Jacob Le Maire (c. 1585,
Antwerp||-||-||-||}Antwerp is a city and municipality in Belgium and the capital of the Antwerp province in Flanders, one of Belgium's three regions. Antwerp's total population is 472,071 and its total area is , giving a population density of 2,308 inhabitants per km²...
or
AmsterdamAmsterdam is the capital and largest city of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country...
- December 22 1616, at sea) was a
DutchThe Republic of the Seven United Netherlands was a European republic between 1581 and 1795, in about the same location as the modern Kingdom of the Netherlands,...
mariner, who circumnavigated the earth in 1615-16. The strait between
Tierra del FuegoTierra del Fuego or TF is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The southern point of the archipelago forms Cape Horn.- History :...
and Isla de los Estados was named the
Le Maire StraitThe Le Maire Strait is a sea passage between Isla de los Estados and the eastern extremity of the Argentine portion of Tierra del Fuego....
in his honor, however, not without controversy. It was Le Maire himself who proposed to the council aboard
Eendracht that the new passage should be called by his name and the council unanimously agreed with Le Maire.
Jacob Le Maire (c. 1585,
Antwerp||-||-||-||}Antwerp is a city and municipality in Belgium and the capital of the Antwerp province in Flanders, one of Belgium's three regions. Antwerp's total population is 472,071 and its total area is , giving a population density of 2,308 inhabitants per km²...
or
AmsterdamAmsterdam is the capital and largest city of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country...
- December 22 1616, at sea) was a
DutchThe Republic of the Seven United Netherlands was a European republic between 1581 and 1795, in about the same location as the modern Kingdom of the Netherlands,...
mariner, who circumnavigated the earth in 1615-16. The strait between
Tierra del FuegoTierra del Fuego or TF is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The southern point of the archipelago forms Cape Horn.- History :...
and Isla de los Estados was named the
Le Maire StraitThe Le Maire Strait is a sea passage between Isla de los Estados and the eastern extremity of the Argentine portion of Tierra del Fuego....
in his honor, however, not without controversy. It was Le Maire himself who proposed to the council aboard
Eendracht that the new passage should be called by his name and the council unanimously agreed with Le Maire. The author or authors of
THE RELATION took
Eendracht captain Schouten’s side by proclaiming:
- “ ... our men had each of them three cups of wine in signe of ioy for our good hap ... [and the naming of] the Straights of Le Maire, although by good right it should rather have been called Willem Schouten Straight, after our Masters Name, by whose wise conduction and skill in sayling, the same was found.”.
Eendracht then rounded
Cape HornCape Horn island is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile....
, proving that
Tierra del FuegoTierra del Fuego or TF is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The southern point of the archipelago forms Cape Horn.- History :...
was not a continent.
Jacob Le Maire was one of 22 children of Maria Walraven of Antwerp and
Isaac Le MaireIsaac le Maire was a merchant for the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC, and later for the Australian Company. He has been known for his continuous fight with the VOC, which eventually led to the discovery of Cape Horn....
(1558-1624) of
TournaiTournai is a Walloon city and municipality of Belgium located 85 kilometres southwest of Brussels, on the river Scheldt, in the province of Hainaut....
, who was then already a prosperous merchant in Antwerp. Isaac and Maria married shortly before the Spanish siege of Antwerp in 1585 after which they fled to settle in
AmsterdamAmsterdam is the capital and largest city of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country...
. Jacob is thought to have been the oldest son, born perhaps the same year. Isaac was very successful in Amsterdam, and became one of the founders of the Dutch East Indies Company (VOC). However, in 1605 Isaac Le Maire was forced to leave the company after a dispute and for the next decade tried to break the company's monopoly on the trade to the East Indies.
By 1615 Isaac had established a new company (the
Australian Company) with the goal to find a new route to the Pacific and the Spice Islands, thereby evading the restrictions of the VOC. He contributed to the outfitting two ships, the
Eendracht and
Hoorn, and put his son Jacob in charge of trading during the expedition. The experienced ship master
Willem SchoutenWillem Cornelisz Schouten was a Dutch navigator for the Dutch East India Company.- Biography :Willem Cornelisz Schouten was born in c...
was captain of the
Eendracht and a participant of the enterprise in equal shares with Isaac Le Maire.
On June 14 1615 Jacob le Maire and Willem Schouten sailed from
TexelTexel is a municipality and an island in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is the biggest and most populated of the Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea, and also the westernmost of this archipelago, which extends to Denmark...
in the
United ProvincesThe Republic of the Seven United Netherlands was a European republic between 1581 and 1795, in about the same location as the modern Kingdom of the Netherlands,...
. On January 29 1616 they rounded
Cape HornCape Horn island is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile....
, which they named for the
Hoorn, which was lost in a fire. The Dutch city of
HoornHoorn is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of Noord Holland. It is located on the IJsselmeer, 35 kilometres north of Amsterdam, and acquired city rights in 1357. Hoorn has 68,152 inhabitants...
was also the birthplace of Schouten. After failing to moor at the
Juan Fernández IslandsThe Juan Fernández Islands is a sparsely inhabited island group reliant on tourism and fishing in the South Pacific Ocean, situated about off the coast of Chile, and is composed of several volcanic islands:...
in early March, the ships crossed the Pacific in a fairly straight line, visiting several of the
TuamotusThe Tuamotus or the Tuamotu Archipelago are a chain of atolls in French Polynesia and the largest chain of atolls in the world, spanning an area of the Pacific Ocean roughly the size of Western Europe.- Administrative divisions :The communes on the Tuamotus are: Anaa, Arutua, Fakarava, Fangatau,...
