ANCODS Collection

ANCODS COLLECTION PROGRAMME

In the 17^th and 18^th century seafaring was a dangerous business. Because of bad weather and rough seas, ships and men where often lost at sea. In the 50’s and 60’s of the 20^th century four wrecks of the Dutch East India Company, the Batavia (1629), Vergulde Draeck (1656), Zuytdorp (1712) and Zeewijk (1729), were discovered just off the Western Australian coast and excavated. The common history and resulting archaeological evidence has led to the bilateral agreement between the Netherlands and Australia in 1972. The Australian-Netherlands Committee on Old Dutch Shipwrecks (ANCODS) is responsible for the archaeological collection. Over the years the collection from the four ships has been scattered over different museums in Australia and The Netherlands.

In 2006, the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science disposed the repatriation of the Dutch ANCODS artefacts to Australia. The Dutch part of the collection was previously housed in the Scheepvaart Museum (Amsterdam Maritime Museum) and the Geld museum (Money Museum) before the CIE became the keeper of the collection.

With the imminent repatriation to Australia, the project 'ANCODS: online database' is set up to prepare this repatriation. The CIE is the coordinating organization in this repatriation project. The project result will be an online repository of information, as a web portal, to allow the best possible access to information even when the objects are no longer physically present in The Netherlands.

The CIE has organized a small exhibition with the collection in Lelystad, to give the dutch people a final chance to see the objects physically. At the opening of this exhibition the mutual declaration was signed.

In the beginning of November 2010 the objects are transferred to Australia.To commemorate the repatriation an official handover event is organised in Sydney on November 9th 2010. After the official handover the objects will be transferred to the Western Australian Maritime Museum in Frementle.

In the beginning of August 2009 two meetings were organized to discuss further cooperation between The Netherlands and Australia:

The 12^th ANCODS meeting of the Australian and Netherlands Committee on Old Dutch Shipwrecks on the 5^th of August at the Shipwreck gallery in Frementle.
The first Data Coordination Workshop Dutch Relic Return on the 6^th of August at the Shipwreck gallery in Frementle.

1stData Coordination Workshop Dutch Relic Return
On the 6^th of August 2009 an informal workshop is organised to share information and develop further collaboration with the Australian counterparts to develop a high quality online ANCODS collection database. The involved organizations also want to explore opportunities to establish a Netherlands-Australian online ANCODS database that includes also the other parts of the collection in the future. The main topics will be classification methods, international access, cooperation and most importantly, how to reach and prepare the physical and digital repatriation of the artefacts and content out of the database.

Source: Photographs ANCODS collection