Willem de Vlamingh
For VOC Board member Nicolaas Witsen the loss of the Ridderschap van Holland was the opportunity he had waited for. He had been aware that since Abel Tasman's journey in 1644 - nearly fifty years before - no serious attempt had been initiated by the VOC to further explore New Holland. He had tried a number of times to convince his fellow Board members of the need for such exploration but to no avail. The loss of the Ridderschap van Holland presented him with an opportunity to push for an inquiry and a thorough search of this area of ocean - i.e. the west coast of the Southland. As the fortunes of the Company were now a major issue his colleagues were more ready to listen.
An expedition of three ships was dispatched by the Amsterdam Chamber of the VOC to look for the Ridderschap van Holland and explore New Holland further. A new ship was built, a comfortable frigate that would serve as flagship of the Commander - Willem de Vlamingh. It was named Geelvinck after Joan Geelvinck, member of the Board. The Geelvinck would be accompanied by the Nijptang, with Gerrit Collaert as Skipper, and the Wezeltje, with Laurens Theuniszoon Zeeman as Skipper. The latter died en route and was replaced by Cornelis de Vlamingh (the son of Willem).
Dorpsstraat 176, Vlieland, where De Vlamingh was born
Willem de Vlamingh (born 1640) was the son of Hessel Dirckszoon and Trijntje Cornelis on the island of East-Vlieland in the Netherlands. Because part of the Vlielanders livelihood was whaling, his early seafaring experience had been on whale boats. He married Willempie Cornelis in December 1668 and settled in Amsterdam and its seafaring ways. In 1688, he joined the VOC and on 26th November of that year he was on his way to Batavia for the first time. In 1695, after a few voyages to the East Indies, he was back in Amsterdam and was nominated for the responsible task of mounting an expedition to search for the Ridderschap van Holland.
Vlamingh Lookout, built on a high point overlooking the main settleent. Named in Vlamingh's honour, the Dutch captain no doubt view the island from this point during his five day visit. The western cape on the island is also named after him.
De Vlamingh set sail on 3rd May 1696, sailing north of Scotland into the Atlantic Ocean. Visiting the island Tristan da Cuhna, the Cape of Good Hope, St Paul and Amsterdam before setting sail for New Holland, his three ships reached the New Holland coast on Christmas Eve 1696 somewhere in the vicinity of present day Bunbury. They arrived at Rottnest Island five days later, making it their base for surveys of the area over the next few weeks.
Map of the coast of Western Australia, originally sketched by Willem de Vlamingh in 1697. National Museum of Australia.
He saw numerous quokkas (a native marsupial), and thinking they were large rats he named it 't Eylandt 't Rottenest ("Rats' Nest Island"). He afterwards wrote of it in his journal: "I had great pleasure in admiring this island, which is very attractive, and where it seems to me that nature has denied nothing to make it pleasurable beyond all islands I have ever seen, being very well provided for man's well-being, with timber, stone, and lime for building him houses, only lacking ploughmen to fill these fine plains. There is plentiful salt, and the coast is full of fish. Birds make themselves heard with pleasant song in these scented groves. So I believe that of the many people who seek to make themselves happy, there are many who would scorn the fortunes of our country for the choice of this one here, which would seem a paradise on earth".
Willem de Vlamingh's ships, with black swans, at the entrance to the Swan River, Western Australia, coloured engraving (1796), derived from an earlier drawing (now lost) from the de Vlamingh expeditions of 1696 97.
Two expeditions were made to the mainland, the first landing at Cottesloe Beach and travelling overland via Lake Monger to the Swan River. On 10 January 1697, went to the mainland again, where the crew split into three parties, hoping to catch an Aborigine, but about five days later they gave up their quest to catch a "South lander". Vlamingh himself travelled up the river past the site of the City of Perth as far as present day Guildford. He and his crew are believed to have been the first Europeans to do so. They are also assumed to be the first Europeans to see black swans, and de Vlamingh named the Swan River (Zwaanenrivier in Dutch) after the large number they observed there.
A sculpture of de Vlamingh stands on the banks of the Swan River in the inner Perth suburb of Burswood as a tribute to the early Dutch seafarers who he came here in January 1697. The statue was unveiled in 1997 in celebration of the 300th anniversary of de Vlamingh's naming of the Swan River. It was De Vlamingh who named Perth's Swan River.
Leaving the area, they travelled north, following the coast, mapping it as they went. On 22 January the sailed through the Geelvink Channel. The next days they saw ten naked, black people. On 24 January they passed Red Bluff at Kalbarri. Near Wittecarra they went looking for fresh water.
On 30th January 1697, de Vlamingh sighted another island which he thought to be Dirk Hartog's Island. The Geelvinck and Nijptang were sent ahead to circumnavigate the island and find a good anchorage. On 3rd February, the boats returned and the First Mate reported a startling discovery. When he had climbed a hill to get a better view, he had found a pole with a pewter plate half hidden in the sand. The writings on it stated that it had been left behind by Dirk Hartog in 1616. It was now certain that de Vlamingh had landed on Dirck Hartog island and the next day the ships sailed into a sheltered lagoon.
