Category Abel Tasman

The Dutch Armoury

Tasman’s written instructions explicitly described the danger involved in engaging with natives.

“In landing with small craft extreme caution will everywhere have to be used, seeing that it is well-known that the southern regions are peopled by fierce savages, for which reason you will always have to be well armed and to use every prudent precaution, since experience has taught in all parts of the world that barbarian men are nowise to be trusted, because they commonly think that the foreigners who so unexpectedly appear before them, have come only to seize their land “

The VOC wanted Tasman to establish amicable relations with anyone they met, so that they could be engaged in trade, but they did not leave Tasman unprepared for trouble.

Cannon on the VOC ...

On the Morning of December 19th 1642, Abel Tasman and the Ngati Tumatakokiri had their first close look at each other.

The events of that day are recorded in Tasman’s journal, the Sailors Journal and the Surgeon-barbers account.

We also have this remarkable drawing by Isaac Gilsemans.

Gilsemans’ drawing of the events of December 19th

It is captioned “A view of the Moordenaers Bay, as you are at anchor there in 15 fathom”, and is a collage of six independent illustrations that each depicts a different part of the day.

The legend at the upper right describes the individual parts of the drawing as below:

A. Our ships.
B. The prows which came alongside of us.
C...

Tasman’s position at anchor on December 18th

Below is Tasman’s journal entry relating to the events of the afternoon and evening of December 18th, 1642.

The original spelling and punctuation are retained, but paragraph breaks have been inserted for ease of reading.

Visscher’s chart of New Zealand up to December 18th

On the morning of December 18th Tasman’s ships sat at anchor near the end of Farewell Spit, on the ocean side. The previous morning they had been 7km to the North of Cape Farewell, and in the day between they had travelled just 27 km.

They had surveyed the end of the sandspit and knew they could enter safely into what appeared to be an excellent harbour; there was shelter from all but a south-east wind.

They could also see valleys that would hold good rivers, and tree covered hills; they should have no difficulty in securing good water and firewood there.

Tasman convened the Ships’ Council, and they determined “that we should try to get ashore here and find a good harbour; and that as we neared it we should send out the pinnace ...

Gilsemans’s coastal survey of ‘Steijle Hoek’ and the land to its North and South

From their anchorage at Nine Mile Beach, Tasman had moved out to sea at the first opportunity, and then headed North.

They spent the rest of the day and night moving across the Karamea Bight, towards “Steijle Hoek (Sharp Point) where the line of the Coast turns from North-South to Southwest-Northeast.

The weather was calm and they drifted very slowly, but by evening they had rounded the point. Beyond there the prospect changed and at sunset the farthest land they could then see was away to their East and slightly North.

“we found the furthest point of the land that we could see to bear from us east by north, the land falling off so abruptly there that we did not doubt that this was the farthest extremi...

The map of New Zealand in the copy of Tasman’s journal held at the National Archive, the Hague.Click to open left page at source Click to open right page at source

In 1898 Professor Heeres from The Dutch Colonial Institute, Delft wrote this in the Introduction of a remarkable volume of work.

“For some years past numerous applications, in the first place from Australia, have been made to us for documents and works relating to Tasman and his discoveries. In the course of the investigations required on our part in order to comply with the wishes of such applicants, we soon became convinced that all existing works on the subject are either unreliable or sadly incomplete.”

What follows in his book is an extraordinarily scholarly examination of the authoritative and extant documents rel...

On the morning of December 15th their most urgent task was to get further out to sea.

Tasman’s progress from anchor to the south of Clyppige Hoek, to near Steijle Hoek.

Tasman had not called the Cape “Clyppige Hoek” (Rocky Point) because it consisted of rolling dunes. It is a tangle of reefs, shallows, rocks, and pinnacles.

They were in a dangerous position.

From their location at anchor, the rocks on Clyppige Hoek formed an obstacle to their North, and to the South were cliffs right back to Punakaiki. This was a lee shore, with a south-westerly current and a prevailing south-westerly wind. They needed to move further out to sea to give themselves room to manoeuvre and options should the conditions change.

With the first breeze of the day they made their way out to open sea, a...

Tasmans progress to his arrival in New Zealand

As Tasman and his ships crossed the sea now named after him, he saw a large high land, and turned to it straight away. He fired a cannon to alert the Zeehaen to his change in course.

It was a momentous occasion.

1628 Map of the World (click to enlarge)

The land they had already discovered, “Anthony van Diemens Landt”, wasn’t unexpected; the Dutch already knew about Australia. The VOC already knew of over half of its coastline; to the North, West and South, only the eastern limits were unknown.

From Van Diemens Landt they sailed directly East, now in completely unknown waters; they were beyond all the extremities marked on their charts.

This English map from 1628 shows “The Southern Unknown Land” as a vague line bearing the inscri...

Citation “Shipwrecks at Hokitika River mouth, West Coast. Greymouth Evening Star : Photographs of the West Coast. Ref: 1/2-050050-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/22517348”

In January 1642, whilst the voyage was still being planned, Visscher had written to Head Office in Amsterdam making recommendations on the timing, and the course of the expedition.

His recommendation was that they should explore in an easterly direction. But their understanding of the winds at that latitude gave cause for concern.

“so that with the wind blowing hard from the west, which would make the coast there a lee shore, one would be exposed to many perils.”

Their experience and their expectation was that westerly gales were normal in this latitude an...

Abel Tasman’s actual vs estimated position on Dec 13th 1642.

On December 13th 1642, Abel Tasman was nowhere near where he thought he was.

While Tasman’s Latitude was correct, his longitude estimation between Tasmania and New Zealand was wrong by over a degree.

In his journal entry for 14th December Tasman wrote something that exposed this error.

He described being so close to the coast that he could see the surf breaking, yet according to his longitude estimate he was still 150 km from the nearest land.

At noon on 14th of December Tasman also put this in his journal; “At noon Latitude observed 42° 10′, Longitude 189°3′; course kept east, sailed 12 myles. We were about 2 myles off the coast.” (a Dutch ‘myle’ is one fifteenth of a degree of latitude, or 7.4km).

This allows ...