Leeuwin (1621)


Leeuwin, was a Dutch galleon that discovered and mapped some of the southwest corner of Australia in March 1622. It was the seventh European ship to sight the continent.
Leeuwins logbook has been lost, so very little is known of the voyage. For example, it is not known who captained the ship. However, 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. The same is suggested by the 1644 instructions to Abel Tasman, which states that
The land discovered by Leeuwin is recorded in Hessel Gerritsz' 1627 Caert van't Landt van d'Eendracht. This map includes a section of coastline labelled t Landt van de Leeuwin beseylt A° 1622 in Maert, 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, Laegh ghelijck verdroncken landt and Laegh duynich landt.

Australian reference to the ship

The south-west corner of Australia was subsequently referred to by the Dutch as 't Landt van de 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.
The sail training ship STS Leeuwin II, based in Fremantle, Western Australia, is named in honour of 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.