, 1987

Bax, Alan. Martin, Colin J.M. De Liefde, a Dutch East Indiaman lost on the Out Skerries, Shetland, in 1711. IJNA, 1974

Berk, G.L. Schatgravers naar de Liefde. Spiegel Historiael,1968

Bax, Alan. The Liefde Adventure. Buried & Sunken Treasure. London, 1974

Wilson, Derek. The World Atlas of Treasure. London, 1981

Muckelroy, Keith. Archaeology under Water. An Atlas of the World's Submerged Sites. New York, 1980