First and only edition of an account of the shipwreck of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) frigate Woestduin. It gives a detailed account of the events of that day. The ship wrecked near the coast of the island Walcheren (now joined to the mainland) in the south of the Netherlands on 23 July 1779, on its way back from Batavia (Jakarta). Some fishermen, among them the brothers Frans and Jacob Naerebout, sailed out to rescue crew and passengers. With their fishing boats they managed to save 87 of the 100 passengers on board. The last 16 pages contain a long list of names of subscribers who financed the work.The preliminaries note that the impetus for the publication was a set of four engraved views of the events by Engel Hoogerheide (published in 1779). The STCN indicates that some copies of the book include a non-integral frontispiece before the title-page, which is not present here. However, Landwehr does not mention a frontispiece, and none of the digitised copies have one, so the frontispiece does not appear to be part of the work. Perhaps the title-page with the engraved double portrait has been mistakenly recorded as two leaves, or perhaps some copies have one of the previously published engravings bound in.
The wrappers are somewhat frayed, with some loss of material on the spine. Some of the leaves are lightly foxed, especially the first two. Otherwise in good condition. Landwehr VOC 445; STCN 280027028 (9 copies); WorldCat 908329436, 523393094 (9 copies).