. Between April 21 and 24 1616 they were the first Westerners to visit the (Northern)
TongaTonga , officially the Kingdom of Tonga , an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, comprises 169 islands, 36 of which are inhabited, and stretches over a distance of about 800 kilometres in a north-south line...
islands: "Cocos Island" (
TafahiTafahi is a small island in the north of the Tonga archipelago, in fact closer to Savaii than the main islands of Tonga. It is only north-northeast away from Niuatoputapu, and fishermen communicate in small outboard motorboats almost daily between the two.Older names for Tafahi are Cocos Eylant ...
), "Traitors Island" (
NiuatoputapuFor the 2009 tsunami, see the main article: 2009 Samoa tsunami.Niuatoputapu is an island in the island nation of Tonga, Pacific Ocean. Its name means sacred island. Older names for the island are Traitors island or Keppel island....
), and "Island of Good Hope" (
Niuafo'ouNiuafoou is the most northerly island in the kingdom of Tonga. It is a volcanic rim island of 15 km² and with a population of 650 in 2006. The island is located in the southern Pacific Ocean between Fiji and Samoa, 574 km north of Tongatapu island group and 337 kilometers northwest of...
). On April 28 they discovered the
Hoorn IslandsThe Hoorn Islands are one of the two island groups of which the French overseas collectivity of Wallis and Futuna is geographically composed. The aggregate area is 115 km², and the population 4873 .Geographically, there are two islands:*Futuna Island The Hoorn Islands (also Futuna Islands) are...
(Futuna and
AlofiAlofi is the capital city of the Pacific Ocean nation of Niue. It has a population of 581 . It consists of the two villages Alofi North and Alofi South, where the government headquarters are located. ....
), where they were very well received and staid until May 12. They then followed the north coasts of
New IrelandNew Ireland is a large island in Papua New Guinea, approximately 8,650 km² in area. It is the main and largest island of the New Ireland Province. It lies northeast of the island of New Britain. Both islands are a part of the Bismarck Archipelago, named for Otto von Bismarck, and they are...
and
New GuineaNew Guinea, located north of Australia, is the world's second largest island. It became separated from the Australian mainland when the area now known as the Torres Strait flooded after the last glacial period. The name Papua has long been associated with the island...
and visited adjacent islands, including what became known as the
Schouten IslandsThe Schouten Islands are an island group of eastern Indonesia in the Cenderawasih Bay off the northern coast of New Guinea. The group consists of larger islands Biak, Supiori and Numfor, and numerous smaller islands...
on July 24.
They reached the Northern Moluccas in August and finally
TernateTernate is an island and town in the Maluku Islands of eastern Indonesia, located off the west coast of the larger island of Halmahera, the center of the powerful former Sultanate of Ternate. Like its neighbouring island, Tidore, Ternate is a visually dramatic cone-shaped island. The islands are...
, the head quarters of the VOC, on September 12, 1616. Here they were enthusiastically welcomed by
Governor-GeneralThe Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies represented the Dutch rule in the Dutch East Indies between 1610 and Dutch recognition of the independence of Indonesia in 1949.The first Governors-General were appointed by the Dutch East India Company...
Laurens ReaelDr. Laurens Reael was an employee of the VOC, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies in 1616-1617 and an admiral of the Dutch navy from 1625-27.-Early life:...
, admiral Steven Verhagen, and the governor of Ambon, Jasper Jansz.
The
Eendracht sailed on to Java and reached
JacatraJakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. It also has a greater population than any other city in Southeast Asia. It was formerly known as Sunda Kelapa , Jayakarta , Batavia , and Djakarta . Located on the northwest coast of Java, it has an area of and a population of 8,489,910...
on October 28 with a remarkable 84 of the original 87-crew members of both ships on board.
Although they had opened an unknown route, Jan Pietersz Coen of the VOC claimed infringement of its monopoly of trade to the Spice Islands. Le Maire and Schouten were arrested and the
Eendracht was confiscated. After being released, they returned from Jacatra to Amsterdam in the company of
Joris van SpilbergenJoris van Spilbergen was a Dutch naval officer of the 17th century.His first major expedition was in 1596, when he sailed to Africa....
, who was on a circumnavigation of the earth himself, be it via the traditional
Strait of MagellanThe Strait of Magellan comprises a navigable sea route immediately south of mainland Chile and north of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego...
.
Le Maire was aboard the ship
Amsterdam on this journey home, but died en route. Van Spilbergen was at his dying bed and took Le Maire's report of his trip and included it in his book "Mirror of the East and West Indies". Jacob's father Isaac challenged the confiscation and the conclusion of the VOC, but it took him until 1622 until a court ruled in his favor. He was awarded 64,000 pounds, could retrieve his son's diaries (which he then published as well), and his company was allowed trade via the newly discovered route. Unfortunately, by then, the Dutch West Indies Company had claimed the same waters.
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