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| Day 109 |
25 July 2000 |
| Gulf of Carpentaria |
| "Land Ho ... and it's Australia!" |
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Land Ho! I have said once before in this journal that in my
experience nobody ever actually cries out 'Land Ho' except in
the movies. At eight this morning Nic comes to me and says 'I
think I can see something that looks like land, a half a point
to starboard.'
'Right-oh, that'll be Cape Wessel,' comes my swash-buckling
reply. We have made good time overnight, and it looks as if our
fuel supplies will last until Gove.
In 1644 the VOC council in Batavia, referring to exploration of
the south-land, made this pronouncement: 'He that makes it his
business to find out what the land produces must walk over it.'
Leaving aside the references to land and walking, this statement
could be an endorsement for our re-enactment voyage. Don't trust
the words of others, there is no substitute for first-hand
experience, the wise council may just as well have said.
Without coming here in a ship we would not have seen the colour
of the water turn a milky aqua-blue as we approached the Gulf.
We would not have seen the sea-birds, the terns and gannets,
working the waters all day and returning, southwards, at the end
of the day's hunting. We would not have felt the tidal effects
pushing and pulling the ship, speeding her up then slowing her
down, indicating the proximity of the coast well before we
sighted it. Nor would we have felt the steepening of the swells
as they stand up in the shallower water. Jansz must have noticed
all these signs as well. A mariner could not come to this point
and be unaware of land to the south even if the land were not
sighted. So why did he turn east, rather than continue south?
The chart entitled 'The Discovery of Australia by the Yacht Het
Duyfien, 1606 - From the Secret Atlas of the East India Company,
c 1670' shows Duyfken's track approaching to within about eighty
miles of Cape Wessel, near where we are now. Yet neither Cape
Wessel, nor any of Ahnem Land, feature on this chart. Duyfken
began sailing into the Gulf towards about Groote Eylandt, but
turned abruptly towards Cape York Peninsula. One explanation
could be that Jansz had been given information from somewhere
that the land he was looking for was further east, which ties in
with his initial track on leaving the Aru Islands. He only
turned south to get clear of the Digul River area on Irian Jaya,
then resumed his eastward path. There seems to me a possibility
that Jansz was not looking for just any land, but was searching
for a place he had heard something about.
An Australian accent on the radio. 'Schooner east of Cape Wessel
this is Coastwatch on channel 16...' The Coastwatch aeroplane
buzzes us and gets our details. I tell them we are expecting to
arrive in Gove tomorrow night.
We are close to arriving back on Australian soil after more than
two months away. I try to gauge the crew's feelings as we chug
along towards our destination at a lumpy three knots. Are we
excited about coming home, or are we circumspect about an
exciting part of our voyage, the Indonesian part, drawing to a
close? Perhaps a bit of both. In truth it's hard to divine any
change in the feeling aboard. The days are passing in an even
stream of watches, meals, and sleeps. We are all comfortable in
the routine and the voyage could go on for ever. Or is that just
how I am feeling?
The sea picks up in the afternoon and Duyfken gets right down in
there among the troughs, pitching and rolling like a pig in a
puddle. It's hard to stand up without holding onto anything, but
with practice and a good set of sea legs you can do it. John and
Jane entertain themselves in a competition for who can stand on
one leg for the longest. I think John wins the gold medal, but
not without whirling his giant arms around like a windmill in a
gale for the full two seconds of his record-breaking stand.
Wouldn't the Olympic Games be a spectacular affair if they were
held on Duyfken?
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Peter Manthorpe
Master
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