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ThePalmwood is the name used for a shipwreck off the coast of the Dutch island ofTexel in theWadden Sea.
Artifacts recovered from the wreck include two unique examples of 17th-century clothing, one a satin silkdamask dress such as would have been worn by the very wealthy for everyday occasions and the other a silk and silver wedding dress. Both dresses, along with other artifacts found in the wreck, are on display at theKaap Skil [nl] museum in Texel.
The ship, whose name is unknown, is believed to have voyaged in the 17th century,[1] around 1650[2] or 1660.[3] It sank off the eastern coast of Texel sometime after 1636.[1]
It has been proposed the ship is one of a fleet of twelve which was lost on a crossing from Dover to Hellevoetsluis in 1642 and may have been part of the ostensible transport of a royal bride to join her new husband in the Netherlands but camouflaging a diplomatic mission.[4] The Kaap Skil museum, however, which houses the artifacts, believes the ship was likely a Dutch merchant vessel.[5]
The shipwreck was discovered by Dutch divers, members of a local amateur dive club, in 2009, and more artifacts were recovered from it in 2014.[1] The wreck site is called Burgzand Noord 17.[1] The ship itself, whose name is unknown, has variously been called thepalmwood ship and the boxwood ship because of unusual woods found in the remains.[1][2]
The wreck is at a depth which provides an environment that inhibits the decomposition of animal and insect matter such as leather and silk. Plant matter materials such as book pages and cotton garments decompose.[1]
Among the artifacts recovered in 2014 are two dresses believed to have been made around 1620 and to have been about 30 years old at the time of the shipwreck.[2] They were found in a chest packed together, along with other items such as stockings, a bodice, a velvet robe, and a toiletry set.[3] One of the dresses is satin silkdamask and the other, the so-called silver dress, is silk interwoven with strands of silver and believed to be a wedding dress.[3]
The silk dress is largely intact and is "unique" as a remaining artifact of 17th-century clothing textiles, according to textile restorer Emmy de Groot.[6] It consists of abodice, full skirt withpleats, and sleeves withruffles.[3] It is typical of dresses of the 1620s to 1630s in Western Europe and is believed to be an everyday dress.[3]
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The silver dress is also a "unique" example, according to Maarten van Bommell of theUniversity of Amsterdam;[6] according to van Bommell the two dresses may represent the only "two such dresses in the whole world".[3] The silver dress was in approximately ten fragments but eventually pieced together.[6] The silver dress in particular would have been extremely expensive at the time of its making and so is believed to have been likely created for a member of the nobility or of a wealthy merchant family.[6] A book cover found with other artifacts is embossed with the coat-of-arms ofCharles I, which supports the theory the owner was a member of nobility, perhaps of theHouse of Stuart.[7]
In 2016Nadine Akkerman and another Dutch historian proposed that the owner of the dresses wasJean Kerr, Countess of Roxburghe, who was a lady-in-waiting toHenrietta Maria, Charles I's Queen.,[4] although this suggestion was withdrawn as soon as further information about the site of the wreck was released.
According toArcheology, the artifacts recovered by 2018 include a "stunning collection of silk garments and velvet textiles, leather book covers, and pottery [representing] the richest cargo of seventeenth-century luxury goods ever found underwater."[1] Artifacts include items associated with the Mediterranean and Indian subcontinent.[1] Because many of the artifacts were recovered boxed together, the find also represents an unusual opportunity to study the possessions of a contemporary collection of objects perhaps owned by a single person or family unit.[6]
The artifacts recovered have been on display at the Kaap Skil museum in oxygen-free display cases since November 2022 and are the subject of a podcast,The Dress and the Shipwreck, and a documentary planned in 2023.[2][6][8]