The
Tryall (also spelt
Tryal and
Trial ) was a
British East India CompanyThe East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
owned East Indiaman of approximately 500 tons . She was under the command of John Brooke when she was wrecked on the
Tryal RocksTryal Rocks, sometimes spelled Trial Rocks or Tryall Rocks, formerly known as Ritchie's Reef or the Greyhound's Shoal, is a reef of rock located in the Indian Ocean off the northwest coast of Australia, about 16 kilometres northwest of the outer edge of the Montebello Islands group...
off the north-west coast of
Western AustraliaWestern Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. Australia's largest state and the second largest subnational entity in the world, it has 2.2 million inhabitants , 85% of whom live in the south-west corner of the state.The state's capital...
in 1622. Her crew were the first Englishmen to sight
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
and the wreck is Australia's oldest
shipwreckA shipwreck is the remains of a ship that has wrecked, it having either been sunk or beached. A shipwreck can refer to a wrecked ship or to the event that caused the wreck, such as the striking of something that causes the ship to sink, the stranding of the ship on rocks, land or shoal, or the...
, perhaps except for the
Mahogany ShipThe Mahogany Ship refers to a putative, ancient shipwreck that is purported to lie beneath the sand in the Armstrong Bay area, approximately 3 to 6 kilometres west of Warrnambool in southwest Victoria, Australia...
.
The ship departed
PlymouthPlymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
on her maiden voyage for
BataviaJakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. It also has a greater population than any other city in Southeast Asia. It was formerly known as Sunda Kelapa , Jayakarta , Batavia , and Djakarta . Located on the northwest coast of Java, it has an area of and a population of 8,489,910...
on 4 September 1621, carrying a cargo that included silver for trade in the
East IndiesThe Indies is a term used to describe the lands of South and Southeast Asia, occupying all of the present Indian Union, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and also Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Brunei, Singapore, the Philippines, East Timor, Malaysia and Indonesia...
as well as a gift for the Sultan of
SiamThe Kingdom of Thailand is an independent country that lies in the heart of Southeast Asia.It is bordered to the north by Laos and Burma, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and Burma...
.
The
Tryall (also spelt
Tryal and
Trial ) was a
British East India CompanyThe East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
owned East Indiaman of approximately 500 tons . She was under the command of John Brooke when she was wrecked on the
Tryal RocksTryal Rocks, sometimes spelled Trial Rocks or Tryall Rocks, formerly known as Ritchie's Reef or the Greyhound's Shoal, is a reef of rock located in the Indian Ocean off the northwest coast of Australia, about 16 kilometres northwest of the outer edge of the Montebello Islands group...
off the north-west coast of
Western AustraliaWestern Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. Australia's largest state and the second largest subnational entity in the world, it has 2.2 million inhabitants , 85% of whom live in the south-west corner of the state.The state's capital...
in 1622. Her crew were the first Englishmen to sight
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
and the wreck is Australia's oldest
shipwreckA shipwreck is the remains of a ship that has wrecked, it having either been sunk or beached. A shipwreck can refer to a wrecked ship or to the event that caused the wreck, such as the striking of something that causes the ship to sink, the stranding of the ship on rocks, land or shoal, or the...
, perhaps except for the
Mahogany ShipThe Mahogany Ship refers to a putative, ancient shipwreck that is purported to lie beneath the sand in the Armstrong Bay area, approximately 3 to 6 kilometres west of Warrnambool in southwest Victoria, Australia...
.
Her final voyage
The ship departed
PlymouthPlymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
on her maiden voyage for
BataviaJakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. It also has a greater population than any other city in Southeast Asia. It was formerly known as Sunda Kelapa , Jayakarta , Batavia , and Djakarta . Located on the northwest coast of Java, it has an area of and a population of 8,489,910...
on 4 September 1621, carrying a cargo that included silver for trade in the
East IndiesThe Indies is a term used to describe the lands of South and Southeast Asia, occupying all of the present Indian Union, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and also Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Brunei, Singapore, the Philippines, East Timor, Malaysia and Indonesia...
as well as a gift for the Sultan of
SiamThe Kingdom of Thailand is an independent country that lies in the heart of Southeast Asia.It is bordered to the north by Laos and Burma, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and Burma...
