Editing Dirk Hartog (section)

== Life ==

Born into a seafaring family, he received his first ship's command at the age of 30 and spent several years engaged in successful trading ventures in the [[Baltic Sea|Baltic]] and [[Mediterranean]] seas.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | last = Playford | first = Phillip E. | editor = Christopher Cuneen | encyclopedia = Australian Dictionary of Biography | title = Hartog, Dirk (1580–1621) | url = http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hartog-dirk-12968 | access-date = 6 February 2014 | year = 2005 | publisher = Melbourne University Press | volume = Supplementary Volume 1580–1980 | location = Melbourne, Australia}}</ref>

In 1616, Hartog gained employment with the [[Dutch East India Company]] ({{langx|nl|Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie}}, commonly abbreviated to VOC), and was appointed master of the {{ship||Eendracht|1615 ship|2}} (meaning "Concord" or "Unity"), in a fleet voyaging from the [[Netherlands]] to the [[Dutch East Indies]].

Hartog set sail in January 1616 in the company of several other VOC ships, but became separated from them in a storm, and arrived independently at the [[Cape of Good Hope]] (later to become the site of [[Cape Town]], [[South Africa]]). Hartog then set off across the [[Indian Ocean]] for [[Batavia, Dutch East Indies|Batavia]] (present-day [[Jakarta]]), utilising (or perhaps blown off course by) the strong westerly winds known as the "[[Roaring Forties]]" which had been noted earlier by the Dutch navigator [[Hendrik Brouwer]] as enabling a quicker route to [[Java (island)|Java]].

On 25 October 1616, at approximately 26° [[latitude]] south, Hartog and crew came unexpectedly upon "various islands, which were, however, found uninhabited."<ref> The Part Borne by the Dutch etc, can be found on Gutenberg, not sure which page but I'm sure you'll find it.       </ref> He made landfall at an island off the coast of [[Shark Bay]], [[Western Australia]], which is now called [[Dirk Hartog Island]] after him. His was the second recorded European expedition to land on the Australian continent, having been [[Janszoon voyage of 1605-6|preceded]] by [[Willem Janszoon]] in 1606, but the first to do so on the western coastline.<ref name=hartog/> [[File:Shark Bay.svg|thumb|right|Map of [[Shark Bay]] area showing [[Dirk Hartog Island]] and Cape Inscription]]

Hartog spent three days examining the coast and nearby islands. The area was named ''[[Eendrachtsland]]'' after his ship, although that name has not endured. Before Hartog left, he affixed a [[pewter]] plate to a post, now known as the [[Hartog plate]], on which he scratched a record of his visit to the island. Its inscription (translated from the original [[Dutch language|Dutch]]) read:

:''1616 On 25 October arrived the ship Eendracht, of Amsterdam: Supercargo Gilles Miebais of Liege, skipper Dirch Hatichs of Amsterdam. on 27 d[itt]o. she set sail again for [[Banten (town)|Bantam]]. Deputy supercargo Jan Stins, upper steersman Pieter Doores of Bil. In the year 1616.''<ref name=major/>

Finding nothing of interest, Hartog continued sailing northwards along this previously uncharted coastline of Western Australia, making [[nautical chart]]s up to about 22° latitude south. He then left the coast and continued on to Batavia, eventually arriving safely in December 1616, some five months after his expected arrival.

Dirk Hartog left the employ of the VOC upon his return to [[Amsterdam]] in 1618, resuming private trading ventures in the Baltic.