Soon after the second Anglo-Dutch war,1665-1667 first mention was made of the Johanna in 1671 when under the capt.Hopefar Bendall she made a voyage lasting one year. She was a big ship of her time with only the great warships like the Duke of York flagship,the Royal Charles,1665 tons and the Royal Oak,1021 tons, all mounting 80 and more heavy cannons. The Johanna was 500 tons 3 decks high and mounting 36 heavy cannons.She was arace built ship, a term derived from the French word RAS, meaning shaven or flat, and had fine lines with little superstructure. She was built in as peroid whenthere was an English maritime consolidation just after the humiliating defeat by the hands of the Dutch when they sailed up the mouths of the Thames & Medway rivers and caused so much destruction of the English war ships. The Johanna approached the southernmost coast of Africa Cape Agulhas in early hours of the morning on the 29 th of May 1682 She ran aground as she struck hard and broke up. Ten of her crew did not make it . These men were the first English graves known in Africa. as a reef wreck her coins were washed by the heavy surf. This is one of the only 7400 Mexican reales recovered from her goods salvaged. The feel of this coin is butttery smooth...funny how most of the coin is wore off but the top of the cross is still very clear. I have more on the story of the Johanna feel free to Pm me and I will be more than happy to e mail you a copy of the complete story of this Ship Wreck. Enjoy Paddy Date 1665-1682 Carlos ll 8 reale Mexico City 25 Gr. recovered from the Johanna sunk June 8 1682
Thanks De Orc , I purchased this coin from the captain of Mel Fishers ship when Mel Found the Atocha off of the Florida Keys. If you like more on the Johanna please feel free to PM me and I'll be more than happy to give you the rest of this historic account of this ship. Regards Paddy
The Rest of the Story First I like to thank all of you who enjoyed this post. I like to thank "Regandon" for the nomination. I feel now that I need to finish this story because I received so many good comps. on it . I hope you will enjoy. The first mention of the Johanna going to the far east was in 1673 when under Capt. Bendall she sailed to St. Helena and Bantam in the spice islands.She made another trip to the east in 1679 traveling to Surat before her last fateful voyage. This voyage was the first for Capt. Robert Brown when he left the Downs,east Kent and sheltered by the Goodwin Sands on the 24 th February 1682. She was destined to Surat on the west coast of India where the Englishheld a shaky alliance with the Dutch to trade jointly after the portugues were ousted by the English in 1612. The Johanna left the Downs in the accompany of four other English ships, the Williamson, Nathaniel, Welvaart, and Samson, alll except for the Johannawere bound for Bengal. The Johanna and the Welvaart approached the southern most tip of Africa, Cape Agulhas in the early hours of the morning on the 29 th May1682.There was a shift of the wind from south east to eastsouth east and there were heavy cross winds. The Johanna changed course slightly and ran into one of the most dangerous areas of the South African coast. She struck hard and fast and almost immediately started breaking up. The welvaart also nearly met her fate yhat night but was able to throw anchor and wait the few hours till morning and escape the jaws of the rocky S.A. coast. The Welvaart did not sto[p and attemp to save the crew of the Johanna. It was hopeless situation for the Johanna. She was virtually surrounded by jaggered reefs and she was breaking up fast. The crew were able to make rafts and slowly crossed the one dilometer stretch of water to shore. Ten did not make it. The survivors, totally destitute started the long trek west wards to Cape town castle. They were shown the way and helped along by friendly natives,who accordind to the English statement had not helped, the English would have certainly persihed.
The first survivors arrived at the castle late in the evening on the 18th June and told the terrifying story of the wrecking of the Johanna. More and more men arrived at the castle when on the 27th June 104 men had survived the ordeal. Simon van de Stell was eager to learn about the Johanna and got a commimitment from the capt. saying that the wreck was a total write offand because of the difficult terrain and high mountains it was not possible to do any salvage of the Johanna. Simon van der Stell had heard that she was carrying a valuable cargo and he was now anxious to reparriate the survivors as soon as posssible. Un beknown to Capt. Brown ,van der Stell had already dispatched engisn Olaf Bergh to the wreck site in a cloud of secrecy on the 22th June . Van der Stell mangaed to get most of the survivors on 3 ships bound for Batavia on the 8th July , exactly one month after the wrecking.
Before the survivors left for Batavia , van der Stell had already received a dispatch from Olaf Bergn at the wreck site. Four men under the command of the ensign Bergh took 8 days to get to the wrecksite. The men whose names were Aernout Calcoen, Christoffel Henningh, Jurgen Klingh & Olaf Bergh found that she had broken to pieces on the rocks. After having walked along the beach they found the following articles that had been washed up: 20 mum pipes 1 cask wine;2 casks ships beer; 26 casks tar pitch; 1 copper cooks kettle; 80 bottles of wine and brandy and a broken empty money chest lying on the beach. Bergh requested vab der Stell to send one of the English survivors to show them where the hull had struck[waar de bodem was gebleven] so they could get the specie out of her. A small section of the afterpart was sticking on a rock and as the sloop from the Johanna was badly damaged they had to repair it before they could sail out to it. On July 1st Bergh burried 4 corpses that they found lying on the beach and these graves must represent the first English graves in South Africa. They continued looking for more washed up wreckage durring low tide and managed to find amoung the rocks 613 reales. Then on the morning of the 6 th July they again set out and to their astonishmentfound a chest lying on the rocks. The chest a very poor looking chest was kept together with iron hoops and the cover was attached by copper wire. The whole thing was about to fall apartand certainly would not lasted another high tide. When they openedit they found 15 bags of Spanish dollars.Over the next couple of days they found 1 ship metal bell, weighing 40 lbs, 1 iron anvil, 4 broken tin dishes and 3 iron cannons, 2-12 and 1-8 pounderthat were still under water,but with the sufficient force of men could easily be raised. Also 1 anchor, 1 small copper morter and pestle and various ropes and blocks. Olaf Bergh asked if a carpenter with all his tools be sent to the site to enable them to repair the sloop.Simon van de Stell also offered to send a native diver,by the name of Pay Minah to dive amongst the wreckage.There is no record of this diver being successfull amongst Berghs journals but a refference was made by Bergh in 1686 whilst salvaging the Nostra Signora de los Miliagros that pay Minah was very sucessfull.
