Barque, 'Koning Willem II',
one of the vessels of the shipping company, P. Varkevisser and Sons,
wrecked at Robe, South Australia.

Danny's interest for the vessel 'Koning Willem II' began some years ago, when during a walk through Robe, the only way to enjoy the charm and old character of this historic seaport; he came across a cannon displayed on Flagstaff Hill in the middle of Royal Circus.

Signal cannon Koning Willem II
In front of the cannon is an inscription plate, which reads as follows:
Signal cannon
from
Koenig Willem II
Dutch Barque of 800 tons
Wrecked in a gale with the loss of 16 crew
on Long Beach on 30th June, 1857
after unloading near this spot Chinese
passengers from Hong Kong.'

Inscription plate


a door of Koning Willem II.
In the Caledonian Hotel in Robe you still can see some woodwork and 4 doors of the ship.

---

The Koning Willem II was one of 5 Dutch ships that carried Chinese passengers to the port of Robe during 1857.
Some background to this story
At first, where is Robe on the map.


and why did those Chinese people came to Robe.
Several Adelaide residents stayed at the port during the summer months to escape the heat. One of whom was Governor Sir James Ferguson. He stayed at Karatta House, originally built by Henry Jones in 1858. Another of the early buildings was The Lodge, completed in 1850 as a residence and butcher shop.

The town grew quickly and many Irish females and Scottish families arrived in 1855. They were followed two years later by large numbers of Chinese men (#17,000) on their way to the Victorian gold diggings. They preferred to walk the 150 km to the gold fields across the Victorian border and avoid paying $20 tax, which they would have to had they disembarked in Melbourne. During 1857 thirty-two British, American and Dutch ships all landed the Chinese who often had to pay the locals exhorbitant fees to ferry them from the ship to shore and guide them to the Victorian border.
The monument that was erected at the place all those Chinese golddiggers were landed in Robe.
during the years 1856 - 1858
16.500 Chinese landed near
this spot and walked 200
miles to Ballarat and
Bendigo in search of gold
re-enacted for the States jubilee
150th celebrations in 1966
Not all had a safe arrival. Many hundreds had to swim for their lives. When the brand new 1032 ton American built, but English owned ship Pheaton, with 250 Chinese aboard arrived on 1 February 1857, she was wrecked, fortunately without the loss of anyone. Three months later, on 27 April, the wooden hulled, 588 ton British ship Sultana, was lost in bad weather due to the inexperience of the Chief Officer. Once again all crew and passengers were saved. The third ship to come to grief was the 800 ton Dutch ship Koning Willem II which tried to land 397 Chinese on 15 June. When all were landed safely the ship was smashed up two weeks later in a gale. This time sixteen crew members were lost.


Many ships have come to grief on this coast.
Somewhere in those dunes the 16 Dutch crewmembers are burried, nobody knows the exact spot nowadays.
The State of South Australia had only been in existence for some 21 years when the Koning Willem II came to grief at Robe, yet Adelaide already had 3 Newspapers, and just like today much sensationalism was written even then. Following these early newspaper articles, various writers have written their own versions of the tragedy, which does not reflect kindly on the Koning Willem II.
In short, the Koning Willem II has been described as not being seaworthy because of it's bad condition. Over a period of years Danny has now collected sufficient evidence to counter these allegations.

If anybody knows more about the ship or the shipping trade P. Varkevisser, please contact me.

With many thanks to Danny van Doorn
and Flinders ranges research