De Vlamingh retrieved Hartog's pewter plate (see below) and left his own behind which included a transcription of Hartog's message, followed by a record of his own visit there. De Vlamingh spent nine days exploring the surroundings and making accurate charts before heading for Batavia. As a result of Vlamingh's expedition, the Dutch had finally charted the whole coast from Cape Leeuwin to Exmouth Gulf.
De Vlamingh, with his son and Collaert, commanded a return fleet from the Indies on 3 or 11 February 1698, which arrived in his hometown, Amsterdam, on 16 August. However, it is not certain that De Vlamingh was still alive at that point, and burial records from Vlieland around this time do not exist.
The retourship Lands Welvaren was sent ahead of de Vlamingh from Banda, carrying de Vlamingh's report to Holland as well as the eleven drawings done by Victor Victorszoon, Dirck Hartogh's plate, a box with sea shells, fruits and vegetation which de Vlamingh had gathered. A bottle of oil, extracted from the exquisite smelling wood found on Rottenest were also sent. Some black swans were also sent to Holland but they had died on the journey. For the Board of the VOC the results must have been disappointing although that was due more to their own high expectations than de Vlamingh's failure. What was not there could not be found.
The Hartog and Vlamingh plates
In 1619 Frederik de Houtman, in the VOC ship Dordrecht, and Jacob d'Edel, in another VOC ship Amsterdam, sighted land on the Australian coast near present-day Perth which they called d'Edelsland. After sailing northwards along the coast they made landfall in Eendrachtsland. In his journal, Houtman identified these coasts with Marco Polo's land of Beach, or Locach, as shown on maps of the time such as that of Petrus Plancius and Jan Huyghen van Linschoten. Houtman probably sailed near Dirk Hartog Island but there is no record of him going ashore, and Hartog's plate would remain on its post undisturbed by Houtman and the many other Dutch navigators who came upon this stretch of coastline.
The inscription on Vlamingh's plate
Eighty years later, on 4 February 1697, the Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh landed on the island and by chance found the Hartog plate, which lay half-buried in sand. He replaced it with a new plate which reproduced Hartog's original inscription and added notes of his own, and took Hartog's original back to Amsterdam, where it is housed in the Rijksmuseum.
Dirk Hartog's plate on display in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
In 2000 the Hartog plate was temporarily returned to Australia as part of an exhibition at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney. This led to suggestions that the plate, considered important as the oldest-known written artefact from Australia's European history, should be acquired for an Australian museum, but the Dutch authorities have made it clear that the plate will remain in The Netherlands.
In 1801, the French captain of the Naturaliste, Jacques Felix Emmanuel Hamelin, second in command of an expedition led by Nicolas Baudin in the Geographe entered Shark Bay and sent a party ashore. The party found Vlamingh's plate, even though it was half buried in the sand, as the post had rotted away with the ravages of the weather. When they took the plate to the ship, Hamelin ordered it to be returned, believing its removal would be tantamount to sacrilege. He also had a plate, or plaque, of his own prepared and inscribed with details of his voyage (at 16 July 1801), adding even a small Dutch flag to the plaque. Hartog's plate was put back on its post. Where Hamelin's plate was mounted is not known, although Uranie's artist Jacques Arago, who seems to have disagreed with the removal of the plates, suggested in his account of the Uranie's visit to Shark Bay in 1818 that Freycinet might have removed it.
In 1818 in the Uranie, French explorer Louis de Freycinet, who had been an officer in Hamelin's 1801 crew, sent a boat ashore to recover Vlamingh's plate. His wife Rose de Freycinet, who was on board, having stowed away with her husband's assistance, recorded the event in what was in effect a diary of her circumnavigation. No mention of Hamelin's 1801 plate or plaque was made. One can presume that either it was not found, or that Freycinet himself took it but kept his actions secret. After the Uranie was shipwrecked in the Falkland Islands the plate and other materials from the Uranie voyage were later transferred to another ship and taken to France, where it was presented to the Academie francaise in Paris.
Vlamingh's plate on display in the WA Maritime Museum, Fremantle, Western Australia
After being lost for more than a century, the Vlamingh plate was rediscovered in 1940 on the bottom shelf of a small room at the Academie Francaise in Paris, mixed up with old copper engraving plates. After the liberation of Paris the discovery of the plate was announced and the Australian Ambassador requested its return as a goodwill gesture.
In recognition of Australian losses in the defence of France during the two world wars, the French Ambassador to Australia presented the plate to the Prime Minister of Australia, Ben Chifley, in May 1947, who received it on behalf of the Commonwealth. In 1950 it was returned to Western Australia, where it can be seen in the Shipwrecks Galleries of the Maritime Museum in Fremantle.
Photo: Monuments Australia website