The location in 1969 was found by Bill Young, the site agent/project manager for the sewage outfall being built by the William Press Group.

On an outward voyage these ships carried guns and bricks for the settlements and strongholds, and silver and golden coins to purchase Asian goods.

[2] The maiden voyage of the Amsterdam was planned from the Dutch island Texel to the settlement Batavia in the East Indies.

[1] The Amsterdam was laden with textiles, wine, stone ballast, cannon, paper, pens, pipes, domestic goods and 27 chests of silver guilder coins.

Finally the rudder broke off and the ship, helpless in a storm, grounded in the mud and sand in the bay of Bulverhythe on 26 January 1749, 5 km (3.1 mi) to the west of Hastings.

The VOC Ship Amsterdam Foundation started researching the wreck, followed by major excavations in 1984, 1985 and 1986, during which huge numbers of artefacts were found.

Some of the finds are on show at the Shipwreck Museum in Hastings, East Sussex, UK, with the exception of the anchor, which is now on display as public art at St Katharine Docks in London.

The ship may be visited as the timbers are exposed at very low tides in the sand just opposite the footbridge over the railway line at Bulverhythe.

As for the original ship, there had been hopes in the 1980s that the Dutch Government, which still owns it, might excavate the whole wreck and return it for restoration and display in Amsterdam, like the Regalskeppet Vasa in Sweden, or the Mary Rose in Portsmouth, but the funds were not forthcoming.

Shanty Punk band Skinny Lister, some of whom live in Hastings, released a single "Damn the Amsterdam" about the ship.