Book excerpt: In December 1985 I received a telephone call from Christie's in Amsterdam. Michael Hatcher had found a new ship with over 150,000 pieces of porcelain. Most of it was already in Amsterdam for an auction in '86. My acquaintance with Htcher datesback to 1984. At that time there was an auction at Christie's of mid-17th century porcelain, which Hatcher had recovered from the wreck of a Chinese junk. But if this fins had really come from a Dutch ship, then which East Indiaman could it be? The most obvious candidate was the Geldermalsen, which had sunk on her homeward voyage in 1752.--Preface.