. She stopped at
Cape TownCape Town is the second most populous city in South Africa, and the largest in land area, forming part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality. It is the provincial capital of the Western Cape, as well as the legislative capital of South Africa, where the National Parliament and many...
for supplies. The East India Company had only recently issued orders requiring that its ships sail south of 32°S when en-route to the East Indies, as this course made use of the so-called
roaring fortiesThe Roaring Forties is a name given, especially by sailors, to the latitudes between 40°S and 50°S, so called because of the boisterous and prevailing westerly winds...
and could save up to six months travel time off the more traditional northern route.
Neither Brooke nor any of his crew had sailed via the new southern route previously, or even to Batavia, and they asked in Cape Town for experienced sailors willing to join their crew. Thomas Bright was subsequently recruited off the
Charles (1000 tons) as first mate.
The vessel departed on 19 March 1622 and sighted the Australian coast on 1 May 1622, apparently mistaking
Point CloatesPoint Cloates, Western Australia, is situated off North West Cape of Western Australia..Cloates island remained on marine charts and world maps until late in the 18th Century. The Guthrie world map published in 1785 maps out the voyages of Captain James Cook and shows "Cloats" Island in 97 degrees...
off
North West CapeNorth West Cape is a large peninsula of land in the north west coast of Western Australia. Cape Range runs down the spine of the peninsula and Ningaloo Reef runs along the western edge...
on the mainland for an island that captain
Lenaert JacobszoonLenaert Jacobszoon was a captain of the Dutch East India Company who, on 31 July 1618 in the vessel Mauritius, sighted North West Cape in the north-west of Western Australia mistakenly believing it to be a large island...
and
supercargoSupercargo is a term in maritime law that refers to a person employed on board a vessel by the owner of cargo carried on the ship...
Willem JanszoonWillem Janszoon , Dutch navigator and colonial governor, is the first European known to have seen the coast of Australia. His name is sometimes abbreviated to Willem Jansz. . He was probably born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.-Early life:Nothing is known of Willem Janszoon's early life...
(captain of the
DuyfkenDuyfken was a small Dutch ship built in the Netherlands. She was a fast, lightly-armed ship probably intended for shallow water, small valuable cargoes, bringing messages, sending provisions, or privateering...
in 1603) in the
Dutch East India CompanyThe Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia. It was the first multinational corporation in the world and the first company to issue stock...
ship
Mauritius had encounterd in 1618 and which is now known as Barrow Island. This navigation error was brought about by having sailed too far east, against the ship's owners explicit instructions.
Wreck
Turning north, they then encountered several weeks of fresh north to north-westerly winds which impeded progress. Finally, the winds turned to favourable south-westerlies and they started to make good progress to their destination of Batavia. On 25 May 1622 at between 10 and 11pm she struck uncharted submerged rocks about 32 km (20 miles) north-west of the outer edge of the
Montebello IslandsThe Montebello Islands are an archipelago of around 174 small islands located off the Pilbara coast of North West Australia. Montebello is Italian for Beautiful Mountain....
group, the southern boundary of which is about 8 km (5 miles) north of the northern tip of Barrow Island.
The reef is named
Tryal RocksTryal Rocks, sometimes spelled Trial Rocks or Tryall Rocks, formerly known as Ritchie's Reef or the Greyhound's Shoal, is a reef of rock located in the Indian Ocean off the northwest coast of Australia, about 16 kilometres northwest of the outer edge of the Montebello Islands group...
after the ship and is located at (-20.2809, 115.3929).
http://www.ga.gov.au/bin/gazd01?rec=282861
Captain Brooke, his son John and nine men scrambled into a
skiffThe term skiff is used, and has been used, to refer to many various types of small boats.The word is related to ship and has a complicated etymology: ship comes from the Middle English skif, which derives from the Old French esquif, which in turn derives from the Old Italian schifo, which is itself...
and Thomas Bright and 35 others managed to save a
longboatIn the days of sailing ships, a vessel would carry several boats for various uses. One would be a longboat, an open boat to be rowed by eight or ten oarsmen, two per thwart. In other words the longboat was double banked: its rowing benches were designed to accommodate two men...
