Tasmania
Captain Holleman & Abel Tasman
Captain Yde T'Jercxzoon Holleman, born in Jever in northwest Germany, was the captain of the Heemskerck during Abel Tasman's first great voyage of discovery.[1] This Dutch expedition (organised by the VOC - the United East India Company) was equipped with two ships: the flagship Heemskerck (Tasman travelled on this ship with Captain Holleman) and the Zeehaen. In December 1642 Tasman and his crews became the first Europeans to visit the island of Tasmania. The ships anchored in North Bay on 1st December 1642 (between Cape Paul Lamanon and Cape Frederick Hendrick at the northern end of the Forestier Peninsula). A landing party went ashore on the 2nd December in the bay known today as Blackman Bay, located on the north-western shores of Forestier Peninsula, approximately 45km east of today's Hobart. Tasman's journal, however, gives no indication that Captain Holleman was part of the landing party. He probably stayed on board the Heemskerck. The VOC's instructions stated that Holleman was to take command of the voyage if anything were to happen to Tasman. This directive shows us how good Holleman's reputation was with the highest authorities of the East India Company and how much trust was placed in him. Tasman mentions Holleman's name repeatedly in the journal of the voyage.[2]
At Salamanca Place in Hobart the Tasman Fountain commemorates Abel Tasman. Part of this monument portrays the ships 'Zeehaen' and 'Heemskerck'. Holleman, originally from northern Germany, was skipper of the 'Heemskerck', the ship on the right in the photo.
The Tasman monument is located on the shores of Blackman Bay in Dunalley, a fishing village east of Hobart.
The government set up the Tasman monument at Dunalley (see photo) in 1942 for the three-hundredth anniversary of the landing of members of Tasman's crew in Blackman Bay. The inscription on the memorial plaque states that the landing party was led by the pilot-major Frans Jacobszoon Visscher. He was a member of the crew of the Heemskerck commanded by the German skipper Holleman.[3]
♦ Notes:
1. Lodewyckx (1932), p.10; Heeres (1895), ABEL JANSZOON TASMAN: His Life and Labours, Kapitel XIII. Frans Jacobszoon Visscher -- Exploratory Voyages of 1642 and 1644. {Page: Life.106} <gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0600571h.html#life-13> - "The master of the Heemskerk was Skipper Yde T'Jercxzoon Holman or Holleman. This navigator, a native of Jever, in what is now known as the Grand-Duchy of Oldenburg, had come out to India in 1640."
2. Lodewyckx (1932), p.10
3. Heeres (1895), {Page: Jnl.14} - "Item the 2nd" (2 December 1642) <gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0600571h.html#journal>.
♦ References:
Heeres, Prof. J. E. (editor). (1898). Abel Janszoon Tasman's journal of his discovery of Van Diemens Land and New Zealand in 1642. Amsterdam: Frederik Muller and Co. (F. Adama Van Scheltema and Anton Mensing). [An English translation of the journal, available at Project Gutenberg: <https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0600571h.html>]
Lodewyckx, Prof. Dr A. (1932). Die Deutschen in Australien. Stuttgart: Ausland und Heimat Verlagsaktiengesellschaft. pp.10-11