The Akerendam was a fluytship (a type of Dutch merchant vessel) equipped for the transatlantic triangular trade.

It was a slave ship that had already completed several voyages when it departed from Texel in January 1728, bound for Elmina in West Africa.

On January 15, 1728, the ship ran aground on a sandbank approximately 19 miles off the coast of southwest England.

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Detail of a nautical chart showing the Galloper sandbank.

At the top center of the chart lies the elongated "new" sandbank known as the Galloper, where the *Akerendam* ran aground and was lost.

The crew stated that everything possible had been done to save the ship and that neither the captain nor the chief mate was to blame. The sandbank was known as the "new bank" and did not appear (or was not accurately marked) on Dutch nautical charts.

Name: Akerendan was a country estate near Beverwijk owned by the Bicker family (including a mayor of Amsterdam), who were closely linked to the WIC. In 1724, they sold the estate to the Amsterdam banker and VOC director Jan Lucas Pels (who had the house extensively renovated and after whom the VOC ship *Akerendam*, built in 1724/1725, was named).

• attestatie bemanning ackredam
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  Lijst van WIC schepen uitgerust tussen 1720-1729