The Meermin was taken over by the slaves being carried into captivity from their native Madagascar. Many of the crew were killed in the uprising and the slaves then negotiated with the remaining crew to steer the ship back to Madagascar. However, the ship was beached at Struisbaai on the Cape coast near Agulhas, after the crew convinced the slaves that the land they could see was indeed their homeland. The slaves were re-enslaved; and the two surviving leaders were sent to Robben Island where Masavana (a wealthy Madagascan farmer who had been invited by his king to inspect the Meermin and was stripped of his fine clothes and jewellery by the king's men en route to the ship and then sold as a slave) only survived two years of labouring in the lime quarry before dying; and the other, Koesaaij, was still on the "Bandietrolle" fourteen years later. The senior sailors on the ship lost their jobs, but most of the crew regained their positions with the VOC.