Wapen van Amsterdam

[cornelis 816]

voyage number 5547.5 Name of vessel , Wapen van Amsterdam

Skeidararsandur south of Iceland is one of the largest alluvial plains of the country .It is situated between the counties Oraefi and Fljotshverfi and has an area of approx. 1000 Km2 . The distance between the glacier's edge and the sea is between 20 and 30 Km and its coastline is 40Km long .A few glacial rivers form innumerable branches in the lower regions and sometimes terrible flood waves occur , especially when the sub glacial caldera Grimsvotn empties or sub glacial eruptions take place . This plain is mostly devoid of vegetation .Driftwood was sought on the beaches in spite of the distance down there , the rivers , and the guagmires . It was much easier to ride down there during winter , when everything was frozen .Much less driftwood is brought to the south coast by the Gulfstream nowadays from South , Middle and North America .

The common gray seals and the harbour seals have their rookeries in several places along the beach , where the farmers hunted them . The Eastern edge of the outwash plain was inhabited in the past , when there were fewer floods and more vegetation . The oldest sources describing such flood waves date back to 1598 . They have become much smaller during the last few decades than during the early part of the 20th century . The flood wave , caused by the sub glacial eruption in 1996 , was extraordinary big . It peaked with about 55000 cubic metres per second and the total discharge is estimated to have been about 3,5 cubic kilometres.

Doutless , the glacier and the outwash plain areas were a big bay in the past ,because up to this date trunks and branches of trees are carried with the melt water from underneeth the ice . Before the bridges were built the rivers were great obstacles , exept during the coldest part of winter , and it is astounding how few lives were lost during travels there in the past . Most lives were lost , when ships ran aground and the shipwrecked had to seek shelter in bad weather conditions .

 

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[cornelis 816]

On 19 September 1667 , a Dutch merchantman , the WAPEN VAN AMSTERDAM , ran aground . It was a large ship with about 150 crew and a few passengers . This vessel was used for journeys between the East Indies and the Netherlands and must have drifted all the way up here in bad weather . The shipwrecked encountered very bad weather on the outwash plain, 140 of them died and 60 were rescued . The cargo of the ship was very precious and the wreck has been sought for a long time but was never found . Cornelius

 

[Mackaydon]

Diamonds and pearls were also part of her manifest.
http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?139317
Thanks for the story, Cornelius
Don........

 

[old man]

Cornelius, Nice piece of Research. If anyone went after that wreck, they wouldn't have to worry about a ton of ice and snow. I lived in Iceland for a year. The northern part of the country is a Glacier. When it snowed where I lived in the South, the snow we got was usually measured in inches, not feet. What most people don't know is that when the Vikings discovered Iceland and Greenland, they sort of reversed the names. Greenland isn't Green and Iceland is the land of Fire and Ice. It's actually a very beautiful country.

If this wreck is south of Iceland, you wouldn't have to worry about the Ice in the summer and you would have daylight 24 hours a day.

 

[cornelis 816]

Old man . Is'nt it amazing what kind of people meet on a forum like this . They don't know each other but still they have so much in common . The love of the adventure . The love of history and the love to share that information they have with other people they dont even know '. This is a great forum and I wish that some of the fights that are going on right now would stop . This is certainly a job for the administrators . Let us interchange our knowledge and what we have experienced in our lifetime without these fights . Cornelius

 

[comfortably numb]

Well said Cornelius!

 

[OldGold74]

Thanks for the post Cornelius you sure do have the ability to get the show going again. I once dived in BC cold enough the water burnt so much and the few scraps I could see were not worth the headache literally. Keep up the posts.

 

[fladiverdown]

Well written Cornelis. This forum amazes me with the knowledge base that it's members posses. I also am pleased to see so many virtual strangers sharing that knowledge and information on a regular basis. It is unfortunate that the bad blood between a few is also on display here. I appreciate the positive post that most members put forth and would like to thank you for the great articles and experiences you have shared with us. Keep up the great work.

Black Bart

 

[Vox veritas]

Cornelius,
congratulations for your job and to share information.
All the best Claudio

 

[aquanut]

Well Cornelius,
It seems as though the members here missed you as much as you missed them. I'm glad you decided to discuss the Gulf coast of Florida along with your vast knowledge of the VOC wrecks. As you know, my interests lie solely with the Florida and neighboring Caribbean wrecks. It was truly unfortunate that you chose to trust those folks from Texas. Since I'm a Washington Redskin football fan, I hate all Texans except Scubafinder. LOL. Seriously though, we'll coordinate a venture together before we both get so old that we can only point the younger generation in the right? direction.
Aquanut

 

[truckinbutch]

Cornelius ,
As a landlubber with an inquiring mind I so enjoy the information you post here . Too old and crippled
to make use of it , myself . But , since you shared it with us , perhaps I can pass a few hints on to a younger generation . So much has been lost that no single individual could find it all .
Jim

 

[old man]

Cornelius, Keep up the good work. I appreciate all the posts that you are putting up on the Research that you have done. Although I'll probably never be to go near the area of any of these wrecks. In my opinion you are promoting Treasure Hunting with what you post and others can live vicariously through your endeavors.

I just wish that others would follow your example instead of the infighting that is going on with some of the other topics. For me, I would rather see those others take their problems and air them privately.

 

[Blackdiver]

Funny thing that you have brought this subject up Cornelius. Het Wapen van Amsterdam is a legendary shipwreck here in Iceland and a big mystery. Most people in Iceland recognize it as "Gullskipið" or as The Goldship.

There has been extensive search and expeditions for many years (more than 30 years) to try to find it. But with no luck.

The search area is pretty big and difficult to calculate. The glacier bring so much sediment from the mountains and to the sea that treasure hunters believe that the wreckage is now buried deep in the sand and hundreds of meters from the sea.

Expedition members thought they hit the jackpot in 1981. Magnetometer readings went sky high in one place in the sand. They put metalspike in the ground and came up with some old timbers. Every Icelander watch it in the TV when they start digging, 10 - 20 meters down. It was a huge operations, so huge that Icelandic government but lots of money in it. People at the National museum was on standby to take the artifacts and preserve it. After many days of digging they found an old German trawler, which stranded there in early 1900. If you ask any Icelander about this he will know this story and the funny side of it. The goldship which turned out to be trawler. There was even made an comedy show about this.

I know there has been expedition since then, but they have come up empty.

 

[aquanut]

Well Cornelius,
I'll leave this post and return to the West coast of Florida.

 

[Gunnar]

there are still some attempts being made to find the ship but the problem is that the black volcanic sand is full of metal and the area has alot of magnetic anomalies. but i hava a theory and its that there is notthing in that ship it was cleaned out by some locals and buried, why do i think this well its because that 80 years later the skeleton of the wreck was visible sticking out of the sand. and why do i think its buried in the ground somewhere well notthing has ever been recovered not s single item.
only thing ever recorded to have been found of the cargo was some silk that washed up on the beach. so if the skeleton of the wreck was visible then it must have been accessible at some point?

 

[cornelis 816]

Thank you guys for the interest in the story . This is stuff I am realy interested in . This is stuff this treasurenet should be all about . There are too many NOT relevant issues on the net nowadays . Ofcourse if you like that stuff I cannot blame you . But .... it is something that I do not care about . Cornelius