The Erfprins was a frigate built in Amsterdam. It took part in the undecided Battle of Dogger Bank.

Lost in a storm

On June 25th, 1783, the ship left the Netherlands in a squadron (with the Overijssel, Briel and the Windhond) with the young United States as the destination. On board was the Dutch consul van Berckel.*

The Erfprins was not in a very good shape and was leaking. This was not a very big obstacle except that it slowed down the rest of the squadron because of this. Commander Riemersma decided to leave the Erfprins behind to deliver the consul to Philadelphia in time.

This also would not have been very problematic, if not for the fact that the Erfprins was caught in a long, violent storm in september 1783 and lost her main and mizzen masts. The ship was leaking even more because of the storm and limped on towards America. The ship and its crew had to endure weeks of adversity and storm, and the water on board was also running out. The crew was completely exhausted after ten weeks of non-stop pumping and little food.

Finally, the rough seas became too much for the heavily damaged ship. It sank on November 25th 1783 near St. George's Bank, only about 50 nautical miles from Cape Cod, in 120 fathoms of water. The ship was deemed lost for days before that, and the sloops and temporarily constructed rafts were already prepared. When they saw a sail in the distance, they decided to leave the ship with these, yet their rescue aids were not up to the task and the largest part of the crew drowned. 310 people were taken by the sea and not more then 40 people, amongst whom was captain Aberson himself, managed to stay alive. The next morning, a ship reached them. This turned out to be one of the ships that was sent out to find them after the other Dutch ships had reached America. This ship carried provisions and water. If it had reached them 24 hours earlier, the tragedy may have been avoided.

One of the crew, J. W. S. van Haersolte, wrote and published an exhaustive report about the shipwreck and the time before it in 1783 (see references).

*) This was the first Dutch consul in the United States of America. The Dutch Republic had chosen the side of America against the British in 1780. This caused the Fourth Anglo Dutch War (1781-1784).

Type: Fregat
Yard: Admiralty yard, Amsterdam, master J. May
Armament: 54-56 cannon

Het Scheepvaartmuseum

• De Jonge, J.C.
  Geschiedenis van Het Nederlandsche Zeewezen, V.
• van Haersolte, J. W. S. (1783).
  Verhaal van de ongelukkige schipbreuk van 's Lands schip van oorlog de "Erfprins"...
  pp 1-24.
• De Jonge, J.C. (1861).
  Geschiedenis van het Nederlandse Zeewezen, V.
  pp 66.