400-Year-Old Dutch Ship's Golden Secret Finally Revealed

For three decades, a collection of gold coins lay silent on the seabed off Devon, England—a puzzle nobody could solve. Now, after years of detective work involving historians, archaeologists, and museum experts, the story behind those coins has finally emerged. The shipwreck belongs to the Dom van Keulen, a Dutch trading vessel that set sail from Morocco bound for the Netherlands in the autumn of 1633, only to meet disaster in the waters near Salcombe.

The ship’s journey took a brutal turn when it encountered what independent historian Ian Friel describes as“much tempestuous weather”during its voyage across the English Channel. A leak developed, and the Dom van Keulen went down—though fortunately, the entire crew survived. What made it to shore was far less fortunate. The vessel carried 9,000 Barbary ducats, gold Moroccan coins from the Sa’dian dynasty, alongside practical cargo like goat skins, bags of gum arabic, and saltpeter. Most of the freight was salvaged at the time, but more than 400 coins remained undisturbed on the ocean floor until the South West Maritime Archaeology Group discovered them in 1995.

Professor Dave Parham of Bournemouth University, who collaborated with the British Museum on the research, spent years piecing together the Dom van Keulen’s identity. The breakthrough came through painstaking archival work—Friel uncovered documents in the National Archive that detailed the ship’s passage and its fateful encounter with the sea. Now, all 400 recovered coins and other artifacts from the wreck are on display at the British Museum, offering tangible proof of the thriving 17th-century trade networks that connected Morocco, the Low Countries, and Britain.

What makes this discovery so remarkable isn’t just the gold itself. These coins tell a deeper story about the wealth and influence of the Sa’dian Sharifs, the Arab dynasty that ruled Morocco from 1549 to 1659. They illuminate a chapter of maritime history that’s often overlooked—one where African gold moved through European waters, funding trade routes and cultural exchange long before modern commerce took shape. As Jeremy D. Hill, head of research at the British Museum, reflected, this find“reminds us how much there is still to be found under our seas.”