[meteorite-list] more on 'in the water': a meteorite (?) which fell on a ship in 1648

From: Marco Langbroek <marco.langbroek_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:04:46 2004
Message-ID: <002f01c1f450$8f171460$b1c7ea3e_at_latitude>

Hi all,

An impact on a ship in a harbor in Japan was mentioned with regard to
'meteorites which fell into water'. This reminded me of the report of a
meteorite which struck a Dutch vessel, the 'Malacca' of the Verenigde Oost
Indische Compagnie (VOC, Dutch East Indies Company), in 1648.

This happened when the ship was travelling from the Republic of the Seven
Provinces (Holland) to Java (former Dutch East Indies). The hit reportedly
killed two boatsmen. This has long been a rather apocryphal story (and to
some extend it still is), being only known as a short citation including
mistakes in a secondary source, Chladni's book. A few years ago Dr. Frans E.
Wickman traced back the original account (more or less), which was by a
Swede called Olof Eriksson Willman and published in Sweden in 1667. Willman
was in Batavia (Java, former Dutch East Indies - now Djakarta, Indonesia) in
1648 when the impact on the 'Malacca' happened and apparently got the
account first-hand at that occasion. He wrote (in translation): "In October,
November and December several ships arrived from Holland, among which was a
shipmaster together with his whole crew of the ship 'Malacca'. They reported
that, while they sailed on the violent sea, an eight-pound ball fell into
the ship, killing two boatswines in full view of all present" (translated
citation is from Wickman 1993). Archive work by Wickman has shown that
indeed a vessel called 'Malacca' arrived at Batavia in 1648 - so that part
of the story is correct. Moreover, the 17th century Swede Olof Eriksson
Willman is regarded as a usually reliable historian. He was at one time
employed by the Dutch East Indies Company himself, arriving in Java with the
VOC vessel 'Olifant' in 1648. In 1651-52 he participated in a Dutch
diplomatic mission to Japan. He left the Dutch East Indies in 1653.

So maybe there is something to this story after all. For those interested, I
refer to the paper by Dr. Wickman:

F.E. Wickman, 1993: "The only report of people killed by a meteorite - new
evidence". Geologiska Föreningens i Stockholm Förhandlingar (GFF) vol. 115,
p. 297-298.

Cheers,

- Marco
Received on Sun 05 May 2002 12:14:19 PM PDT