'Jacob Le Maire' (c.
1585 -
December 22 1616) was a
Dutch mariner, born in
Antwerp, who circumnavigated the earth in 1615-16. He discovered the strait between
Tierra del Fuego and
Staten Island, Argentina; that strait is now named the
Le Maire Strait in his honour. He was the first person to round
Cape Horn, proving that
Tierra del Fuego was not a continent.
In June
1615 Jacob le Maire and
Willem Schouten sailed with two vessels, ''Eendracht'' and ''Hoorn'', from
Texel in the
United Provinces, in command of an expedition whose objective was to evade the trade restrictions of the
Dutch East India Company (VOC) by finding a new route to the
Pacific and the
Spice Islands. They followed the north coasts of
New Ireland and
New Guinea and visited adjacent islands, including what became known as the
Schouten Islands. In 1616 they rounded
Cape Horn, which they named for the ''Hoorn'', which was lost in a fire. The Dutch city of
Hoorn was also the birthplace of Schouten. Although they had opened an unknown route, the VOC claimed infringement of its monopoly of trade to the
Spice Islands. Le Maire and Schouten were arrested and the ''Eendracht'' was confiscated in
Java. After being released, they returned from
Jacatra (Jakarta) to
Amsterdam; Le Maire died during that journey.
References
★ Spilbergen, Joris van and Le Maire, Jacob (1619) ''Speculum orientalis occidentalisque Indiae navigationum, quarum una Georgii à Spilbergen - altera Jacobi le Maire - directa, Annis 1614 - 18 : exhibens Novi in mare Australe transitus, incognitarumque hactenus terrarum ac gentium inventionem ; praelia aliquot terra marique commissa, expugnationesque urbium, una cum duabus novis utriusque Indiae historiis, Catalogo munitionum Hollandicarum, ducum et reliqui bellici apparatus, tretique quatuor, suis quaeque figuris illustrata'' Geelkercke, Lugduni Batavorum
OCLC 64412702 ;
★ Kemp, Peter (ed.) (1976) "LeMaire, Jacob (1585-1616)" ''The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea'' Oxford University Press, London, ISBN 0192115537 ;
External links
★
Le Maire reports, on line thanks to: Universitätsbibliothek Bielefeld (original edition from 1621, in
Dutch, with 25 original maps from all over the world, 256 pages).
★ Robert Kerr (1824):
Voyage round the world, in 1615-1617, by William Cornelison Schouten and Jacques le Maire, going round Cape Horn.
References
★ Dirk J. Barreveld, Tegen de Heeren van de VOC - Isaac Le Maire En De Ontdekking Van Kaap Hoorn, Sdu uitgeverij, 2002