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Shipwreck · Salvaged

The Geldermalsen, the Nanking Cargo

Sank 1752 · found 1985, South China Sea, near Bintan, Indonesia
RECOVERED
Evidence status: Historical tradition. no documented source (historical tradition); legal status unknown (manual verification recommended). This account is presented as historical tradition, not verified fact. Manual verification recommended. Repository evidence: 0 sources · 0 timeline events · 0 media items · legal unknown · view on the Map Evidence on file: historical tradition

The Geldermalsen, the Nanking Cargo: still unexplained.

100,000+ pieces of porcelain and 125 gold ingots

The law of this ground: Salvaged before modern heritage protections; sold at auction, much debated since.
The subject
developing the photograph…
The manifest
100,000+ pieces of porcelain and 125 gold ingots
The account

A Dutch East India ship homeward from Canton struck a reef and sank in 1752, and lay forgotten until Michael Hatcher raised her in 1985, over a hundred thousand pieces of blue-and-white porcelain and a hundred and twenty-five gold ingots. Christie's sold the haul as 'the Nanking Cargo' in 1986, a sale that made headlines and forced the world to start writing rules about who owns a wreck.

Leads, where the trail points now
  • Pin down the most specific last-known position in the record before going; the search centers on South China Sea, near Bintan, Indonesia.
  • What you are chasing is 100,000+ pieces of porcelain and 125 gold ingots. Work the documented record of The Geldermalsen, the Nanking Cargo back to primary sources and separate what is attested from folklore.
  • Salvaged before modern heritage protections; sold at auction, much debated since.
What the record holds

What remains open

  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
What we know, and what we don't
Established

No documentary claim is yet established. The account rests on tradition.

Still open
  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
The evidence room

No documentary or visual exhibits have been located yet. The trail below and the open leads are where this dossier grows next — every exhibit that enters here carries a source.

Where the trail points now
  • Pin down the most specific last-known position in the record before going; the search centers on South China Sea, near Bintan, Indonesia.
  • What you are chasing is 100,000+ pieces of porcelain and 125 gold ingots. Work the documented record of The Geldermalsen, the Nanking Cargo back to primary sources and separate what is attested from folklore.
  • Salvaged before modern heritage protections; sold at auction, much debated since.
  • Search Library of Congress + DPLA (IIIF) for period cartography of the site.
  • Run Chronicling America for dated newspaper mentions.
  • Query NARA for archival records tied to the site.

Have a source, a map, or a clipping? Add a lead and it enters the record with its citation.

Start the hunt here
The first leads, so no one walks in cold.
Sources and the record
Related case files

The full hunt kit

Starting brief, what's known and disputed, evidence timeline, source list, map card, coordinate-confidence and legal-access summaries, and a field checklist, free with a Fellowship account.

Latest Word From the Newswire

Context, not proof. The dossier's own sources remain the evidence record.

Checking the wire…

Chart position 1.100°, 105.200° (approx.) View on the Map