In the 17th century, Holland, following the example of England, created the East India Company, which settled in distant Japan. The ruler of this company, Anthony Van Diemen, showed vigorous activity. The sailors assured him that there were islands nearby, rich in silver and gold. And van Diemen decided to find them …
In 1639, Anthony van Diemen, head of the East India Company, sent two ships in search of the rich islands, one of which was commanded by the later famous Abel Tasman. But then an epidemic broke out, and the search was stopped.
Two brave ships
Anthony van Diemen did not give up his dream. In 1643, he equipped a new expedition: the ship "Castricum" with a displacement of 400 tons and "Breskens" with a displacement of 300 tons.
The first ship was commanded by Maarten Gerritsen de Vries. The second is Captain Hendrik Schep.
Unfortunately, little is known about Maarten de Vries, who immortalized their name.
He was born on February 18, 1589 in the small Dutch town of Harlingen. According to the documents, he became known only in 1622, when he began serving in Batavia as a simple sailor. A little later, having become proficient in the maritime business, he joined the Dutch East India Company as a simple cartographer.
Soon he grew up to the skipper, and then the captain. Fate threw the young captain to Formosa. Here his talent as a cartographer manifested itself firsthand. The island map he drew up was considered one of the best. De Vries probably attracted attention and other talents, because by 1643, when Anthony van Diemen organized a new expedition, he was assigned to manage them.
On February 3, 1643, the ships Kastricum and Breskens left Batavia. On May 20 they reached 33 ° north latitude. Here they discovered the island of Hatijou from the Nampo group. On May 21, a terrible storm broke out. The ships lost sight of their friend. De Vries led the Castricum along the east coast of Honshu. On June 6, it reached the 42nd latitude, and Cape Erimo of Hokkaido Island, which was then known as Yesso, opened to travelers.
Here they saw the so-called "bearded people". They were the Ainu. They saw Europeans for the first time. If you believe the logbook, they parted kindly.
Near the Kuriles and Sakhalin
On June 13, sailors saw on the horizon low-lying, flat and large islands. These were the Kuriles. And this time "bearded people" rushed to the ship and bravely climbed onto the ship. They offered fish, and then, pointing to the northeast of the island, they shouted: "Takotekan". It was Shikotan Island.
Moving north, the Dutch soon discovered a passage. This was the Catherine Strait between the islands of Iturup and Kunashir. Thus, on June 14, 1643, the Dutch first saw the island of Kunashir, but never landed on it. The logbook noted that this island is nothing more than a continuation of Hokkaido. The Castricum headed north-east. On June 20 they encountered a large strip of mountainous terrain, separated by a large strait. De Vries decided to drop anchor in an unknown strait. He did not even know that later this strait, which separates the two islands of the ridge - Urup and Iturup, would bear his name.
The Dutch stayed here for five days. They repeatedly landed ashore. We stored fresh water and hunted. De Vries mistook Iturup for the northeastern part of Hokkaido and named it the Island of the States. And the land to the northeast of the strait, namely Urup, he mistook for the protrusion of America and called the Land of the Company.
On June 22, de Vries discovered an ore on Urup, which allegedly contained nothing more than silver, and decided to stake out the territory. He ordered a wooden cross to be erected at the highest point of the Land of the Company and declared the island the property of the Dutch East India Company. On June 27, the ship, leaving the strait, later called the Fries Strait, headed north, but then due to bad weather turned south.
The Dutch stayed in the northwestern part of Kunashir for eight whole days. By order of de Vries, part of the coast of the island was explored. As noted in the logbook, a strong current was a hindrance to a more complete study.
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Silver glitter
The ship sailed very slowly, for there was a thick fog, which is typical for these places. And because of him, the navigators did not notice the La Perouse Strait, which separates Sakhalin Island from Hokkaido. Moreover, there was a strong current. And again de Vries made a mistake, considering Sakhalin Island to be nothing more than a continuation of Hokkaido. Seeing the village of the Ainu, de Vries ordered to drop anchor.
This was the southern coast of Sakhalin. So for the first time the Europeans, unknowingly, set foot on Sakhalin land. We found a common language with the Ainu this time too. This peace-loving people welcomed the Dutch hospitably and shared food. The Ainu supplied the sailors with herring and salmon. Kun went ashore twice and learned from the Ainu that their land stretched "from Tartary in the north to Yesso in the south." De Vries's assistant was surprised when he saw silver jewelry on the Ainu. All attempts to find out where the jewelry came from have led nowhere.
On July 20, Kastricum managed to round Cape Aniva, and the ship continued sailing northeast along the Sakhalin coast, and then turned north. On July 26, the Dutch saw the Great Bay. There was a low-lying coast in the northeast and north, and mountains in the west. All this was covered with snow. The southeastern part was named by de Vries Cape Terpeniya. They landed ashore twice. The meeting with the Ainu did not provide any information. De Vries decided to continue heading north to explore Sakhalin. But strong winds were blowing. They literally tore the sails of the ship, and de Vries abandoned the planned plan, turning to the southeast.
According to the logbook, the Dutch explored about 800 kilometers of Sakhalin's coastline. Sakhalin, like Alaska at one time, was Russian, but theoretically it could become the possession of Holland.
On July 28, Kastricum entered the bay of an unknown island. Due to the abundance of fur seals on it, the island was named the Seal. On August 5, after passing the current Freeze Strait, the ship escaped into the Pacific Ocean.
By this time, food was running out, and Kastricum needed repairs. And as the Dutch were in no hurry, they had to stay for half a month in a bay in the southeast of Hokkaido. And only on September 1, the ship left the hospitable bay.
De Vries decided to act to the end - to look for islands rich in gold and silver. It is not known how much de Vries would have plowed the ocean if it had not been for the 9 November meeting off the island of Kyushu with the "missing" Breskens. Both ships jointly continued their search for the rich island. They plowed the sea between 37-38 ° north latitude, but never found their Klondike. After visiting the island of Taiwan, the ships headed for Batavia, where they arrived safely on December 14.
De Vries, who died in 1647 during the war with Spain, was the son of his time. Maybe to some extent an adventurer. But geographers and navigators are grateful to de Vries for describing the "Pacific Gulf Stream" - Kuroshio.
True, after the expedition of de Vries and Schep, the Land of Juan da Gama and the Land of Yesso appeared on the maps in the North Pacific Ocean. The latter appeared thanks to de Vries. Perhaps to mislead Holland's opponents, he placed it there. And only after almost 100 years, Russian navigators Bering and Chirikov will prove that these two lands were the fantastic imagination of sailors.
Magazine: Mysteries of History, no. 42. Author: Victor Eliseev