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Historic expedition led by Willem Barentsz nears 400th anniversary
Dutch explorer sought northerly route to the Indies
Tags: Dutch Exploration
The name of Dutch explorer Willem Barent
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Historic expedition led by Willem Barentsz nears 400th anniversary
Dutch explorer sought northerly route to the Indies
Tags: Dutch Exploration
The name of Dutch explorer Willem Barentsz has for centuries captured the imagination of countless Dutch children and adults. The stories about ship-crunching ice fields, the building of a cabin with salvaged wood from his ship, ‘the Jacob van Heemskerck,’ the strenuous fight for survival during the months-long winter night on Nova Zembla, the battle with hunger and disease, the building of two small boats when summer dawned and the dangerous journey in open boats on wind-swept seas can sound so adventurous and heroic when seated near a warm fireplace. It’s quite another thing to actually experience it out in the open as did Willem Barentsz. The Dutch explorer failed to return home again to the Frisian island of Terschelling, but the survivors of this heroic journey in 1596/7 did and lived to tell the story.
Now nearly four centuries ago, the search was on for a new sea traffic route to the Indies. Columbus who had enlisted with the Spanish king, set sail westward a century earlier and (re) discovered the Americas. In the following decades others had attempted to find a new route but all failed in this exercise.First expedition to high North Willem Barentsz was an accomplished sea captain when he was hired to explore the northern seas. Born about 1550, Barentsz until the 1590s usually sailed for Spain and the Mediterranean. In 1595, he and a contemporary named Plancius published a travel guide, complete with a selection of maps by Barentsz, about the Mediterranean. The book contains a remarkable introduction to the art of seamanship and cartography. It is not at all that surprising therefore that Willem Barentsz was selected to be the captain on one of the ships of the expedition.
The first expedition sailed from the island of Texel for the northern seas on June 5, 1594. They soon experienced their first disappointment when they were pushed back by floating ice fields. They regrouped at the Straight of Waigatz and found better conditions, although the ship journals still reported huge (hair raising!) ice fields and bergs. Satisfied with their discoveries for that season, they returned safely home to their senders (the Estates of Holland), who seemed to have been very pleased as well with the expedition’s reports.
Another attempt The following year, the States General 1) financed another expedition to the northern seas. Again, Cornelis Cornelisz. Nay of the city of Enkhuizen was appointed to take command of the expedition, while another famous explorer, namely Jan Huygens van Linschoten, accompanied him for the second time. The 1595 expedition was in trouble from the very beginning and achieved very little. Even the date of departure was late when they finally pulled up the anchors in July. They found themselves pushed back and squeezed by icefields in the Straight of Waigatz which had been relatively open the year before. Several men died during the expedition which experienced also great difficulties on the way home. Van Linschoten used his experiences to publish two more travel journals (printed by Gerard Ketel of Franeker).
When the previous sponsors reduced their involvement in outfitting expeditions, the City of Amsterdam decided to sponsor the third expedition which was undertaken in 1596 2). Barentsz was now appointed leader of the expedition, while Heemskerk and Rijp were commissioned as captains of the ships.
The ship set sail on May 15, the earliest date so far. They expeditiously reached an island which was subsequently named Spitsbergen, now Norwegian territory 3). Barentsz and Rijp got into arguments with one another and to each go their own way. Barentsz decided to sail eastward, while Rijp went further north. The latter soon run into ice fields again and decided to return home that season. The former pressed on and eventually reached the island of Nova Zembla of the Russian coast and encircled the island. Dutch history books teach readers that the ship 4) of Barentsz and his captain Heemskerk got caught, squeezed and crushed in the ice fields. The men had no other choice but to salvage the wood by constructing a cabin (which they very appropriately called ‘the safe home’ or ‘het Behouden Huys’) on the shore of Nova Zembla to provide shelter during the long winter season. Even the construction took place while the men suffered greatly from exposure in the extreme harsh weather conditions. While they had made themselves decent shelter, they were, as we will discover, ill-equipped f