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Abel Tasman

Abel Tasman was born in 1603 and grew up in the village of Lutjegast in the Province of Groningen. The local story is that his family resided at Tassumaheerd, a farm which no longer exists near the village. Farmers would regularly go to sea during the quiet summer season and many farmers’ sons would spend their youth working as sailors in order to then establish themselves as farmers on land later on. Tasman also went to sea, moved up from ship boy to sailor and, through schooling on shore during winter, also learned the trade of helmsman. Abel Tasman probably married in his mid-twenties. In any case in 1631, at the age of 28, he was already a widower and father of a daughter. He did not hold a particularly high rank on board at this point, because his marriage certificate simply refers to him as 'shipmate'. His address, the humble Teerketelsteeg in Amsterdam, does not indicate a high function either.

 

In service of the VOC (Dutch East India Company)

In 1633 Tasman was employed by the VOC (Dutch East India Company) and by 1634 he already held the rank of captain. When Anthonie van Diemen had two ships prepared for an exploratory expedition to the Gold and Silver Islands in 1639, Tasman was given command of the second ship. Mathijs Quast was in charge of the expedition. Quast and Tasman’s journey was unsuccessful.

In 1642 Frans Jacobz Visscher, an experienced helmsman and navigator, wrote a note about the possible discovery of the unknown South Land and finding a southern passage to the Pacific Ocean. Based on Visscher’s note elaborate instructions were drafted for the most ambitious exploratory expedition the VOC had ever prepared. Tasman would lead this journey. The expedition's objective was to chart the known South Land’s coasts, search for the unknown South Land and uncover a safe seaway to South America. Tasman was allocated two ships for the journey, the yacht Heemskerck and flyboat Zeehaen with a crew of 110. These small, manoeuvrable ships with shallow draught were ideal for exploratory work. The exploratory expedition started on 8 October 1642 at Mauritius. During his journey, Tasman sailed around the Australian continent in a wide curve. He discovered the coasts of Tasmania and New Zealand and visited the Tonga and Fiji islands. His encounters with New Zealand's inhabitants were dramatic and four of Tasman’s crew members died through contact with the Maoris.

Abel Tasman returned without being able to provide a decisive answer about the existence of the South Land. A journal of his journey is one of the most important items in the National Archives. It contains many detailed drawings, amongst others the oldest known depiction of the Maoris.

The journey led to many new discoveries, but Tasman had explored hardly any landfalls and had only succeeded in making contact with inhabitants in two places. These contacts held no commercial interest. It was not seriously held against him however because in 1644 Tasman was assigned another exploratory expedition. He once again had to sail from west to east between New Guinea and the known South Land and chart the entire east coast of the continent up to Van Diemen's Land. He did not find the strait between New Guinea and Australia, but was able to chart large parts of the Australian west coast.

 A damaged career

The era of large exploratory expeditions came to an end, but Tasman remained employed by the VOC. In 1644 he was appointed a member of the Justice Council in Batavia. In 1648 he was assigned a very special task. With the peace negotiations in Munster well under way, governor-general Van der Lijn wanted to try and attack the Spanish in their Philippine bulwarks one last time. Tasman was given command of a fleet of eight well-armed ships. He did see the Spanish treasure-ship, but the Spanish lowered the valuable load overboard and set fire to their ship before Tasman could conquer it.

One incident during this journey caused serious and permanent damage to Tasman’s further career. Tasman had ordered his crew to remain on board while he and a group of men went ashore. Two sailors were unaware of this command; they had already gone ashore. Tasman ran into the two sailors and considered them to be deserters. He had them hanged on site. It was not until the first sailor was already hung and Tasman was about to hang the second that one of the officers intervened. The hung man was lowered and barely survived the operation.

Back in Batavia a complaint was lodged against Tasman and declared valid. By violating all the rules of a judicial procedure he had misbehaved grossly as a commanding officer. His punishment was severe: Tasman had to pay a fine to the court and considerable compensation to the victims. Worst of all he was discharged from all his official duties and the church council of Batavia cancelled his membership.

Tasman only succeeded in being reinstated to the rank of captain after repeated attempts and in 1652 permanently resigned from the VOC. He established himself in Batavia as a ‘private merchant’ and private trader. In 1657, Tasman made his will because he was ‘ill of body’. His wife and daughter were his heirs and, like a rich man should, he also gave the poor of his native village of Lutjegast a share of his inheritance. He died in October 1659.

Translation of information on the Dutch National Archives website