Dirck Hartog

Dirck Hartog (flourished 1616) was a Dutch merchant captain who made the first recorded exploration of the western coast of Australia.

Hartog set sail from Texel, a port near Amsterdam, as part of a Dutch East India Company flotilla in January 1616. Traveling around the Cape of Good Hope to Java, Hartog sought to take advantage of the “roaring forties,” a region between latitudes 40° and 50° south where strong westerly winds prevailed. The route promised to reduce his travel time by several months, but the winds carried Hartog too far east, and he sighted the western Australian coastline near Shark Bay.

Hartog landed (October 1616) and spent three days exploring a desolate offshore island that came to bear his name. To mark his landing, he left a flattened pewter plate, inscribed with the details of the visit, and nailed it on a post on the northern end of the island, now called Cape Inscription. This vestige of his visit served as a method of communication with later navigators. Indeed, in 1696 another Dutch explorer, Willem de Vlamingh, landed on Dirk Hartog Island, found Hartog’s plate, replaced it with a newly inscribed dish, and sent the original to Amsterdam, where it can now be seen in the Rijksmuseum. Hartog continued northward, charting the coast as far as North West Cape before resuming his journey to Jayakerta (now Jakarta).

Britannica Quiz

Exploration and Discovery

Until the 19th century the coast of Australia parallel to Dirk Hartog Island was called Eendrachtsland in honour of the explorer’s ship, Eendracht.