dutch mariner, explorer and merchant

Abel Janszoon Tasman ( dutch : [ ˈɑbəl ˈjɑnsoːn ˈtɑsmɑn ] ; 1603 – 10 October 1659 ) was a dutch mariner, internet explorer, and merchant, best known for his voyages of 1642 and 1644 in the service of the Dutch East India Company ( VOC ). He was the first known european explorer to reach New Zealand and the islands of Fiji and Van Diemen ‘s Land ( nowadays Tasmania ) .

Origins and early biography [edit ]

Abel Tasman was born around 1603 in Lutjegast, a little greenwich village in the province of Groningen, in the north of the Netherlands. The oldest available source mentioning him is dated 27 December 1631 when, as a mariner living in Amsterdam, the 28-year-old became engaged to marry 21-year-old Jannetje Tjaers, of Palmstraat in the Jordaan zone of the city. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ]

Reading: Abel Tasman

Routes taken by Tasman in the australasian region, on his first gear and second voyages .

resettlement to the Dutch East Indies [edit ]

Employed by the Dutch East India Company ( VOC ), Tasman sailed from Texel ( Netherland ) to Batavia, now Jakarta, in 1633 taking the southern Brouwer Route. During this period, Tasman took separate in a ocean trip to Seram Island ; the locals had sold spices to early european nationalities than the Dutch. He had a narrow miss from death, when in an incautious landing respective of his companions were killed by people of Seram. [ 6 ] In August 1637, Tasman was back in Amsterdam, and the postdate year he signed on for another ten years and took his wife with him to Batavia. On 25 March 1638 he tried to sell his property in the Jordaan, but the purchase was cancelled. He was second-in-command of a 1639 exploration expedition in the north Pacific under Matthijs Quast. The fleet included the ships Engel and Gracht and reached Fort Zeelandia ( Dutch Formosa ) and Deshima .

first major voyage [edit ]

In August 1642, the Council of the Indies, consisting of Antonie van Diemen, Cornelis van five hundred Lijn, Joan Maetsuycker, Justus Schouten, Salomon Sweers, Cornelis Witsen, and Pieter Boreel in Batavia dispatched Tasman and Franchoijs Jacobszoon Visscher on a voyage of exploration to little-charted areas east of the Cape of Good Hope, west of Staten Land ( near the Cape Horn of South America ) and south of the Solomon Islands. [ 7 ] One of the objectives was to obtain cognition of “ all the wholly unknown ” Provinces of Beach. [ 8 ] This was a aim yet non-existent landmass said to have plentiful gold, which had appeared on european maps since the fifteenth century, as a result of an error in some editions of Marco Polo ‘s works. The expedition was to use two little ships, Heemskerck and Zeehaen .

mauritius [edit ]

In accord with Visscher ‘s directions, Tasman sailed from Batavia on 14 August 1642 [ 9 ] and arrived at Mauritius on 5 September 1642, according to the captain ‘s journal. [ 10 ] The reason for this was the crew could be fed well on the island ; there was batch of fresh water and timber to repair the ships. Tasman got the aid of the governor Adriaan van five hundred Stel. Because of the prevailing winds, Mauritius was chosen as a call on point. After a four-week persist on the island, both ships left on 8 October using the Roaring Forties to sail east as firm as possible. ( No one had gone adenine far as Pieter Nuyts in 1626/27. ) On 7 November, snow and acclaim influenced the embark ‘s council to alter course to a more north-easterly guidance, [ 11 ] expecting to arrive one day at the Solomon Islands .

tasmania [edit ]

On 24 November 1642, Tasman reached and sighted the west coast of Tasmania, north of Macquarie Harbour. [ 12 ] He named his discovery Van Diemen ‘s Land, after Antonio van Diemen, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. Proceeding south, Tasman skirted the southern end of Tasmania and turned northeast. He then tried to work his two ships into Adventure Bay on the east coast of South Bruny Island, where he was blown out to sea by a storm. This area he named Storm Bay. Two days late, on 1 December, Tasman anchored to the north of Cape Frederick Hendrick equitable north of the Forestier Peninsula. On 2 December, two ship ‘s boats under the command of the Pilot, Major Visscher, rowed through the Marion Narrows into Blackman Bay, and across the west to the escape of Boomer Creek where they gathered some comestible “ greens ”. [ 13 ] Tasman named Frederick Hendrik Bay, which included the portray North Bay, Marion Bay and the inlet Blackman Bay ( the name Frederick Henry Bay was mistakenly transferred to its award location by Marion Dufresne in 1772 ). The following day, an try was made to land in North Bay. however, because the sea was besides rough, the carpenter swim through the browse and planted the dutch flag. Tasman then claimed ball self-control of the farming, on 3 December 1642. For two more days, he continued to follow the east coast north to see how far it went. When the land veered to the northwest at Eddystone Point, [ 15 ] he tried to keep in with it but his ships were abruptly hit by the Roaring Forties howling through Bass Strait. [ 16 ] The impenetrable wind wall indicated that hera was a strait, not a bay. Tasman was on a mission to find the Southern Continent, not more islands, so he abruptly turned away to the east and continued his continent-hunting. [ 17 ]

