The ''Zaandam'', or ''Sardam'', ''Saerdam'' and ''Saardam'' (alternative spellings of the old name of

Zaandam Zaandam () is a city in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands. It is the main city of the municipality of Zaanstad and received City rights in the Netherlands, city rights in 1811. It is located on the river Zaan ...

), was a 17th-century

yacht A yacht () is a sail- or marine propulsion, motor-propelled watercraft made for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a ...

() of the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( ; VOC ), commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, was a chartered company, chartered trading company and one of the first joint-stock companies in the world. Established on 20 March 1602 by the States Ge ...

. It was a small merchant vessel designed primarily for the inter-island trade in the

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. The ship sailed for

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in October 1628 as part of a flotilla commanded by ''commandeur'' Francisco Pelsaert, and arrived safely in Batavia on 7 July 1629. In the meantime, the , flagship of the same flotilla, had been wrecked on a coral reef of the Houtman Abrolhos on 4 June. Pelsaert and 47 crew and passengers, including most higher officers, made their way with the ship's longboat towards Batavia and were picked up 3 July by the , who sailed into Batavia on 7 July, the same day the ''Sardam'' arrived. Governor Jan Pietersz Coen ordered Pelsaert and his navigator to immediately return with the ''Sardam'' and 26 of its crew to the

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n coast to rescue survivors and salvage cargo. Sailing off on 15 July, the ''Sardam'' only arrived there on 17 September, due to weather, currents and a misestimate of the wreckage site. It took two months to deal with the aftermath of the notorious

mutiny Mutiny is a revolt among a group of people (typically of a military or a crew) to oppose, change, or remove superiors or their orders. The term is commonly used for insubordination by members of the military against an officer or superior, ...

and recover the most valuable cargo. In October, the skipper and five crew members of the ''Sardam'' disappeared while searching for drifted cargo on more remote islands. ''Sardam'' sailed back on 15 November and arrived in Batavia on 5 December 1629 with most of the treasure, but with only 68 men, 7 women and 2 children of the original 250 people that had survived the shipwreck, as the rest had died or been murdered.Roeper, pp. 35-36 On one of her later trips, the ''Sardam'' sailed back and forth between Batavia and Fort Zeelandia (Taiwan) on Formosa between August 1631 and January 1632. The ship was active until 1636 or 1637.

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* {{Pirates 1620s ships Batavia (1628 ship) Ships of the Dutch East India Company Piracy in Australia

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