The replica ship Duyfken will return to Fremantle from The Netherlands on the back of a Spliethoff cargo ship in late October after almost three years sailing the world.

The Duyfken 1606 Replica Foundation today announced that it had been unable

to secure the sponsorship required to sail the vessel home from Europe. She will be dismantled in Rotterdam in September and freighted back to Fremantle under a contractual agreement with the VOC2002 Committee in The Netherlands.

She will be lifted off the freighter in Fremantle Harbour in late October and then the time-consuming task of reassembling the vessel will begin. It is hoped to have her sailing by December.

For the Fremantle-based Duyfken Foundation, the journey home to Western
Australia marks the end of an odyssey which began when the ship sailed from the MG Kailis Wharf in Fremantle Fishing Boat Harbour on 8 April 2000 bound for the troubled province of Muluku in Indonesia.

Since then the Little Dove has sailed more than 65,000km across four oceans, visited 10 countries in four continents and more than 300,000 people have come aboard the ship and more than a million people have visited her.


Duyfken Project Director Graeme Cocks said that it was disappointing after sailing the ship half way around for her to be shipped home from Rotterdam to Fremantle.

"It has been a wonderful three years for the ship," he said.

"We built Duyfken to sail and the ship has been hailed as the most exacting
ocean-going replica "Age of Discovery" replica ever built. She has been a fine
international ambassador for Western Australia. We would have liked to
celebrate this international praise and to take the opportunity to sail her into Fremantle Harbour so that Western Australians could see what a fabulous, tough little sailing ship she has become.

"It would have rewarded the faith of the thousands of people in Perth and Fremantle who have continued to support the Foundation and the vessel even when the Little Dove has been tens of thousands of kilometres from home," he said.

"We now have the challenging task of finding a permanent home for the ship. Our goal is to re-establish Duyfken as a part of the Western Australian community, to make the ship financially independent, to keep sailing her, and to make her a major international tourist attraction in the old port
city.

The Duyfken Foundation sailed the VOC 2002 Duyfken Voyagie to The Netherlands to mark the 400th anniversary of the establishment of the world's first multinational trading company, the United East India Company (VOC) which pioneered the Dutch spice trade. Duyfken was sponsored to sail to The Netherlands and then to participate in a five month, 30 port exhibition tour.

"The ship has received high praise everywhere she has been in The
Netherlands. Many Dutch are in awe that Australians have built such a fine replica of a Dutch ship and have sailed the ship around the world in a way which has not been attempted by the Dutch themselves," said Mr Cocks.

"Western Australia now has an internationally renowned asset that has set a new benchmark in the construction and operation of historic sailing vessels."

"It had been more than 300 years since a Dutch "jacht" had sailed the spice route which brought cargoes of untold wealth back from East Asia to the markets of Europe. The VOC explorations also resulted in the European discovery of Australia's northern and western coasts by more than 26 expeditions from 1606 up to the time Lieutenant James Cook sighted eastern Australia in 1770.

The VOC2002 Duyfken Voyagie was funded by the VOC 2002 Steering Committee in The Netherlands to sail the historic spice route from Jakarta to Sri Lanka, Mauritius, South Africa, Namibia, St Helena, Ascension Island, the Azores in
Portugal, the United Kingdom and on to The Netherlands. The voyage began in Sydney on 5 May 2001 and took a year. The crew and Foundation supporters were met on arrival by Crown Prince Willem Alexander of Orange and the Australian Governor-General as well as dozens of friends and family who flew over from Australia.

Duyfken is the only fully-seagoing Dutch "Age of Discovery" vessel sailing in the world pre-dating Captain Cook's ship Endeavour by almost 170 years.

The 24-metre Duyfken is a full-size replica of the first recorded ship to visit Australia - the Dutch trading ship Duyfken or "Little Dove" which sailed from Banda to the Pennefather River in Queensland in 1606.