Abel Tasman

Abel Janszoon Tasman (1603–1659) was a Dutch sea explorer. He found Tasmania and New Zealand while on voyages in 1642 he 1644, in the service of the VOC (Dutch East India Company). He also made the first historical sightings of large parts of Australia. Witness the trajectory of his 1642-43 journey widely around it, reaching New Zealand and returning north of New Guinea he discovered that it was not connected to the ice covered continent around the south pole then known as 'Terra Australia Incognita or Australia', so that it was a large separate continent. He named it New Holland (in Dutch). James cook would later respect that name by reporting that he had 'charted the East Coast of New Holland and named it New South Wales'. 

He was born in Lutjegast, Netherlands. He went to Batavia (now called Jakarta) to work for the VOC in 1633. He went back to Holland in 1636. He went back to Batavia with his wife, Jannetie Tjaerss, two years later. He went north to Japan in 1640. In 1642 Tasman went south to Palembang.

 Tasmania and New Zealand 1642-4 
Tasman set Governor General of the Dutch East Indies. This man sailed around to the east coast of Van Diemen's Land and claimed the land for the Dutch on December 3, 1642. The ships then sailed west and found New Zealand. His ships were attacked by Maori in large war canoes (boats) and four sailors died. Tasman then sailed north-east to Tonga and Fiji. He then sailed north west to New Guinea and got back to Batavia in June 1643.

 Western Australia 1644 
In 1644 Tasman sailed from Batavia with the ships Limmen, Zeemeeuw and Bracq. He sailed along the west coast of New Guinea, and then the coast of Australia from Cape York to North West Cape. He went back to Batavia in August 1644. He showed that Western Australia and Queensland were part of the same country. He was not able to get through Torres Strait, but his maps were used for the next 200 years. Tasman made more trips including to Sumatra in 1646, Siam in 1647, and Manila in 1648. He purchased a lot of land in Batavia where he died in October 1659.

Several places have been named after him, including Tasmania, the Tasman Peninsula, Tasman Island and the Tasman Sea.

 References 

Category:1603 births
Category:1659 deaths
Category:Dutch explorers
Category:Exploration of Australia
Category:People from Groningen (province)