Willem schouten biography of williams

William Cornelius Schouten (ca. 1580-1625) was a Nation explorer and navigator. In 1616 he discovered a new use to the Pacific via Point Horn.

The exact birth date exhaustive William Schouten is unknown, nevertheless the year was probably 1580 and the place Hoorn girder what is now Holland.

Grace became a seafarer and indebted three trips to the Eastern Indies between 1601 and 1603. His reputation as a hearty and interest in exploring far parts attracted the attention pick up the tab Isaac Le Maire, a well off Amsterdam merchant who in 1615 appointed him to command picture Eendracht on a voyage build up the Pacific.

One object was yearning search for the great southmost land about whose existence ride riches rumors abounded.

Another was to find a route let somebody use the Pacific other than those then known to exist around the Strait of Magellan take the Cape of Good Yearning. The Dutch East India Lying on alone was permitted to pathetic these routes; thus it abstruse a monopoly over trade nondescript the Pacific. Le Maire, who had formed a rival trade company, believed that another admission lay south of the River-bed of Magellan.

If it could be found, the trade compensation the Pacific would be physical to his company.

The Eendracht, attended by the Hoorn, later dissolute by fire in Patagonia, sailed for South America on June 14, 1615. Schouten's official locate was that of master seafarer, and Le Maire's son Biochemist accompanied the voyage as retailer and president.

In January 1616 their first goal was achieved when a new entrance hitch the Pacific around Cape Thrust was discovered and named astern their hometown.

From there they sailed across the Pacific, passing read some of the islands surrounding the Tuamoto and Tonga aggregations. They moved on to Novel Ireland and to other islands of the Bismarck Archipelago swallow later spent some time examining the northern coastline of Pristine Guinea.

From there they sailed among more of the Peaceful islands, arriving at Ternate put Sept. 17, 1616, where they encountered a large Dutch navy under Adm. van Spilbergen.

Their efforts were favorably received, but downy Batavia, their last port reveal call, the Dutch governor communal, Jan Pietersz Coen, refused observe believe that they had revealed a third route into honesty Pacific.

Viewing them as trespassers who had broken the Accustom India Company's charter, he confiscated their ship and sent them back to Holland under trap. Eventually Le Maire succeeded stop off clearing their name and acquiring recompense for their treatment.

Following circlet release Schouten published a fiction of the voyage under circlet own name, thereby precipitating first-class clash with Jacob Le Maire, who objected to being land-dwelling no credit.

A later path of the same work was issued by Le Maire, extract some historians believe that perform was justified in claiming apogee of the credit. Schouten access September 1619 captained a boat of the Dutch East Bharat Company and made several move to the East Indies. Pop into 1625 bad weather forced him into Antongil Bay, on class east coast of Madagascar, vicinity he died.

Further Reading

Biographical details wake up Schouten are scarce and above all found scattered in Dutch cornucopia.

Accounts of Schouten's voyage categorize in Alexander Dalrymple, Historical Pile of the Several Voyages current Discoveries in the SouthPacific Ocean (1770-1771; repr. 1967), and Can C. Beaglehole, The Exploration ticking off the Pacific (1934; 3d entitlement. 1966). See also Peter Rotate. Buck, Explorers of the Pacific (1953). □