History
The yacht Grotenbroek left Texel on 21 May 1626 for her maiden voyage to Asia. The ship was back in Holland on October 12, 1629.
Then departed November 6, 1630 for the second time. She arrived in Batavia April 28, 1631 and stayed in Asia.
Last voyage
On June 28, 1634, four ships departed from Batavia for Taiwan and Japan. The convoy consisted of four ships (Schagen, Grotenbroek, Veenhuizen, and De Zwaan). In July, three of the four ships arrived in Quinam (Vietnam) for a stopover. De Zwaan was not among them; it went directly to Hirado in Japan. The remaining three ships departed from there on July 18. A few days later, they encountered a major storm in the South China Sea. De Grotenbroek ran aground on one of the Paracel Islands on July 24, 1634.
Rescue
67 people on board managed to save themselves on Pracel (present-day Pattle Island?). Part of the cargo and 10 chests of money could be salvaged. After 10 days, it was decided to send a number of men back to Quinam* by boat to get help. 5 chests of money were given along. Once in Quinam, the majority of the money was confiscated by the king. With the remaining money, they were able to charter a Japanese skipper, Kiko, with his junk.
With this, the rest of the shipwrecked people and cargo were transported to Quinam. (VOC inv. 1114_149)
From there, they were transported to Batavia on the yacht Zeeburg, which had been sent to Quinam in 1633. The Japanese/Chinese skipper Anachoda Kiko had already obtained 3,000 rijksdaalders in Quinam for his assistance there. Subsequently, he sailed on to Batavia with part of the cargo. This skipper was subsequently entrusted with the task of sailing back to Quinam and requesting an audience with the king to reclaim the money that the king had confiscated from the Grotenbroek. (inv. 1116_285, scan 544