New Zealand [edit ]

After some exploration, Tasman had intended to proceed in a northerly steering but as the wreathe was unfavorable he steered east. The excursion endured an extremely boisterous ocean trip and in one of his diary entries Tasman credited his grok, claiming it was the only thing that had kept him alive. On 13 December 1642 they sighted land on the northwest slide of the South Island, New Zealand, becoming the foremost Europeans to sight New Zealand. [ 19 ] Tasman named it Staten Landt “ in honor of the States General “ ( Dutch parliament ). [ 20 ] He wrote, “ it is possible that this domain joins to the Staten Landt but it is uncertain ”, [ 21 ] referring to Isla de los Estados, a landmass of the lapp name at the southerly tip of South America, encountered by the Dutch navigator Jacob Le Maire in 1616. [ 22 ] however, in 1643 Brouwer ‘s dispatch to Valdivia found out that Staaten Landt was separated by ocean from the conjectural Southern Land. [ 23 ] [ 24 ] [ 25 ] Tasman continued : “ We believe that this is the mainland seashore of the stranger Southland. ” [ 26 ] Tasman thought he had found the westerly side of the long-imagined Terra Australis that stretched across the Pacific to near the southerly tip of South America. [ 27 ] After sailing north, then east for five days, the expedition anchored about 7 kilometres ( 4.3 myocardial infarction ) from the seashore off what is now believed to have been Golden Bay. Tasman sent ship ‘s boats to gather water, but one of his gravy boat was attacked by a war party sent by Ngāti Tūmatakōkiri ( a Māori iwi ( tribe ) who settled in the northwest of the island ) in a double-hulled waka ( canoe ) and four of his men were killed with mere ( clubs ) .

In the evening about one hour after sunset we saw many lights on land and four vessels near the shore, two of which betook themselves towards us. When our two boats returned to the ships reporting that they had found not less than thirteen fathoms of water, and with the sink of the sun ( which sank behind the high land ) they had been still about half a mile from the shore. After our people had been on dining table about one methamphetamine, people in the two canoes began to call out to us in crusty, excavate voices. We could not in the least understand any of it ; however, when they called out again several times we called back to them as a token answer. But they did not come nearer than a rock ‘s guess. They besides blew many times on an instrument, which produced a sound like the moors ‘ trumpets. We had one of our sailors ( who could play slightly on the cornet ) play some tunes to them in solution. ” [ 10 ]

As Tasman sailed out of the bay he observed 22 waka near the shore, of which “ eleven swarming with people came off towards us. ” The waka approached the Zeehaen which fired and hit a serviceman in the largest waka holding a humble white ease up. Canister shot besides hit the side of a waka. [ 10 ] [ 28 ] Archaeological research has shown the Dutch had tried to land at a major agricultural area, which the Māori may have been trying to protect. [ 29 ] Tasman named the area “ Murderers ‘ Bay ”. The excursion then sailed north, sighting Cook Strait, which it mistook for a bight and named “ Zeehaen ‘s Bight ”. Two names that the expedition gave to landmarks in the far north of New Zealand calm endure : cape Maria avant-garde Diemen and Three Kings Islands. ( Kaap Pieter Boreels was renamed Cape Egmont by Captain James Cook 125 years by and by. )

Return voyage [edit ]

The alcove of Tongatapu with the two ships ; drawing by Isaack Gilsemans En route rear to Batavia, Tasman came across the Tongan archipelago on 20 January 1643. While passing the Fiji Islands Tasman ‘s ships came conclusion to being wrecked on the dangerous reefs of the north-eastern part of the Fiji group. He charted the eastern tip of Vanua Levu and Cikobia-i-Lau before making his way back into the outdoors ocean. The dispatch turned northwest towards New Guinea and arrived at Batavia on 15 June 1643 .

second major voyage [edit ]

Tasman left Batavia on 30 January 1644 on his second base voyage with three ships ( Limmen, Zeemeeuw and the sensitive Braek ). He followed the south slide of New Guinea eastwards in an undertake to find a passage to the eastern side of New Holland. however, he missed the Torres Strait between New Guinea and Australia, credibly due to the numerous reefs and islands obscuring likely routes, and continued his voyage by following the shore of the Gulf of Carpentaria westwards along the north australian slide. He mapped the north coast of Australia, making observations on New Holland and its people. [ 30 ] He arrived back in Batavia in August 1644. From the point of view of the Dutch East India Company, Tasman ‘s explorations were a disappointment : he had neither found a promise area for trade nor a utilitarian new shipping route. Although received modestly, the company was upset to a degree that Tasman did not in full explore the lands he found, and decided that a more “ dogged explorer ” should be chosen for any future expeditions. [ 31 ] For over a century, until the era of James Cook, Tasmania and New Zealand were not visited by Europeans – mainland Australia was visited, but normally only by accident .

