Hartog Plate or Dirk Hartog's Plate is either of two plates, although primarily the first, which were left on Dirk Hartog Island during a period of European exploration of the western coast of Australia prior to European settlement there. The first plate, left by Dutch explorer Dirk Hartog, is the oldest-known artifact of European exploration in Australia still in existence and is therefore evidence of the first confirmed visit by Europeans.
The subsequent discoveries, comprising three additional visits spanning 200 years, are remarkable considering the extreme isolation of the region.
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Dirk Hartog, 1616
Dirk Hartog was the first confirmed European to sight Western Australia, reaching it in his ship, the Eendracht. On 26 October 1616, he landed at Cape Inscription on the very northernmost tip of the island. Before departing, Hartog left behind a flattened pewter dinner plate, nailed to an oak post and placed upright in a fissure on the cliff top.
The plate bears the inscription:
1616 / DEN 25 OCTOBER IS / HIER AEN GECOMEN HET SCHIP / DEENDRAGHT VAN AMSTERDAM / DE OPPERKOPMAN GILLIS MIBAIS / VAN LVIK SCHIPPER DIRCK HATICHS / VAN AMSTERDAM DE 27 DITO / TE SEIL GEGHM NA BANTVM / DE ONDERKOPMAN JAN STINS / DE OPPERSTVIERMAN PIETER DOOKES / VAN BIL ANNO 1616
The English translation reads:
1616. On the 25th October the ship Eendracht of Amsterdam arrived here. Upper merchant Gilles Miebais of Luick (Liege); skipper Dirck Hatichs (Dirk Hartog) of Amsterdam. On the 27th ditto we sail for Bantum. Under merchant Jan Stins; upper steerman Pieter Doores of Bil (Brielle). In the year 1616.
Willem de Vlamingh, 1697
81 years later, in 1697, the Dutch sea captain Willem de Vlamingh also reached the island and discovered Hartog's pewter plate with the post almost rotted away. He removed it and replaced it with another plate which was attached to a new post. The new post was made of a cypress pine trunk taken from Rottnest Island.[1] The original plate was returned to the Netherlands, where it is still kept in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. De Vlamingh's replacement plate contains all of the text of Hartog's original plate as well as listing the senior crew of his own voyage. It concludes with:
1697 DEN 4 FEBREVARY IS HIER AEN GEKOMEN HETSCHIP / DE GEELVINCK VOOR AMSTERDAM DEN COMANDER ENT SCHIP / PER WILLEM DE VLAMINGH VAN VLIELANDT ADSISTENT JOAN / NES BREMER VAN COPPENHAGEN OPPERSTVIERMAN MICHIL / BLOEM VANT STICHT BREMEN DE HOECKER DE NYPTANGH / SCHIPPER GERRIT COLAART VAN AMSTERDAM ADSIST THEO / DORIS HEIRMANS VAN DITO OPPERSTIERMAN GER / RIT GERITSEN VAN BREMEN TE GALJOOT HET / WEESELTIE GESAGH HEBBER CORNELIS DE VLAMINGH / VAN VLIELANDT STVIERMAN COERT GERRITSEN / VAN BREMEN EN VAN HIER GEZEYLT MET ONSE / VLOT DEN VOORTSHET ZVYDLANDT / VERDER TE ONDERSOECKEN ENGE DIS / TINEERT VOOR BATAVIA / #12 VOC
The English translation reads:
1697 The 4th February is here arrived the ship The Geelvinck for Amsterdam. The Commodore and Skipper William De Vlamingh of Vlielandt, Assistant Joannes Bremer of Copenhagen Upper Steersman Michil Bloem of The Bishopric of Bremen The Hooker The Nyptangh Skipper Gerrit Colaart of Amsterdam Assit Theodoris Heirmans Ditto Upper Steersman Gerrit Geritson of Bremen The Galliot The Weeseltie Commander Cornelis De Vlamingh of Vlielandt Steerman Coert Gerritsen of Bremen Sailed from Here with our fleet the also The Southland Further to Explore and Bound for Batavia.
Emmanuel Hamelin, 1801
In 1801, the French captain of the Naturaliste Jacques Félix Emmanuel Hamelin, second in command of an expedition led by Nicolas Baudin in the Geographe entered Shark Bay and sent a party ashore. The party found Vlamingh's plate, even though it was half buried in the sand as the post had rotted away with the ravages of the weather. When they took the plate to the ship, Hamelin ordered it to be returned, believing its removal would be tantamount to sacrilege. He also had a plate, or similar, of his own prepared and inscribed with details of his voyage and he had both erected at the deVlamingh site. It was then named Cape Inscription.
Louis de Freycinet, 1818
In 1818 in the Uranie, French explorer Louis de Freycinet, who had been an officer in Hamelin's 1801 crew, sent a boat ashore to recover de Vlamingh's plate. His wife Rose deFreycinet, who was on board, having stowed away with her husband's assistance, recorded the event in what was in effect a diary of her circumnavigation. After being shipwrecked in the Falkland Islands the plate and other materials from the Uranie voyage were later transferred to another ship it and taken to France, where it was presented to the Académie française in Paris.
After being lost for more than a century, the plate was rediscovered in 1940 on the bottom shelf of a small room, mixed up with old copper engraving plates. In recognition of Australian losses in the defence of France during the two world wars, the plate was eventually returned to Australia in 1947 and is currently housed in the Western Australian Maritime Museum in Fremantle, Western Australia.
Cape Inscription Lighthouse plaques
Marking the location in 1938, the Commonwealth government commemorated Dirk Hartog's landing with a brass plaque.
Just short of 60 years later, on 12 February 1997, the then Premier of Western Australia Richard Court unveiled a bronze plaque to mark the tricentennial of Vlamingh's visit.[2]
The lighthouse and plaques are located at 25°28′55″S 112°58′19″E / 25.48194°S 112.97194°E.
See also
Notes
- ^ "Dirck Hartogh and his discovery of Western Australia". Perth, Western Australia: VOC Historical Society. http://www.voc.iinet.net.au/hartog.htm. Retrieved 12 November 2006.
- ^ Playford 1998 p.60
References
- "Early European History". History. Dirk Hartog Island. http://www.dirkhartogisland.com/history.htm. Retrieved 29 July 2006.
- Favenc, Ernest (1888). "Introduction – Part I". The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888. Project Gutenberg of Australia. http://gutenberg.net.au/ausexplore/ausexpl0-intro1.html. Retrieved 29 July 2006.
- Playford, Phillip E (1998). "A story of two plates". Voyage of discovery to Terra Australis : by Willem De Vlamingh in 1696–97. Perth, W.A.: Western Australian Museum. pp. 51–60. ISBN 0730712214. OCLC 39442497.
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