DIRK HARTOG’S PLATE

Evening Star, Issue 21742, 9 June 1934, Page 19

DIRK HARTOG’S PLATE

MOST FAMOUS IN THE WORLD Of plates and the making of plates one might write a book. Throughout the ages goldsmiths and silversmiths have devoted their genius to the shaping and embellishing of plates. At times they achieved miracles of perfection and beauty, which to-day are treasured in the palaces of the discerning great, and are used only on exceptional occasions (writes Donald MacLean). Groat things also have been done in porcelain, glass, and china. Fashioned and decorated by supreme artists, and dainty as an eggshell, these treasures are now sought eagerly by collectors and connoisseurs. But the most famous of all plates is not of this aristocratic type. It belongs rather to the plebeian order. 11 is wrought of common pewter; it is old and battered, and it reposes in the State Museum at Amsterdam. Whore or by whom this plate was made,is not known, but in common with many others of precisely similar pattern, it was, in the early seventeenth century, in use aboard a Dutch EastIndiaman, named the Eendraght. The Eendraght was in the trade then springing up between Holland and her newly acquired colonies in the rich spice islands of the East. The Eendraght was commended by a stout Dutch sailor, with a dash of imagination, named Dirk Hartog. In 1616 the Eendraght was on her way to Java, but after she had left the Cape of Good Hope, she overran her course, and on October 25, Dirk Hartog, greatly to his surprise, discovered land directly ahead which was not indicated on his chart. Soon he made out an island, and beyond the island a great mainland. The Dutchman called the island Dirk Hartog’s Island, after the captain, and the mainland—Western Australia—Eendraght Land, after the ship. Tlie chance of a day ashore after the long voyage was too good to be missed. The sailors made a picnic of it. A solid lunch was packed, together with plates to oat from. After a good look round the island they came to the north end, and there sat down to enjoy their lunch. While doing so a happy idea occurred to the skipper. DISJOINTED INSCRIPTION. “On the 25th October, 1616, arrived here the ships Eendraght, of Amsterdam: the first Merchant, Gilles Mibias Van Luyck; Captain, Dirk Hartog, of Amsterdam; the 27th ditto set sail Tor Bantam, under Merchant, Jan Steyn; Upper Steersman, Pieter Dockes, from Bil; A..D. 1616.” This rather disjointed but very clear inscription finished, the skipper had his men set np a stout post; the plate w T as firmly nailed on to it, and that done, all embarked and sailed away. In after days, when telling of their voyages, doubtless the Dutchmen often spoke of tho plate they had set up on tne lone island. But they had all been long dead of old lige, and the whole thing forgotten, when the plate suddenly came to light again. Toward the end of the seventeenth century another Dutch East Indiaman, the Ridderschap van Holland, disappeared while on her way to Java, it was thought that sho might have been cast away on the coast of New Holland, as Australia was then called. In order to rescue any possible survivors, the Dutch East India Company directed Captain Willem van Vlaming to proceed there with the Geelvinck and two other vessels to make careful search.

On Christmas Day, 1696, Van Vlaming sighted some islands off the mouth of a river, which he named Black Swan River, because of the number of black swans he saw there. Black swans had been unknown hitherto. Van Vlaming was the first to report their existence. The river and the country nearby were searched thoroughly, but no trace was found of tho missing ship. Continuing north, Van Vlaming landed in different places to explore the coast. On February 4, 1697. he reached Dirk Hartog’s Island, and there, to his astonishment, he found the old pewter plate which Dirk Hartog had set up thirty-one years before. Van Vlaming determined to keep it; but ho left in place of it another plate on which he engraved the original inscription and added one of his own. PLATE DISCOVERED.

■ Van Vlaming’s inscription is too long to quote here, but its concluding words are:—“ Sailed from here with our fleet on the 12th, to explore the South Land, and afterwards bound for Batavia.” Van Vlaming’s plate, like Hartog’s, was forgotten, aml 105 years went before it was recalled to remembrance. In the year 1801 a French exploring ship, tho Naturalists, reached Dirk Hartog’s Island. Captain Hamelin, who commanded her, sent a party ashore for signalling purposes. When the men returned aboard the boatswain brought with him a plate which he had found half buried in the sand close to an oaken post. The plate proved to be the one left by Van Vlaming. Captain Hamelin copied the inscription, and had plate set up again on a new post, where it remained for seventeen years longer. Then Freycinet, another French explorer, landed and found-it. Thinking it would make a valuable museum exhibit, Freycinet carried it off, and, arriving in France, ho left it “ for safe keeping ” in the museum of the French Institute in Paris. His precautions proved vain, for every effort to trace it in recent years has failed. Dirk Hartog’s plate was better' cared for. Van Vlaming took it to Batavia, where it was sent to Amsterdam. For a long period it was lost to sight, but in 1902, as the result of a search by Mr J. F. L. Balbin, it was again found, and it is now treasured there as the most famous plate in the world.