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1644

Zeemeeuw, Limmen and Bracq (Abel Tasman)

Barely four months after Tasman’s return to VOC (Dutch East India Company) headquarters in Batavia, van Diemen was planning another voyage of discovery. This time it would be a more detailed exploration of the South Land. One of the few sources for Tasman’s second voyage is the Bonaparte map, or ‘de Bonaparte-kaart’ .

Tasman was instructed to determine whether New Guinea was linked to the South Land, and if Anthonie van Diemens Landt was connected to the South Land or was an island. Again, Tasman was instructed to uncover new and lucrative markets for VOC trade.

Under Tasman’s command, a squadron of three ships—the Zeemeeuw, Limmen and Bracq—left Batavia on 29 January 1644. Like the Duyfken in 1606, the ships sailed along the southern coast of New Guinea before swinging south toward the north coast of the South Land. And like Willem Janszoon aboard the Duyfken, and Jan Carstensz on the Pera and Willem van Coolsteerd aboard the Arnhem, Tasman failed to discover Torres Strait, and with it, the east coast of Australia.

Tasman entered the Gulf of Carpentaria and followed the coastline all the way west to Point Cloates, near North West Cape, effectively charting the continent’s entire north coast. He named the western part of the continent New Holland.

It was one of the era’s most important voyages of discovery, but VOC directors were again disappointed in the results, particularly Tasman’s failure to find new markets and a viable route to the Pacific. Thanks to Tasman, however, VOC cartographers were able to map most of the continent. This knowledge revised the view of the known world.

The Bonaparte map shows the full extent of Dutch exploration in south-east Asia after Tasman’s second voyage. The map notes that: ‘Company’s New Netherland. In the east of the great land of New Guinea with the first known South Land being one land and joined together as can be [seen] by this dotted track, by the yachts Limmen, Zeemeeuw, and the quel d’Bracq Anno 1644’.