Abel Tasman and New Zealand, 1642-43

[Kiwi]

I posted the following in another thread:

...BertL ...You might be interested to know I taught myself to read and understand a bit of 1642-43 Dutch. I wanted to know exactly what Abel Tasman said about his discovery of New Zealand.

You probably wouldn't understand me if I read some to you -- I just learnt to say the words phonetically, so they wouldn't sound like Dutch of any era.

Here's my attempt -- you'll see I probably don't use sijn/zijn properly and need help with it. Don't be too horrified! At least I made one discovery that other historians hadn't because they didn't investigate the original text, and some compounded the errors made by others. One interpreter said coelte meant gale, instead of breeze.

13 December 1642

Adij 13en Do bevonden breete 42 Graden 10 minuten
On 13th Ditto observed latitude 42 Degrees 10 minutes

langhte 188 graden 28 minuten, cours behouden oost ten
longitude 188 degrees 28 minutes, course kept east by

noorden en geseijlt 36 mijlen, de wint Zuijt=Zuijt=west, dat
north and sailed 36 miles, the wind South-Southwest, that

met een topseijls coelte, Tegens denmiddach Zagen een groot
with a topsails breeze, Towards noon Saw a large

hooch verheven landt, hadden het Zuijt=oost van ons ontrent 15
high elevated land, had it Southeast of us about 15

mijlen, deden onsen cours Zuijt=oost aen, recht naer het landt,
miles, did our course Southeast on, right for the land,

schooten een schoot ende lieten naer middach de witte
shot a shot and had after noon the white

vlagge waijen, waer=op d` overheden vande Zeehaen aen ons
flag flutter, whereupon the officers of=the Zeehaan on our

boort gecomen sijn, als wanneer met den ander
ship came to=be, as when with the other

rezolveerden gemelte landt, soo haest Immer mogelijck aen te
resolved said land, so haste Ever possible on to

doen, Zulex alles om redenen als de resoluijtie van dato
do, Such all for reasons as the resolution of date

dezer breeder explaneert.
this at=length explains.

Savonts vonden geraden en gelasten onse stuerluijden
In=the=evening found advisable and instructed our steersmen

soo lange het stijl blijft dat sijden Zuijtoosten cours
so long the still remains that side Southeast course

behouden, maer bij wacheringh van coelte, recht oost aen=gaen
maintain, but with freshening of breeze, direct east go=on

Zullen, op=dat=niet inde wal geraechen ende alle ongelucken
Shall, lest in=the coast arrive and all accidents

soo veel doenlijck is voorcomen mochten want naer onse
as much practicable is prevent might, for in we

sustinue `t landt van desen cant niet aen te doen Zoude
sustain the land from this side not on to do Should,

wesen dat door de groote openbare Zee welcke aldaer met
being that for the great open Sea which there with

groote holle baren en dijninge op aen compt schieten
great hollow waves and swells up on come shooting

ofte ten=ware datter eenige beslooten baijen aen desen
or unless that any land-locked bays on these

cant waren, In d` eertse wacht vier glasen uijt Zijnde
side were. In the first watch four glasses out Being

stelden onsen cours recht oost, miswijsinge 7 Graden 30
set our course due east, variation 7 Degrees 30

minuten noortoosteringh.
minutes northeasterly.



Traps for the unwary: The miles quoted are Dutch or Snellius miles. One Snellius mile =
4 nautical miles,
4.606212 statute miles, or
7.412995 kilometres.
(Oi! What's wrong with accuracy to six decimal places? It's better to have it and not want it, than want it and not have it.)


Ginnie, you'd probably enjoy the 30 A3 photocopy pages I have of the journal. It's not Tasman's original, which seems to have gone the same way as the original Apollo 11 EVA videotape, but two copies were made by copyists in about 1643. The copy I have is believed to be the most accurate and is in beautiful handwriting with magnificent flourishes. The other copyist was pretty sloppy, seemed to have no real interest in sailing, and made the classic mistake of copying to a particular word, then restarting from the next occurrence of the same word and missing everything in between.

[Kiwi]

Jason replied:

Looks like perfectly understandable Dutch to me, albiet with some very odd spelling.