. The two boats sailed for Batavia separately. The skiff arrived there on 5 July 1622 and the longboat three days later — a voyage of over 1,800 km (1,120 miles). Of the 143 men who had left England, 93 perished at the wreck site, and one person died in the skiff.
Investigation
On his arrival in Batavia, Brooke wrote to his masters in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
blaming Captain Fitzherbert, who had been the first British captain to pioneer the southern route across the
Indian OceanThe Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering about 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by South Asia ; on the west by Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and Australia; and on the south by the Southern Ocean...
after Dutch captain
Hendrik BrouwerHendrik Brouwer , was a Dutch explorer, admiral, and colonial administrator both in Japan and the Dutch East Indies....
. Brooke declared that he had followed the route specified by Fitzherbert and had struck rocks where Fitzherbert had said there were none. He said Fitzherbert's incorrect mapping had been the cause for the disaster and denied any responsibility. He claimed that the reef site was well west of the actual site in an attempt to hide his easterly course. He also claimed that all the cargo, including the silver and the ship's papers, had gone down with the ship when it broke up and sank at about 2am.
Thomas Bright secretly and separately wrote to London. He directly blamed Brooke for the loss of the ship and her crew, blaming Brooke's poor navigation and his failure to post a lookout. He said that after striking the reef, Brooke had hurriedly abandoned the ship and fled into the skiff. According to Bright, Brooke had departed the site immediately, leaving many men in the water to drown though the skiff had room for additional men. Bright's longboat was full to capacity and stood about a quarter mile off the wreck due to the danger of capsizing if any of the men in the water attempted to climb on board. He further contradicted Brooke by stating that the ship had not sunk until mid-morning the following day.
Subsequent analysis of these reports and other documents, as well as searches of the wreck site, have raised suspicions that Brooke had secretly removed at least part of the silver into the skiff before the ship sank, and had managed to get it to Batavia without telling anyone.
Brooke's later career
After he returned to London, Captain Brooke was given the command of another British East India Company ship, the
Moone. The ship was wrecked off the coast of
DoverDover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; west of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...
, apparently deliberately. A two-year court case, during which Brooke was imprisoned, ended with the case being dropped.
Discovery
The wreck was not located until 1969, after researchers John MacPherson and Eric Christiansen determined the location after the discovery of Thomas Bright's letter and despite the confusion of records left by Captain Brooke. When an exploration team went to the area Christiansen predicted as being the likely site, diver Naoom Haimson almost immediately found the wreck.
Shortly after the discovery, Ellis Alfred (Alan) Robinson, who was unaffiliated with the search team, attempted an illegal salvage operation to uncover the lost treasure through the use of explosives. Robinson failed to recover anything of value and badly damaged the wreck site. He had been involved in an earlier and similar operation involving the
Vergulde DraeckThe Vergulde Draeck was a Dutch merchant ship of the seventeenth century. It left from Texel bound for Batavia , but on 28 April 1656 was wrecked off Ledge Point, 107 km north of what is now Perth, Western Australia...
wreck near
KalbarriKalbarri is a coastal town in the Mid West region located 592 km north of Perth, Western Australia. The town is found at the mouth of the Murchison River and has an elevation of...
, and in other salvage attempts. Robinson was charged for crimes against the Maritime Archaeology Act and while in prison hanged himself. After his arrest, Robinson became known in the local press as the "the
geligniteGelignite, also known as blasting gelatin, is an explosive material consisting of collodion-cotton dissolved in nitroglycerine and mixed with wood pulp and saltpetre...
buccaneerThe buccaneers were pirates who attacked Spanish and French shipping in the Caribbean Sea during the late 17th century.The term buccaneer is now used generally as a synonym for pirate...
"; his actions led to increased penalties for illegal maritime salvage work.
Divers from the Western Australian Maritime Museum did a detailed examination of the wreck site in 1971, discovering six cannon, several anchors and other minor artifacts. The museum's display in Fremantle houses twenty recovered items. To date there is only circumstantial evidence that the wreck is actually the
Tryall, although the consensus amongst maritime investigators is that it almost certainly is.