1774 - 1814
He was only twenty-seven and commanded a salary of £250 per annum. Cape Leeuwin was sighted on 7 December 1801. Flinders surveyed and charted the entire south coast from Cape Leeuwin and reached South Australian waters in January 1802 also charting the coast, islands, bays and headlands. On 27 January he reached the head of the Great Australian Bight and named a group of islands Pieter Nuyts Archipelago, after the Dutchman who had travelled on the Vergulde Zeepaard which sighted it in 1626.
Flinders also named many features after members of his crew and Admiralty. Obtaining fresh food and water were some of his biggest problems and on one occasion eight members of his crew drowned when their boat sank while trying to search for fresh water. He named the site Cape Catastrophe and Memory Cove. A large island was named Thistle's Island, after the ship's master and one of the eight drowned.
When his ship sailed into one of the most beautiful harbours in Australia he named it Port Lincoln, after his home county. His next major discovery was a large island off the South Australian coast. Here the crew obtained a good supply of salt and fresh meat by killing a large number of seals and kangaroos. It was for this reason that he named it Kangaroo Island.
From here Flinders sailed north into a gulf, which he named Spencer Gulf, and hoped that it would lead him well inland or even to the Gulf of Carpentaria. When sailing into the next gulf he came past the site where thirty-five years later Adelaide would be established, and found that there was no strait dividing New Holland and New South Wales. After returning to Kangaroo Island for more supplies he sailed eastwards through Backstairs Passage into Encounter Bay where he met a French ship under command of Nicolas Baudin on 8 April. Baudin named many bays and other landmarks, including Guichen Bay.
They went via Timor where they got some fresh supplies before continuing their trip. With the Cumberland rapidly deteriorating, Flinders was forced to call in at Mauritius (Ile de France) for repairs, unaware that Britain and France were at war. He was interned by the French authorities and kept a prisoner for six and a half years. As time went on Flinders was moved from goal and confined to the private residence of Madame D'Arifat and her daughter Delphine. He was finally released from his imprisonment in June 1810 and arrived back in England in October.
In very poor health and with little assistance from the government and even less pay he started to write his massive narrative, A Voyage to Terra Australis. In April 1812 Matthew and Ann had a daughter, Anne. She would never remember her father. Flinders' health continued to decline and he died on 19 July 1814, the day after the publication of his books and maps. He was buried at St James, Hampstead.
1728 - 1779
Today it is hard to realise the dreadful hardships
in the Royal Navy and the Merchant Service which continued well into the 19th
century. Filth and the resultant infections, and scurvy were responsible for
more deaths among sailors than the worst enemy actions or shipwrecks. Cook
insisted on cleanliness aboard and ensured that his men had plenty of fresh
water and proper nourishment - he punished those who did not eat sensibly.
To fight scurvy he had special foods prepared among them a sauerkraut of washed
greens preserved between layers of rock salt. In 1938 a cake of Cook's "portable
soup" was analysed. It was a dried broth made from meat and bones and
looking like a hard glue. It was still fresh after 160 years. Yet despite
such precautions there was still a fearful loss of life during the voyages.
Cook conducted three major voyages into the
Pacific - but it was the first one from 1768 to 1771 that had most significance
for Australia. On April 3, 1768, the Earl of Pembroke, an ungainly-looking
North Sea coal carrier, was put into dry dock in a choice slip at the English
Naval shipyard of Deptford, on the Thames River near London. Stout and heavy-timbered,
with a bluff bow and a narrow stern, the new arrival appeared distinctly out
of place amid the rows of sleek frigates and towering ships of the line being
repaired and refitted for duty. A few Deptford officers brusquely questioned
whether the bark-rigged vessel was even mustered in the Royal Navy. For what
conceivable purpose could the Admiralty require the services of a grimy workboat?
In fact, the humble collier was intended for a singularly adventurous role.
She would carry a hand-picked group of naval officers and scientists to the
farthest reaches of the Pacific to conduct vital astronomical studies and
to make yet another search for the continent identified on the maps as Terra
Australis Incognita. A collier had been selected because it could hold the
large quantities of supplies and scientific equipment the voyagers would require,
and also because it was flat-bottomed and was able to take the punishment
of an accidental grounding.
As captain of the Endeavour, Cook would sight
and survey hundreds of landfalls that no Westerner had ever laid eyes on.
And though the Endeavour would never fire her guns at another ship in battle,
Cook's epochal voyage aboard the converted collier was destined to bring under
George III's sovereignty more land and wealth than any single naval victory
of the powerful British fleet. But the most important prize of the voyages
that Cook would make was measured not in territory but in knowledge. Patient
and methodical where his predecessors had been hasty and disorganised, he
would sweep away myths and illusions on a prodigious scale, and in the end
would give to the world a long-sought treasure: a comprehensive map of the
Pacific.
"Having received
my commission, which was dated the 25th of May, 1768, I went on board on the
27th, hoisted the pennant, and took charge of the ship, which then lay in
the basin in Deptford-yard. She was fitted for sea with all expedition; and
stores and provisions being taken on board, sailed down the river on the 30th
of July, and on the 13th of August anchored in Plymouth Sound. While we lay
here waiting for a wind, the articles of war and the act of Parliament were
read to the ship's company, who were paid two months' wages in advance, and
told that they were to expect no additional pay for the performance of the
voyage". - CAPTAIN JAMES COOK
So
began the first voyage. "Endeavour" sailed via Madiera, Rio de Janero,
Cape Horn and Tahiti reaching Poverty Bay in New Zealand on 7th October 1769.
