Tasman, Abel Janszoon (c.1603–59), Dutch navigator. He was born at Lutjegast, Groningen, and was employed in the service of the Dutch East India Company from the early 1630s. His first voyage of exploration by sea was in 1834 when as captain of the Mocha he sailed to Ceram (now Seram). Then in 1639 he took part in an expedition to search for ‘islands of gold and silver’ supposed to exist to the eastward of Japan. But beyond surveying the Bonin Islands, little was found beyond the emptiness of the Pacific Ocean in these northern latitudes.

For the next two years Tasman reverted to his mercantile command, mainly in trading voyages in the Indian Ocean, but in 1642 he was selected by the governor-general of the Dutch East Indies, Antony van Diemen, to command a more ambitious expedition to discover, among other things, if Australia was part of Terra Australis Incognita that was thought to take up much of the southern hemisphere. Already several Dutch navigators had discovered various parts of the northern and western coasts of Australia, and van Diemen wanted to know more about it.

Tasman's two ships, Heemskerk and Zeehaen, sailed from Batavia (now Jakarta) to Mauritius, then sailed south and east, reaching the Roaring Forties. At a latitude of 49° S., he turned north and saw land which he named Antoonij van Diemen's Landt, in honour of the governor-general, the name being later changed to Tasmania, in honour of himself. He sailed on round the south of Tasmania, not realizing that it was an island separated from Australia, and set a course for the Solomon Islands which, if he was successful, would prove that the ‘Great South Land’ was not, in fact, part of the great southern continent.

Eight days later he sighted high land ahead of him, which he named Staten Landt (now New Zealand). He sailed along the west coast, mistaking the strait between the two islands, now Cook Strait, for a deep bay, and after rounding the northern end of North Island, which he named Cape Maria van Diemen, he sailed north-north-east, discovering several islands in the Tonga group and the eastern part of the Fiji archipelago, and finally returned to Batavia via the New Hebrides, Solomon Islands, and New Guinea after a voyage lasting ten months. He was thus the first man to make a circumnavigation of mainland Australia, though he never saw it, and so proved it was an island and not a part of the mythical southern continent.

Despite this epic voyage, the authorities were displeased with Tasman for he had failed either to find a route to Chile, as he had been supposed to do, or to explore the new land he had found, and in 1644 he was dispatched on another expedition. This time his voyage, also planned by van Diemen, was designed to discover whether New Guinea and van Diemen's Land were part of the Australian continent. He was given command of three ships, the Limmen, Zeemeeuw, and Brak. After leaving Batavia, he sailed along the west coast of New Guinea, but either mistaking what is now the Torres Strait for a bay, or being unable to penetrate the mass of small islands or reefs which guard its western entrance, he sheered south into the Gulf of Carpentaria, the southern and western coasts of which he explored and surveyed with some accuracy. He then proceeded westwards along the northern Australian coast, charting the coastline as far south as latitude 22° S., before returning to Batavia. Again, he was not well received on his return, having failed in both the main objectives of his voyage, but was reluctantly confirmed in the rank of commander, a rank which in fact he had already been using for some time.

In 1647 he was placed in command of a trading fleet to Thailand (then Siam), and the following year commanded a war fleet dispatched to operate against the Spaniards in the Philippine Islands in defence of Dutch interests in the East Indies. By now he had amassed a considerable fortune, and in 1653 retired from the Dutch East India Company to settle down and enjoy his wealth as one of the leading citizens of Batavia.

Tasman is generally considered to be the greatest of the Dutch navigators and explorers. Details of his voyages are published in the Hakluyt Society's volume Early Voyages to Terra Australis (1859). Sharp, A. , The Voyages of Abel Janszoon Tasman (1968)
.

Abel Janszoon Tasman

Abel Janszoon Tasman (ca. 1603-1659) was a Dutch navigator who discovered Tasmania and New Zealand's South Island and charted the northwest Australian coastline.

Abel Tasman was born at Lutjegast near Groningen. After his second marriage, to Joanna Tierex in 1633, he became a ship's captain in the Dutch East India Company and lived in Batavia, capital of the new Dutch commercial empire in the East Indies.

A southern continent had long been thought to exist, but Spanish navigators who crossed the Pacific Ocean from the Americas had failed to locate it. After 1611 Dutch vessels which were blown east by the "roaring forties" after rounding the Cape of Good Hope occasionally touched the coastline of "Terra Australis" en route to Java. The Batavian authorities soon decided to find out whether this "South Land" had any commercial potential, and in 1642, Governor General Anton Van Diemen chose Tasman to command an expedition.

