Hoorn (Le Maire)
Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 9:59 pm
In 1614 Joris van Spielbergen had departed from the Netherlands with a fleet of six VOC ships to sail through the Strait of Magellan into Spanish waters. That same year, convinced a southwest passage to the Pacific awaited discovery, Le Maire persuaded the States General to issue a decree giving citizens who found new passages to the South Seas trading rights hitherto denied to them. He meticulously and skilfully planned an expedition and enlisted the assistance of Willem Corneliszoon Schouten, a master mariner who had journeyed thrice to the East Indies and who also believed in the likelihood of a new passage.
The people of northern Holland, who resented the dominance of the Amsterdam faction within the VOC, supported the new venture. Citizens of Hoorn, Schouten's home town, helped to finance the purchase of two ships, the 220-ton Eendracht (Unity) and the 110-ton Hoorn. Le Maire appointed his son Jacob, the eldest of twenty-two children, to lead the voyage of discovery. Schouten became chief navigator and skipper of the Eendracht.
The citizens of Hoorn gave the ships a civic farewell, and the explorers cleared the harbour at Texel on 14 June 1615. The crews were sparse - only sixty-five and twenty-two, respectively - in keeping with a voyage of exploration rather than war and plunder. The destination of Le Maire's voyage was kept secret from the crew until they had been at sea for more than four months, a fairly common precaution on voyages of the time.
On December 7 the ships reached Port Desire on the Atlantic coast of South America, a favourite shelter for careening vessels because of the tidal range. Unfortunately, while crew members were cleaning and burning weed from the Hoorn, she caught fire and was lost.
For further information about the voyage and additional reference sources see the article on the Eendracht (Jacob le Maire)
http://findingnz.co.nz/as/gas1_le_maire.htm
Tonga SG897
The people of northern Holland, who resented the dominance of the Amsterdam faction within the VOC, supported the new venture. Citizens of Hoorn, Schouten's home town, helped to finance the purchase of two ships, the 220-ton Eendracht (Unity) and the 110-ton Hoorn. Le Maire appointed his son Jacob, the eldest of twenty-two children, to lead the voyage of discovery. Schouten became chief navigator and skipper of the Eendracht.
The citizens of Hoorn gave the ships a civic farewell, and the explorers cleared the harbour at Texel on 14 June 1615. The crews were sparse - only sixty-five and twenty-two, respectively - in keeping with a voyage of exploration rather than war and plunder. The destination of Le Maire's voyage was kept secret from the crew until they had been at sea for more than four months, a fairly common precaution on voyages of the time.
On December 7 the ships reached Port Desire on the Atlantic coast of South America, a favourite shelter for careening vessels because of the tidal range. Unfortunately, while crew members were cleaning and burning weed from the Hoorn, she caught fire and was lost.
For further information about the voyage and additional reference sources see the article on the Eendracht (Jacob le Maire)
http://findingnz.co.nz/as/gas1_le_maire.htm
Tonga SG897