(; Concord) was an early 17th century Dutch wooden-hulled 700-ton-burthen East Indiaman, launched in 1615 in the service of the Dutch East India Company (commonly abbreviated as VOC). Her captain was Dirk Hartog, a thirty-five-year-old former private merchant, who had sailed for the VOC before but was now again in the employ of the VOC.

Route to Indian Ocean

Sailing down the west Africa coastline, became separated from the others in a severe storm and reached the Cape of Good Hope alone around August. She stayed there until 27 August when Hartog decided to set out unaccompanied across the Indian Ocean towards their destination.

Hartog's course across the Indian Ocean was a much more southerly one than the route usually followed. It made use of the prevailing westerly winds at those latitudes known as the Roaring Forties, a route which had been pioneered a few years earlier by the Dutch navigator Hendrik Brouwer who had noted it to be a faster way to reach Java. By this time, the VOC had not as yet instructed all its captains to take advantage of this route, which could reduce the overall travelling time from Europe by a good six months. The decision to do so was taken just a few months after Hartog departed Amsterdam. So Hartog took that decision himself. However, later the intention was to change heading northwards at a more westerly longitude than had done. Whether Hartog had intended to maintain such a southerly course for so long via this route, or was perhaps blown a little off course, is unclear.

Landfall in Australia

After approximately two months at sea, on 25 October Hartog and unexpectedly sighted land"various islands, which were, however, found uninhabited", at a latitude around 26° South. These islands and the nearby land were previously unknown to Europeans, and had become the second recorded European ship to visit the continent of Australia, having been preceded (albeit, on the opposite side of the continent) 10 years earlier by Willem Janszoon on sailing along, and landing on, the western shores of the Cape York Peninsula just months before Luís Vaz de Torres sailed through the straight that now bears his name without leaving records of seeing land at his south.

Further reading

  • Originally accessed 8 July 2005, archived 2 December 2005.
  • (in Dutch)