Tasman left Djakarta in August 1642 with two ships, the Heemskerk of 60 tons and the Zeehaen of 100 tons, carrying 110 men and sufficient supplies for 18 months. From Mauritius he sped east on latitude 44°S, discovering Van Diemen's Land (renamed Tasmania after 1856) on November 24. After crossing the Tasman Sea, he reached the west coast of Staeten Landt (New Zealand's South Island) on December 13, and a landing party was attacked by Maoris at Golden Bay on December 18. Tasman then sailed up the west coast of New Zealand's North Island to the Tonga and Fiji islands and returned to Batavia along the northern coast of New Guinea in June 1643 after a voyage lasting 10 months.

Although Tasman circumnavigated a new continent, he seldom sailed close enough to the coastline to chart it accurately on a map. Sent to establish a base in the Tonga Islands in 1644, he failed to find a passage through Torres Strait, and instead he surveyed the northwestern coastline of New Holland (Australia) from Cape York Peninsula to Willem's River on the Tropic of Capricorn.

On his return to Batavia after a 6-months' voyage, Tasman was promoted to commander. But his superiors were disappointed. Although he had discovered more about "the remaining unknown part of the terrestrial globe" than any of his predecessors, his accounts of a barren landscape and primitive natives banished all prospects of trade and settlement. Europeans consequently displayed little interest in the colonization of New Holland for more than a century.

In 1647 Tasman led a mission to the king of Siam. His reputation subsequently suffered owing to the way in which he commanded a fleet against the Spaniards in 1648-1649. Soon afterward he left the service of the East India Company and became a merchant. He died in Batavia, a wealthy man.

Further Reading

The study by Andrew Sharp, The Voyages of Abel Janszoon Tasman (1968), reproduces Tasman's journals together with an excellent commentary and contains a full account of his career. The standard work on the exploration of the whole region, J. C. Beaglehole, The Exploration of the Pacific (1934; 3d ed. 1966), includes a good chapter on Tasman. A copy of Tasman's map of 1644, showing New Guinea, Australia, and Tasmania as one land mass, was published by the Public Library of New South Wales in 1948.

Additional Sources

Allen, Oliver E., The Pacific navigators, Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books; Morristown, N.J.: School and library distribution by Silver Burdett, 1980.

Slot, B., Abel Tasman and the discovery of New Zealand, Amsterdam: O. Cramwinckel, 1992. □

Abel Janszoon Tasman , 1603?–1659, Dutch navigator. In the service of the Dutch East India Company from c.1632 to 1653, he made several trading and exploring voyages in the Pacific and Indian oceans. On a voyage (1639–42) in the N Pacific he visited the Philippines and Taiwan, followed the coast of Japan, and discovered several small islands. In 1642 he sailed from Batavia in command of the Heemskerck and the Zeehaen. On that voyage he visited Tasmania (which he named Van Diemen's Land) and New Zealand, touched the Tonga islands, and returned (1643) to Batavia, having circumnavigated Australia and thus demonstrated that no connection exists between it and a polar continent. In 1644 he was dispatched to discover the relationship between New Guinea, Tasmania, and the known part of Australia; he established the continuity of land from the Gulf of Carpentaria to the northwest coast of Australia at the Tropic of Capricorn.

Bibliography: See biography by A. Sharp (1968).

Tasman, Abel (Janszoon) (1603–c.1659) Dutch navigator. In 1642 he was sent by Anthony van Diemen (1593–1645, the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies) to explore Australian waters; that year he reached Tasmania (which he named Van Diemen's Land) and New Zealand, and in 1643 arrived at Tonga and Fiji. On a second voyage in 1644 he also reached the Gulf of Carpentaria on the north coast of Australia.

Tasman, Abel Janszoon (1603–59) Dutch maritime explorer who made many discoveries in the Pacific. On his voyage of 1642–43, he discovered what is now called Tasmania. Tasman reached New Zealand, but was attacked by Maoris in Golden Bay. He landed on Tonga and Fiji, and sailed along the n coast of New Ireland. Although he circumnavigated Australia, he never sighted the mainland coast.

Tasman, Abel (1603–c.1659), Dutch navigator. Sent in 1642 by the Governor General of the Dutch East Indies, Anthony van Diemen (1593–1645), to explore Australian waters, he reached Tasmania (which he named Van Diemen's Land) and New Zealand, and in 1643 arrived at Tonga and Fiji.