A team of Australian shipwreck archaeologists is setting out from Perth on a quest to locate a missing 18th century Dutch spice-trade ship off Christmas Island.

It is one of a number of activities recognising 400 years since Dutch explorer Dirk Hartog's first landing at Cape Inscription on Western Australia's Gascoyne coast, in 1616.

Leading the expedition will be former director of the WA Maritime Museum Graeme Henderson.

At 16, Mr Henderson discovered the wreck of the 17th century Dutch trading ship the Vergulde Draeck (Gilt Dragon) while spear fishing off the WA coast with friends.

He said the team would be looking for several ships but the main focus would be on the Dutch East India Company's 800-tonne ship Fortuyn, wrecked en route to Jakarta in 1724.

"We're going mainly to Christmas Island and partly to Cocos Island, but the main ambition we have is to tow a magnetometer along the south-west coat of Christmas Island in search of a wreck called the Fortuyn."

He said the ship left its home port carrying more than 200 crew members, 36 cannon and, like all trading ships, a considerable sum of money.

"In the case of the Fortuyn it had 200,000 guilders on board," Mr Henderson said.

"They were partly in guilders, partly in cash, and partly in bars of silver."

Difficult search conditions

The ship was previously thought wrecked near the Cocos Islands but more recent evidence has pointed towards Christmas Island.

One of the earliest images of Christmas Island, by Daniel Beekman in 1718. ( Supplied )

Mr Henderson said both the weather and the local environment would make the search difficult.

He said his six-member team had decided to undertake the search in the cyclone season.

"The theory is that between cyclones you get the calmest weather so to some extent that's a gamble of course, but I don't think we would have much hope of getting near the cliffs near the south-west side during the off-season," he said.

Mr Henderson said the volcanic rock of Christmas Island could also affect the equipment used to find the wreck.

"My hope is that there will be a big heap of cannon, 36 cannon were on the ship, and a big heap of anchors, eight big anchors and these big cannon and anchors I am hoping will be sufficient to affect the magnetometer read-out in a greater way than simply the volcanic rock, which of course is ferrous and therefore the island itself affects the magnetometer," he said.

"So we have some quite interesting challenges in terms of the swell and the depth of water and the fact that the island itself is going to affect our instruments so we'll see how we go when we get there."