late life [edit ]

On 2 November 1644, Abel Tasman was appointed a member of the Council of Justice at Batavia. He went to Sumatra in 1646, and in August 1647 to Siam ( nowadays Thailand ) with letters from the company to the King. In May 1648, he was in charge of an excursion sent to Manila to try to intercept and loot the spanish flatware ships coming from America, but he had no success and returned to Batavia in January 1649. In November 1649, he was charged and found guilty of having in the former year hanged one of his men without trial, was suspended from his position of air force officer, fined, and made to pay recompense to the relatives of the sailor. On 5 January 1651, he was formally reinstated in his rank and file and spent his remaining years at Batavia. He was in estimable circumstances, being one of the larger landowners in the township. He died at Batavia on 10 October 1659 and was survived by his second wife and a daughter by his first wife. His place was divided between his wife and his daughter by his first marriage. In his will ( dating from 1657 [ 32 ] ), he left 25 guilders to the inadequate of his village Lutjegast. [ 33 ] Although Tasman ‘s pilot program, Frans Visscher, published Memoir concerning the discovery of the South land in 1642, [ 34 ] Tasman ‘s detail daybook was not published until 1898 ; however, some of his charts and maps were in general circulation and used by subsequent explorers. [ 30 ] The diary signed by Abel Tasman of the 1642 voyage is held at the Dutch National Archives at The Hague. [ 35 ]

bequest [edit ]

Tasman ‘s ten-month voyage in 1642–43 had meaning consequences. By circumnavigating Australia ( albeit at a distance ) Tasman proved that the small fifth continent was not joined to any larger sixth continent, such as the long-imagined Southern Continent. Further, Tasman ‘s trace that New Zealand was the western side of that Southern Continent was seized upon by many european cartographers who, for the adjacent century, depicted New Zealand as the west coast of a Terra Australis rising gradually from the waters around Tierra del Fuego. This theory was finally disproved when Captain Cook circumnavigated New Zealand in 1769. [ 36 ]
multiple places have been named after Tasman, including :
besides named after Tasman are :
His portrayal has been on four New Zealand postage stamp issues, on a 1992 5 NZD coin, and on 1963, 1966 [ 37 ] and 1985 australian postage stamps. [ 38 ] In the Netherlands, many streets are named after him. In Lutjegast, the greenwich village he was born, there is a museum dedicated to his animation and travels .

Tasman map [edit ]

Abel Tasman map, circa 1644, besides known as the Tasman ‘Bonaparte ‘ map Held within the collection of the State Library of New South Wales is the Tasman map, thought to have been drawn by Isaac Gilsemans, or completed under the supervision of Franz Jacobszoon Visscher. [ 39 ] The map is besides known as the Bonaparte map, as it was once owned by Prince Roland Bonaparte, the great-nephew of Napoleon. [ 40 ] The map was completed sometime after 1644 and is based on the original charts drawn during Tasman ‘s first gear and second voyages. [ 41 ] As none of the journals or logs composed during Tasman ‘s moment voyage have survived, the Bonaparte map remains as an important contemporaneous artifact of Tasman ‘s ocean trip to the northerly coast of the australian continent. [ 41 ] The Tasman map largely reveals the extent of understanding the Dutch had of the australian continent at the fourth dimension. [ 42 ] The map includes the westerly and southerly coasts of Australia, by chance encountered by dutch voyagers as they journeyed by manner of the Cape of Good Hope to the VOC headquarters in Batavia. [ 40 ] In addition, the map shows the tracks of Tasman ‘s two voyages. [ 40 ] Of his second ocean trip, the map shows the area of the Banda Islands, the southern slide of New Guinea and much of the northerly slide of Australia. however, the area of the Torres Strait is shown unexamined ; this is despite having been given orders by VOC Council at Batavia to explore the possibility of a channel between New Guinea and the australian celibate. [ 41 ] [ 42 ] There is argue as to the origin of the map. [ 43 ] It is wide believed that the map was produced in Batavia ; however, it has besides been argued that the map was produced in Amsterdam. [ 40 ] [ 43 ] The authorship of the function has besides been debated : while the map is normally attributed to Tasman, it is now thought to have been the solution of a collaboration, credibly involving Franchoijs Visscher and Isaack Gilsemans, who took part in both of Tasman ‘s voyages. [ 8 ] [ 43 ] Whether the map was produced in 1644 is besides subject to debate, as a VOC company report in December 1644 suggests that at that clock no maps showing Tasman ‘s voyages were even complete. [ 43 ] In 1943, a mosaic version of the map, composed of tinge marble and administration, was inlaid into the anteroom floor of the Mitchell Library in Sydney. [ 44 ] The influence was commissioned by the Principal Librarian William Ifould, and completed by the Melocco Brothers of Annandale, who besides worked on ANZAC War Memorial in Hyde Park and the crypt at St Mary ‘s Cathedral, Sydney. [ 45 ] [ 39 ]

See besides [edit ]

References [edit ]

Sources [edit ]

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