This special issue of the Maritime Heritage Association Journal (October 2022) marks 400 years since the Dutch East India Company (VOC) yacht Leeuwin made the first recorded European landfall on the south-west corner and southern coast of Australia in March 1622. Her journal has been lost, so little has been known about the voyage. It gave its name to Cape Leeuwin and to the “Land of the Leeuwin” on early Dutch charts.
In “Leeuwin 1622”, marine artist and maritime historian Ross Shardlow AM draws on Dutch archival research and Hessel Gerritsz’s 1627 chart to piece together the ship’s story. He argues that she was a purpose-built advice yacht on a deliberate voyage of discovery, not a ship blown off course. He retraces her likely track from near Walpole around the south-west to the Cape Freycinet and Cowaramup Point area. In “Skipper of the Leeuwin No Longer a Mystery”, historian and anthropologist Dr Nonja Peters turns to the diary of VOC director Arnoldus Buchelius and the Batavia council records. She finds evidence naming the ship’s skipper on the outbound voyage as Jan Franssen of Hoorn.
The two authors reach different conclusions about who the skipper was. Shardlow’s article also includes a detailed account of the Leeuwin’s five voyages and of later Dutch exploration of the Australian coast, making this a good read for anyone interested in the region’s early European contact.Note: The inclusion of this document in our digital archive is for reference and research purposes only, and the Margaret River & District Historical Society does not necessarily endorse all content, viewpoints, or specific conclusions presented within it.