Halcyon Dayz replied:

Standardised spelling and grammar were only introduced in the early 19th century.

Prior to that there were wild variations, and we don't really know how some words were pronounced.


BertL replied:

It's actually pretty good. I didn't have the time to read it thoroughly.

boort gecomen sijn, als wanneer met den ander
ship came to=be, as when with the other

Here, "gecomen sijn" (or "gekomen zijn" in modern Dutch) means "have come".

waer=op d` overheden vande Zeehaen aen ons boort gecomen sijn
Waarop de overheden van de Zeehaan aan ons boord gekomen zijn
After which the officers of the Zeehaan (Sea Rooster) came on our board
(aan boord = on board of the ship)

[Kiwi]

Thanks, Jason and BertL for your input.

I wrote a paper about Tasman, disputing what some modern historians concluded about his discovery of New Zealand through not doing their homework. They didn't consider the curvature of the earth and didn't figure out what the land would look like as it rose up over the horizon when sailing toward it. For example, high, distant mountain- and hill-tops appear first, and closer, lower land appears later. And one guy, when I checked him out, by implication had Tasman's two ships sailing overland through New Zealand's 1300-plus-metre-high Tararua mountain range. Pretty amazing, considering the writer had previously been a merchant seaman.

The earlier historians got it right, in my opinion. The trouble is, I'm not an expert nor qualified at all in the particular fields, so with what I've learned about logic and skepticism here and at BAUT, I'm a little reluctant to stick my neck out now, and wonder how to best proceed with it. To make things tougher, through closely examining the distance from which high land can be seen in clear conditions, I also proposed, with evidence, that Tasman sighted land from further out at sea than some historians have. He believed he was 60 nautical miles from mountains, I believe the figure was 91 or even a little more.

I certainly need help with the Dutch -- about 70 pages -- but probably need somebody who knows both modern Dutch and that of Tasman's time, plus has an understanding of sailing and navigation back then too.

If either of you have the time and inclination to help in any way, I'd be grateful, but no offence taken if you don't.


People even get it wrong about Captain Cook, so I tried a correction once:


The Dominion, Saturday 29 June 2001, page 15
Myth about first glimpse of headland

Sir,

Three times in the past nine months (Five-Minute Quiz October 13 and June 17, lead article June 27) The Dominion has encouraged a myth: that Young Nicks Head was the land first sighted by Captain Cook.

That's not true. Those who get it wrong don't take into account the height of objects and the curvature of the Earth. A prominent headland, Young Nicks Head was named after 12-year-old Nicholas Young for first sighting New Zealand, but it was not the first land sighted. The Endeavour was sailing west along the 39th parallel, so the tops of the Raukumara Range on East Cape would have become visible first, followed by the range between Gisborne and Wairoa. After the top 100 metres of Mount Hikurangi became visible from the "tops" on the masts, the Endeavour would have had to sail about 65 kilometres more toward land before the top of Young Nicks Head came into view over the horizon. An authority on this is The Encyclopaedia of New Zealand (A H McLintock, 1963) vol 3, page 697: "Young Nicks Head was not the first New Zealand landfall [land sighted]."

Doug B-----
Tangimoana

[BertL]

Feb 4, 2009 6:18:04 GMT -4 Kiwi said:

I certainly need help with the Dutch -- about 70 pages -- but probably need somebody who knows both modern Dutch and that of Tasman's time, plus has an understanding of sailing and navigation back then too.

If either of you have the time and inclination to help in any way, I'd be grateful, but no offence taken if you don't.

I can certainly help out for a bit. This is the kind of things I like doing when I procrastinate, and I do that a lot. I'm in the final year of secondary school at the moment, though, so it won't be an absolute priority for the time being. Having said that, it sounds like a nice distraction from my homework when I'm tired of that!

[Jason]

You're probably better helped by a native speaker like Bert, but I won't mind assisting if you wish. My understanding of sailing comes mostly from reading the Aubrey/Maturin books.

[Kiwi]

Thanks, guys, I'll get back to you with a few queries. I have chronic fatigue syndrome which comes and goes, so my ability to post varies. I can usually read posts but not always respond, and tend to have a few more enforced rests than I prefer.