Leeuwin (galleon)

"Leeuwin" ("Lioness", also spelt "Leeuwine" in some VOC documents) was a Dutch galleon that discovered and mapped some of the southwest corner of Australia in March 1622. In this way it became only the seventh European ship to sight the continent.cite web | url = http://www.voc.iinet.net.au/voyages.html | accessdate = 2008-01-30 | title = The exploration and mapping of the Australian coastline in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries | publisher = VOC Historical Society]

Unfortunately the "Leeuwin"'s logbook has been lost, so very little is known of the voyage. For example it is not known who captained the ship. However, Dutch East India Company (VOC) letters indicate that the voyage from Texel to Batavia took more than a year, whereas other vessels had made the same voyage in less than four months; this suggests that poor navigation may have been responsible for the discovery.cite web | url = http://www.nla.gov.au/exhibitions/southland/voyages-1622_Leeuwin.html | accessdate = 2008-01-30 | title = Voyages - 1622 - Leeuwin | work = South Land to New Holland : Dutch chartin of Australia 1606–1756 | publisher = National Library of Australia] The same is suggested by the 1644 instructions to Abel Tasman, which states that quote|" [I] n the years 1616, 1618, 1619 and 1622, the west coast of the great unknown South-land from 35 to 22 degrees was unexpectedly and accidentally discovered by the ships d'Eendracht, Mauritius, Amsterdam, Dordrecht and Leeuwin, coming from the Netherlands."cite book | first = Jan Ernst | last = Heeres | year = 1899 | title = The part borne by the Dutch in the discovery of Australia 1606-1765 | location = London | publisher = Luzac & co. | edition = [http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks05/0501231h.html Project Gutenberg of Australia edition] ]

The land discovered by the "Leeuwin" is recorded in Hessel Gerritsz' 1627 "Caert van't Landt van d'Eendracht" ("Chart of the Land of Eendracht"). This map includes a section of coastline labelled "'t Landt van de Leeuwin beseylt A° 1622 in Maert" ("Land made by the ship Leeuwin in March 1622"), which is thought to represent the coast between present-day Hamelin Bay and Point D'Entrecasteaux. Portions of this coastline are labelled "Duynich landt boven met boomen ende boseage" ("Dunes with trees and underwood at top"), "Laegh ghelijck verdroncken landt" ("Low land seemingly submerged") and "Laegh duynich landt" ("Low land with dunes").

The south-west corner of Australia was subsequently referred to by the Dutch as "'t Landt van de Leeuwin" ("The Land of the Leeuwin") for a time, subsequently shortened to "Leeuwin's Land" by the English. This name "Leeuwin" still survives in the name of Cape Leeuwin, the most south-westerly point of the Australian mainland, so named by Matthew Flinders in December 1801.cite book | first = Matthew | last = Flinders | title = A voyage to Terra Australis, Volume 1 | edition = [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/12929 Project Gutenberg edition] | location = London | publisher = G. & W. Nicol]

The STS "Leeuwin II" is named in honour of the "Leeuwin", although the "II" refers not to the original "Leeuwin" but to a yacht that was already entered in Australia's ship's register under the name.cite book | title = Chapman Great Sailing Ships of the World | first = Otmar | last = Schauffelen | year = 2005 | publisher = Hearst Books | page = 13]

Later voyages

In 1654, the "Leeuwin" was part a six ship fleet which departed Batavia for the Netherlands.cite web|url=http://cf.hum.uva.nl/galle/avondster/voc1.html|title=The Avondster in the Dutch East India Company|work=Maritime Lanka|accessdate=2008-02-04] The fleet consisted of VOC ships the "Phenix", "Orangie", "Salamander", "Leeuwin", "Coningh Davidt" and "Avontsterre" ("Avonster"). The convoy departed the Sunda Strait on 24 January 1654 and passed the Cape of Good Hope on 27 March and anchored at St Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean on 18 March. The "Leeuwin" arrived in the Netherlands (probably at Texel) on 30 August 1654. She departed there for the return voyage to Batavia on 10 December 1654.

Ongoing conflicts during the Dutch-Portuguese War in 1656 saw the Leeuwin called into a blockade of the strategic port of Bantam at the western end of Java during July. In August, the blockading fleet was moved to the west coast of India for another blockade of the Portuguese held port of Goa. The "Leeuwin" at this time was under the command of Jan Lucasz and had a crew of 86. She was used to cart stone ballast to other ships in the blockade.

In July 1658 she was used to ferry 500 people, including women and children from Galle in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) to Batavia. During 1659 the "Leeuwin" was involved in the trade of areca nuts from Galle to the Coromandel Coast and Malacca.

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