Everything about Vrouw Maria totally explained
Vrouw Maria (
Lady Mary) was a
Dutch wooden two-masted merchant carrying a valuable cargo of
art objects, captained by
Raymund Lourens, that sank on
October 9 1771 in the
outer archipelago of the municipality of
Nagu,
Finland, 11 kilometers south-east of the island of
Jurmo. In
1999 the ship was discovered by the members of
Pro Vrouw Maria, lead by Rauno Koivusaari. A dispute between the discoverers and the authorities was later resolved. The ship was in good condition when it was discovered, but only six objects from the deck of the ship have been salvaged. The cargo holds have not been disturbed, so the condition of any art on board remains unknown. The Finnish National Board of Antiquities is responsible for the ship and all recovery efforts.
History
Vrouw Maria was loaded with precious artefacts including works of art belonging to
Catherine the Great of
Russia. The ship set sail from
Amsterdam on
September 5 1771 for
Saint Petersburg. One month later on
October 3 the ship was caught in a storm and ran aground near the island of
Jurmo. The rocks caused only minor damage but shortly afterwards the ship ran aground again and lost its rudder. The ship was released by a large wave but the crew found it leaking rapidly. Lowering anchor, the crewmen manned the pumps, but the ship continued to take on water.
At dawn on
October 4 the decision was made to abandon ship. The crew manned the ship's boats and safely reached nearby rocks, from which they hailed a passing boat. Help arrived the next day, but after several days no progress had been made toward stabilizing the ship, whose pump was clogged with coffee beans from the cargo. On the morning of
October 9 the
Vrouw Maria sank beneath the waves. While all the crew lived, only a fraction of the cargo was saved.
Aftermath
Various people tried to locate the wreck, but none were successful until Pro Vrouw Maria discovered it in 1999. Interest in the ship rose in the
1970s when Dr
Christian Ahlström discovered documents regarding the incident in the national archives of Finland. He published his findings in a book called
Sjunkna Skepp in
1979.
The cargo
The cargo, as declared in
Helsingør,
Denmark on
September 23, included
sugar,
fabrics and
dyes. The ship also carried works of art that Catherine the Great had bought at auction in Amsterdam. The pieces belonged to
Gerrit Braamcamp, a Dutch art collector. The king of Denmark allowed them to
pass through customs without any declaration. After the sinking, the Swedish ambassador of St Petersburg,
Carl Ribbing, the landlord of
Turku and Pori County baron
Christopher Rappe, and the foreign minister of Russia
Nikita Panin discussed the missing cargo but nothing further was done to save it. Only two of the paintings Catherine the Great bought are known by name, but they included works by
Cornelis Coedyk,
Gabriel Metsu,
Gerard Dou,
Philip Wouwerman and one of the
Ostade brothers.
Further Information
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