It's not that the design is worn off the coin, it was never there to begin with. These rough cobs like this were cut from very rough cast ignots of refined silver. The pieces were sliced off in what the mint master thought would be the correct approximate weight. Then the piece would be weighed, and if over-weight smaller pieces would be cut off it a piece at a time until the correct weight was achieved. Only then was the coin struck. But because the shape of the cob planchet was so irregular with many different angles, only small portions of the design were ever imparted to the planchets by the dies.
Doug, I never have understood why they used such rough planchets. At that time wasn't the minting process such that the planchets could have been flattened and shaped?
Simon van der Stell despatched 2 ships mates to the site to familiarise themselves with the area and sent them out again in the Jupiter with the instructions that they are to proceed with the first favourable wings to the spot where the English ship wrecked and to collect the salvageed materials. The Mate of the Jupiter ,Reynier Dadel set sail on the 12 th August and on the evening of the 15th they approached the low west point where the Johanna was wreckedslightly to the east [ Quoin point] . He then sailed behind the surf eastwards when they saw a fire burning and guessed it to be Berghs camp.They sailed a bit further until they came to a large reef and they then then concluded that they were about the most important information given in the journals that aided the rediscovery of the Johanna. The Jupiter could not find any suitable anchorage in the area and the following day she proceeded southwards and rounded the cape Agulhas and found excellent achorage in Struys Bay. The mates did extensive soundings of the bay and this was the first survey done of the bay. Olaf Bergh transmitted the salvaged goods over land to Struys Bay and on the 7th September , nearly 3 months after he arrived at the Johanna site he left for Cape town. The total value of tthe goods salvaged by Bergh amounted to 28302 guilden and including 2000 pirilease reales, 7400 Mexican reales, and 34 reales. Altogether a very successfull expedition and in the resolutions of council of policy Bergh and his men were honored. Bergh received rds 100 and a mum pipe [brunswick beer} , the other 3 men received 100 guilden each and the person who found the money chest Rds 12. This was reward for the vigilance they displayed. Another expedition was planned by van der Stell in December 1682 and the idea was to send down divers on the Johanna but no confirmed report have been found in the Archives.
I'll agree to disagree on this one due to the fact of being a surf wreck I have several reale cobs in my collection none like this one . its like drift wood or sea glass that some make jewelry out of.....I understand the minting process first smashing the round bars to flat stock then cutting the flat stock into cob size pieces...next being hammer struck by hand" not always a good strike or a centered one. next being given to the assayer to weight and them trimed to around 25/28 gr. the weight of a 8 reale. What does puzzle me is this on this cob.... most beach wrecks cobs are pitted from the sand and salt. this cob has no pits. Maybe due to the fact that it was not in the sea as long as others I have seen. But I do respect your view on this cob and just happy to share a bit of knowage of the wreck and a really neat coin in my collection. Regards Paddy
Don't forget Paddy that any silver coin exposed to salt water is going to be corroded, it is completely unavoidable. Then remember that when these coins are recovered they are cleaned to remove encrustation, and not just cleaned with chemicals, they are quite often scrubbed with brushes and then polished with cloths. That is more likely than not why the coin is so smooth. And as for this - "I understand the minting process first smashing the round bars to flat stock then cutting the flat stock into cob size pieces..." - it never happened. The rough ignots were cut and the coins struck precisely as I described. There was no smashing of the planchets or the ignots to turn them into flat stock - ever. Not until the advent of the milled coinage series in 1732 did anything even remotely similar happen.
Paddy, your notes on the Johanna interest me. I have docs from the South African Archives and nationaal Archiev but lack a complete Journal of Olof Berg van de land tocht na de Caap d'aguilhaes 19 July 682 through his salvage till the bilges of Johanna BROKE UP AND PITCHED THE 36 CANNON OFF TO PORT. I have had a scan of Memorie on the material salvaged (as you report) transscribed into readable Dutch but any relavent original sources on Johanna are welcome please PM me for contact information
Pierre I wish I knew where this information is, as this post is like 6 years old. And I can't recall where I filed the information . I believe it was on a Dell computer that been scraped years ago. Yes I still have the cob. But I'm quite sure the data was lost on the old computer . I never printed it out as never thought to do so. And the person whom I purchased the cob from information was also on that file. I still own the cob. It's very unusual as parts are wiped clean from the surf and sand. Other devices are like the day minted. It has a buttery feel in hand , very smooth. I've seen other items from this wreck . May I suggest Daniel Sedwick you can Google him. He's a huge treasure coin dealer here in the states. He was at the Baltimore show a few weeks back. He may be able to help you out. I hope this is a lead for you. Best Regards Paddy
Very interesting story. I've never had a desire to own a shipwreck coin, but the story of the wreck and recovery is always interesting!
