The Merestein was built in 1693 in the Amsterdam shipyard for the Dutch East India Company. It made its maiden trip to the Indies in 1694 and 1695.
On October 4, 1701, it left the Dutch island Texel for the last time. Under the command of Captain Jan Subbing, the crew’s mission was to convoy a cargo of silver coins to Batavia, the capital of the Dutch East Indies, and present-day Jakarta
The cargo contained chests full of silver coins. These Dutch coins, withdrawn from circulation in the 1680s, were intended for trade in the East Indies. They were to be used again in the Indonesian islands of Java and Borneo, then Dutch colonies. The money was also to be used to pay the Cape troops on the way.