Dirk Hartog (Dutch:[ˈdɪr(ə)kˈɦɑrtɔx]; baptised 30 October 1580 – buried 11 October 1621) was a 17th-centuryDutch sailor andexplorer. Dirk Hartog's expedition was the secondEuropean group to land inAustralia and the first to leave behind an artifact to record his visit, theHartog Plate. His name is sometimes alternatively spelledDirck Hartog orDierick Hartochsz.Ernest Giles referred to him asTheodoric Hartog.[1] TheWestern Australian islandDirk Hartog Island is named after Hartog.
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 theBaltic andMediterranean seas.[2]
In 1616, Hartog gained employment with theDutch East India Company (Dutch:Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, commonly abbreviated to VOC), and was appointed master of theEendracht (meaning "Concord" or "Unity"), in a fleet voyaging from theNetherlands to theDutch 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 theCape of Good Hope (later to become the site ofCape Town,South Africa). Hartog then set off across theIndian Ocean forBatavia (present-dayJakarta), utilising (or perhaps blown off course by) the strong westerly winds known as the "Roaring Forties" which had been noted earlier by the Dutch navigatorHendrik Brouwer as enabling a quicker route toJava.
On 25 October 1616, at approximately 26°latitude south, Hartog and crew came unexpectedly upon "various islands, which were, however, found uninhabited."[3]He made landfall at an island off the coast ofShark Bay,Western Australia, which is now calledDirk Hartog Island after him. His was the second recorded European expedition to land on the Australian continent, having beenpreceded byWillem Janszoon in 1606, but the first to do so on the western coastline.[4]
Hartog spent three days examining the coast and nearby islands. The area was namedEendrachtsland after his ship, although that name has not endured. Before Hartog left, he affixed apewter plate to a post, now known as theHartog plate, on which he scratched a record of his visit to the island. Its inscription (translated from the originalDutch) read:
Finding nothing of interest, Hartog continued sailing northwards along this previously uncharted coastline of Western Australia, makingnautical charts 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 toAmsterdam in 1618, resuming private trading ventures in the Baltic.
In 1619Frederik de Houtman, in the VOC shipDordrecht, and Jacob d'Edel, in another VOC shipAmsterdam, sighted land on the Australian coast near present-dayPerth which they calledd'Edelsland. After sailing northwards along the coast they made landfall inEendrachtsland. In his journal, Houtman identified these coasts withMarco Polo's land of Beach, orLocach, as shown on maps of the time such as that ofPetrus Plancius andJan Huyghen van Linschoten.[6][7]
Eighty years later, on 4 February 1697, theDutch explorerWillem de Vlamingh landed on the island and by chance found the Hartog plate, which lay half-buried in sand. He replaced it with a new plate which reproduced Hartog's original inscription and added notes of his own, and took Hartog's original back toAmsterdam, where it is housed in theRijksmuseum.[4][5]
In 2000 the Hartog plate was temporarily returned to Australia as part of an exhibition at theAustralian National Maritime Museum in Sydney. This led to suggestions that the plate, considered important as the oldest-known written artefact from Australia's European history, should be acquired for an Australian museum, but the Dutch authorities have made it clear that the plate is not for sale.
In 1966 and 1985 Hartog was depicted on Australianpostage stamps, both depicting his ship.[8] In 2016 thePerth Mint issued a 1-troy-ounce (31 g) silver coin to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Hartog's Australian landfall.[9]
The island inShark Bay,Western Australia, where he made landfall was namedDirk Hartog Island. In Amsterdam,Canberra and fourteen other Australian towns, streets have been named in his honour.
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