Until the 31st March 1770 Cook explored the New Zealand coastline by circumnavigating
- thereby showing New Zealand was not a continent and that it consisted of
two islands. On the 28th April "Endeavour" arrived in Botany Bay
where the explorers did not receive a warm welcome. After only a few days
Cook sailed up the East Australian coast - and on the 12 June disaster struck
at Cape Tribulation when the ship ran aground and was holed on the Great Barrier
Reef at night. In the following weeks at the Endeavour River, the Endeavour
is unloaded of 50 tons of guns, ammunition, ballast, old food, even fresh
water and wood. They pump madly then manage to mend the hole by making a plug
from a sail sewn with wool and oakum and spread with sheep dung. From the
4th August until the 11th October the crew have to pump the partially repaired
vessel as they work their way to Batavia - visiting Timor and other islands
en route. Cook thus proved the existence of the Torres Straight - which the
Spanish had kept secret.
It took until the 15th November to complete
effective repairs in difficult circumstances - malaria struck both the crew
and the repair workers. By the time repairs were completed there were only
12 able bodied crew available - 30 have died and others are too sick to work.
Finally after reloading and taking on 19 new crew Cook sails from Batavia
on the 26th December.
By the time Capetown is reached on the 15th
March a further 29 men have died. Another two are to die before reaching England.
On the 29th April the circumnavigation is complete when "Endeavour"
crosses the Greenwich meridian and on the 12th July 1771 Cook anchors in England.
Just under a year later Cook as captain of "Resolution"(462
ton) in company with "Adventure" (340 ton) captained by Tobias Furneaux
left England on his second major Pacific exploration.
He explored the Antarctic regions, charted and studied Easter Island,
the Marquesas and the Friendly Islands. He recrosses the Antarctic Circle
from Australia to Tierra del Fuego.
The main aim of Cook's third voyage, begun in
1776, was to establish whether a northern passage existed between the Pacific
and Atlantic oceans. Cook again captained the "Resolution" and this
time he was accompanied by the "Discovery" (300 tons) under command
of Captain Clerke who had been a second lieutenant on the former voyage. Cook
discovered the Hawaiian Islands, and surveyed the Alaskan coast up to the
Bering Straights. Returning to Hawaii in 1979 Cook was killed at the hands
of the natives who wanted to prevent him holding a chief as hostage against
the return of a stolen boat.
FERDINAND MAGELLAN
1480 - 1521
In 1517 he offered his services to the king of Spain, Charles I (later Holy Roman Emperor Charles V). With his good salesmanship skills, Magellan convinced Charles to fund the expedition to find a westward route to the Moluccas. If Magellan could reach the Moluccas from the West, Spain's wealth would surpass all other countries. On September 20,1519 Magellan started his great journey to the Moluccas from Sanlucar de Barrameda with five ships. In November of that year he reached South America. In February 1520 he explored the Rio de la Plata estuary, and on March 31, 1520 his fleet put in to port at San Julian. His fleet remained there for six months because of disease and complications. One ship was wrecked causing a mutiny. After the mutiny had been settled, Magellan sailed the passage to the Pacific Ocean named after him, the Strait of Magellan, losing another ship by desertion, en route. After 38 days and traveling 330 miles, on November 28, 1520, his three great ships sailed into the ocean, which Magellan named "Pacific" because it was so calm.
Although Magellan did not live to make the journey home he did circumnavigate the globe by passing the easternmost point he had visited on an earlier voyage. The cargo of spices brought back to Spain on the Victoria alone paid for the expenses of the Expedition. The passage through the Strait of Magellan was too long and difficult to be a practical trade route from Europe to the Moluccas, however, and Spain sold her interests there to Portugal. The voyage laid a foundation for trade in the Pacific between the New World and the East. Though Spain did not recognize the importance of the Philippines immediately, before the end of the century, Manila became the greatest Spanish trading center in the East. Ferdinand Magellan proved to the world and all those who rejected his ideas that one could circumnavigate the world. His discoveries and passages opened new doors to a larger world. He will always be remembered as the first man who sailed around the world.
1570 - 1630
Willem Janszoon was a dutch navigator and colonial governor & the first European known to have seen the coast of Australia. His name sometimes appears as Willem Jansz. Willem Janszoon was most probably born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Little is known of Willem Janszoon's early life. He is first recorded as entering into the service of the Oude compagnie, one of the predecessors of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), as a mate aboard the Hollandia, part of the second fleet dispatched by the Dutch to the Dutch East Indies in 1598. He again sailed from the Netherlands for the East Indies in December 1603 as captain of the Duyfken (or Duijfken, meaning "Little Dove"), part of a fleet of twelve ships. Once in the Indies, Willem Janszoon was sent to search out other outlets for trade, particularly in "the great land of Nova Guinea and other East and Southlands."
Finding the land swampy and the people inhospitable (ten of his men were killed on various shore expeditions), at Cape Keerweer ("Turnabout"), south of Albatross Bay, Willem Janszoon headed home and arrived back at Bantam in June 1606. He called the land he had discovered "Nieu Zelandt" after the Dutch province of Zealand but this name was not adopted, and was later used by Abel Tasman to name New Zealand.
Willem Janszoon served in the Netherlands East Indies for several periods (1603-11, 1612-16, including a period as governor of Fort Henricus on Solor, and 1618-28, during which time was served as admiral of the Dutch fleet and as governor of Banda 1623-27). Willem Janszoon was awarded a Chain of Honour in 1619 for his part in capturing four ships of the British East India Company which had aided the Javanese in their defence of the town of Jakarta against the Dutch. He returned to Batavia in June 1627 and soon afterwards, as admiral of a fleet of eight vessels, went on a diplomatic mission to India. In December 1628 he sailed for Holland and on 16 July 1629 reported on the state of the Indies at The Hague. He was probably now about 60 years of age and willing to retire from his strenuous and successful life in the service of his country. Nothing is known of his last days.
