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Willem Hesselsz de Vlamingh (November 1640 – ) was a Dutch sea captain who explored the central west coast of New Holland ( Australia) in the late 17th century, where he landed in what is now
Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
on the Swan River. The mission proved fruitless, but he charted parts of the continent's western coast.


Early life

Willem de Vlamingh was born in
Oost-Vlieland Oost-Vlieland ( fry, East-Flylân) is the only village on the island of Vlieland in the province Friesland of the Netherlands. It had a population of around 1,020 in January 2017.Dutch Republic. He was baptised on 28 November 1640. In 1664, De Vlamingh sailed to
Novaya Zemlya Novaya Zemlya (, also , ; rus, Но́вая Земля́, p=ˈnovəjə zʲɪmˈlʲa, ) is an archipelago in northern Russia. It is situated in the Arctic Ocean, in the extreme northeast of Europe, with Cape Flissingsky, on the northern isla ...
and discovered Jelmerland. In 1668, he married; his profession was skipper in
whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industry ...
, and he still lived on the island
Vlieland Vlieland (; fry, Flylân) is a municipality and island in the northern Netherlands. The municipality of Vlieland is the second most sparsely populated municipality in the Netherlands, after Schiermonnikoog. Vlieland is one of the West Frisian ...
. In 1687, he and his wife sold their "apartment" in the
Jordaan The Jordaan is a neighbourhood of the city of Amsterdam, Netherlands. It is part of the borough of Amsterdam-Centrum. The area is bordered by the Singelgracht canal and the neighbourhood of Frederik Hendrikbuurt to the west; the Prinsengracht ...
. De Vlamingh joined the
Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock co ...
(VOC) in 1688, and made his first voyage to Batavia in the same year. Following a second voyage, in 1694, he was asked, on request of
Nicolaes Witsen Nicolaes Witsen (8 May 1641 – 10 August 1717; modern Dutch: ''Nicolaas Witsen'') was a Dutch statesman who was mayor of Amsterdam thirteen times, between 1682 and 1706. In 1693 he became administrator of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). I ...
, to mount an expedition to search for the , a VOC capital ship that was lost with 325 passengers and crew on its way to Batavia in 1694. VOC officials believed it might have run aground on the western coast of Australia.


Rescue mission

In 1696, De Vlamingh commanded the rescue mission to Australia's west coast to look for survivors of the ''Ridderschap van Holland'' that had gone missing two years earlier, and had admiral Sir James Couper on board. There were three ships under his command: the frigate ''Geelvink'', captained by De Vlamingh himself; the ''Nijptang'', under Captain Gerrit Collaert; and the
galiot A galiot, galliot or galiote, was a small galley boat propelled by sail or oars. There are three different types of naval galiots that sailed on different seas. A ''galiote'' was a type of French flat-bottom river boat or barge and also a flat- ...
''Weseltje'', under Captain Cornelis de Vlamingh, son of Willem de Vlamingh. The expedition departed
Texel Texel (; Texels dialect: ) is a municipality and an island with a population of 13,643 in North Holland, Netherlands. It is the largest and most populated island of the West Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea. The island is situated north of Den ...
'strictly incognito' on 3 May 1696 and, because of the Nine Years' War with France, sailed around the coast of Scotland to Tristan da Cunha. In early September the three ships arrived at Cape of Good Hope, where they stayed for seven weeks because of scurvy among the crew. There, Cornelis de Vlamingh took command after Laurens T. Zeeman died. On 27 October, they left using the
Brouwer Route The Brouwer Route was a 17th-century route used by ships sailing from the Cape of Good Hope to the Dutch East Indies, as the eastern leg of the Cape Route. The route took ships south from the Cape (which is at 34° latitude south) into the Roar ...
on the Indian Ocean route from the African
Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...
to the Dutch East Indies. On their way east they checked Île Saint-Paul and
Île Amsterdam Île Amsterdam (), also known as Amsterdam Island and New Amsterdam (''Nouvelle-Amsterdam''), is an island of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands in the southern Indian Ocean that together with neighbouring Île Saint-Paul to the south ...
, but no wreckage or survivors were found. On 5 December they sailed on. On 29 December 1696, De Vlamingh's party landed on
Rottnest Island Rottnest Island ( nys, Wadjemup), often colloquially referred to as "Rotto", is a island off the coast of Western Australia, located west of Fremantle. A sandy, low-lying island formed on a base of aeolianite limestone, Rottnest is an A-cla ...
. He saw numerous
quokka The quokka (''Setonix brachyurus'', ) is a small macropod about the size of a domestic cat. It is the only member of the genus ''Setonix''. Like other marsupials in the macropod family (such as kangaroos and wallabies), the quokka is herbiv ...
s (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". On 10 January 1697, he ventured up the Swan River. 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 swan The black swan (''Cygnus atratus'') is a large waterbird, a species of swan which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. Within Australia, the black swan is nomadic, with erratic migration patterns dependent upon cl ...
s, and De Vlamingh named the Swan River (''Zwaanenrivier'' in Dutch) after the large number they observed there. 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". On 22 January, they sailed through the
Geelvink Channel Geelvink Channel is a feature to the east of the Houtman Abrolhos in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Western Australia, that lies between the Abrolhos and the port of Geraldton Geraldton (Wajarri: ''Jambinu'', Wilunyu: ''Jambinbirri'') i ...
. The next days they saw ten naked, black people. On 24 January they passed Red Bluff. Near Wittecarra they went looking for fresh water. On 4 February 1697, he landed at
Dirk Hartog Island A dirk is a long bladed thrusting dagger.Chisholm, Hugh (ed.), ''Dagger'', The Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed., Vol. VII, New York, NY: Cambridge University Press (1910), p. 729 Historically, it gained its name from the Highland Dirk (Sco ...
, Western Australia, and replaced the pewter plate left by
Dirk Hartog Dirk Hartog (; baptised 30 October 1580 – buried 11 October 1621) was a 17th-century Dutch sailor and explorer. Dirk Hartog's expedition was the second European group to land in Australia and the first to leave behind an artefact to record his ...
in 1616 with a new one that bore a record of both of the Dutch sea-captains' visits. The original plate is preserved in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. 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. On an earlier retourship, De Vlamingh had sent Witsen a box with seashells, fruits and vegetation from
New Holland (Australia) ''New Holland'' ( nl, Nieuw-Holland) is a historical European name for mainland Australia. The name was first applied to Australia in 1644 by the Dutch seafarer Abel Tasman. The name came for a time to be applied in most European maps to the ...
, as well as eleven drawings that Victor Victorsz had made on the expedition. De Vlamingh also included some black swans, but they died on the voyage. Witsen offered the drawings to Martin Lister. Witsen, who had invested in the journey, was disappointed the men had been more interested in setting up trade than in exploring.Heeres, J.E. (1899) The part borne by the Dutch in the discovery of Australia 1606-1765, p. XVI, 83. In 1699, William Dampier would explore the coast of Australia and New Guinea.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vlamingh, Willem de 17th-century Dutch explorers 1640 births 1690s deaths Dutch polar explorers Explorers of Western Australia Maritime exploration of Australia People from Vlieland Sailors on ships of the Dutch East India Company