Vervarelyke schip-breuk van’t Oost-Indische jacht ter Schelling onder het landt van Bengale

Harderwiljk : Dirk en Jan Rampen, 1707. Quarto, contemporary vellum; pp. [1]-81 (Vervarelyke schip-breuk), 82-96 (accounts of Arakan, Martavan, Tanassery, Bengal, and the Pathans); title with woodcut vignette of Terschelling during the fateful storm in the Bay of Bengal, a further [18] woodcuts in the text; [BOUND WITH] Joosten, Jaques. De kleyne wonderlijke wereld, waar onder vertoont worden veele rarigheden van de wereld … Amsterdam : Widow Gysbert de Groot, 1717. Title-leaf with woodcut illustration, pp. [8], 3-72; [AND] Bontekoe, Willem Ysbrantszoon and Dirk Albertzoon Raven. Journael ofte gedenkwaerdige beschryvinge, van de acht-jarige, ende seer avontuurlijke reyse, van Willem Ysbrantsz Bontekoe van Hoorn, gedaen na Oost-Indien, begrypende veel wonderlyke ende gevaerlyke zaaken, hem op deselve reyse wedervaren: Ook is hier bygevoegt een verhaal van Dirk Albertz. Raven, commandeur op ‘t schip Spitsbergen, gedestineert na Groenland. Dordrecht : Hendrik Walpot, 1753. pp. 64 (including title), title with engraved illustration, and a further 7 woodcuts in the text; [AND] Bontius, Reinerius. De Belegering, en’t ontzet der Stadt Leyden, geschied in den Jare 1574 … Dordrecht : Hendrik Walpot, [n.d.]. pp. 56 (including title), title with woodcut illustration, and a further 8 woodcuts in the text; light browning and spotting across all four works.

The main work is a later edition (the first was published in 1675) of the narrative of the shipwreck of the VOC vessel the Schelling in the Bay of Bengal in October 1661, and the subsequent adventures of the survivors, written by one of the crew members, Frans van der Heiden. Whilst en route from Batavia to Hooghly, the ship was caught in a storm and ran aground on a sandbank. Several crew members reached an uninhabited island by raft, where they survived for a month on the scant food available. Eventually, by various means, they managed to reach the VOC headquarters in Dhaka. There, they were recruited by the Nawab of Bengal for his campaign against Assam. It was not until 1663 that most of them were able to return to Batavia. At the end of the account there are descriptions of Arakan, Bengal, Martavan and Tanassery.

The second work, De kleyne wonderlijke wereld, is a later edition of the Dutch interpreter Jaques Joosten’s account of his seven-years’ travels in Turkey, Hungary, Poland, Russia, Spain, France, Italy, England, the Holy Land, and Brazil, first published in 1649.

The third work is a 1753 edition, printed in Dordrecht by Hendrik Walpot, of two famous VOC shipwreck narratives, which had first been published together in 1646. It contains accounts of the eventful voyage made by Willem Ysbrandtszoon Bontekoe to the East Indies in 1618-1625 (during which his ship exploded in the Sunda Strait!), and of a voyage to Greenland by Dirk Albertzoon Raven, commander of the ship Spitsbergen. It is illustrated with a number of evocative woodcuts.

The fourth work is the popular play by Reinerius Bontius (1576-1623), The Siege and Relief of Leiden, recounting one of the most famous episodes in Dutch history, which took place in 1574 during the Eighty Years’ War. This edition was also printed in Dordrecht by Walpot (probably in the 1750s).