The Rooswijk wreck, Goodwin Sands: Examination and analysis of 18th-century glass bottles

Abstract

The #Rooswijk1740 project is funded and led by the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (Ministry of Education, Science and Culture), in collaboration with project partner Historic England and UK-contractor MSDS Marine. The oxide compositions of 17 glass bottles recovered from the Rooswijk, a Dutch East India Company (VOC) Indiaman lost in 1740 on the Goodwin Sands, were determined by micro-x-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy paired with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) analysis, focusing on the origins of the bottles. Three of the bottle samples were identified as of probable English origin and part of the same batch. Most of the bottles are probably from continental Europe, with at least two likely to be Dutch, although their precise origins could not be identified conclusively.