The History

Jacob Le Maire and his epic Voyage

Le Maire appointed his son Jacob, the eldest of his twenty-two children, to command the expedition. He was joined by the highly experienced mariner Willem Schouten, who skippered the East Indiaman Eendracht, and Jacob's younger brother Jan, who skippered the East Indiaman Hoorn. The ships sailed on 14 June, 1615 on a mission whose purpose was kept secret from the crew for four months.

The expedition successfully plotted a new sailing route to the Pacific under Cape Horn (which they named in honour of their home-base 'Hoorn', a small city in the Netherlands), rather than going through the VOC-controlled Straits of Magellan.

As a result they established for evermore a new sailing route from the "old world" to the Pacific. For centuries after, the Pacific discoveries they made would be admired by great explorers including Tasman, Bougainville and James Cook. In fact, their voyage was a prelude to the 1642-1643 voyage of Abel Tasman who, on the final leg of his voyage, sailed through seas first crossed and charted by Le Maire.
Such was their navigational achievement that when the ship arrived in Jakarta in October 1616, the Governor-General, Jan Pietersz Coen, refused to believe that Le Maire and Schouten could have found a new passage to the Pacific. He ordered the seizure of the Eendracht (the Hoorn had earlier been lost to fire) with its precious cargo and highly important charts and papers. Le Maire and Schouten were deported on a VOC ship under the command of Joris van Speilbergen. Tragically, Jacob Le Maire died en route, at the age of only thirty-one.

The book:

About the titel

The titel 'Mirror of Australian Navigation' is a bit misleading in our days. But in 1622, when the first edition was printed, Australia was an unknown continent. Astronomers in those days had calculated that there must be a great Southern Land Mass to keep the known Earth in balance ... This fictive Land Mass was often referred to as Terra Australis. The original Dutch writer of this book must have thought of this as an attractive titel for the journals of Jacob le Maire.

'Mirror of the Australian Navigation'

In this book, the original Dutch edition is accompanied for the first time by a faithful facsimile of the English text prepared by one of the great Pacific historians of the eighteenth century, Alexander Dalrymple. He was the first and only scholar to produce a detailed study of the Le Maire voyage in an English edition, published in 1770 in An Historical Collection of the Several Voyages and Discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean. Dalrymple was the leading English hydrographer of his time, and his work reflects his passionate involvement in the centuries-old debate over the possible existence of a southern continent - the fabled Terra Australis. One of the documents central to Dalrymple's debate was the journal of the Le Maire expedition.

The reprinted edition

Is a 96-pages exact facsimile of the rare original Dutch printing of 1622 accompanied with 65-pages exact facsimile of the original English text by Alexander Dalrymple of 1770. With an introductory essay by Dr. Edward Duyker, New South Wales History Fellow.
Folio (302 x 196 mm), 196 pages.

In the book you will find 15 illustrations in colour and black & white. One of those superb illustrations shows the first recorded rounding of Cape Horn. The book is printed on 118 grams Raleigh Oxford cream paper. Hand-bound by Newbold & Collins in quarter natural vellum with marbled paper sides and a Goat Leather back with gold embossed label.

This edition was a coöperative project of The Australian National Maritime Museum, the Australian Netherlands Chamber of Commerce and Horden House, to commemorate the year 2000 visit of the Dutch VOC reproduction ship 'BATAVIA' to Sydney.

The book costs AU$ 295.= ( from US$ 188.=) including postage and handling.
With the book you will receive a superb photo reproduction of the sattelite image of Cape Horn for free as a friendly gesture of just an other Cape Horn Dreamer: Jaap Roskam.

About us:

I am a live-time enthousiast Cape Horn Dreamer and the producer & publisher of the book : Sailing the Last East Indiaman - Batavia, this highly praised, fully hand made book was sold in many countries. The 'Batavia-book' was presented to the Dutch Royal family and other international leaders, such as former US president Bill Clinton and Australia's PM John Howard.

I was born nearly 50 years ago in the Netherlands, the proud grandson of a tall-ship sailor and live in now the sub tropics of Australia, 180 kilometres south of Brisbane. As professional photographer I followed the Batavia reconstruction in the Netherlands and years later the first sailing voyages near Australia. As a result of the Batavia photography I decided to publish a high quality book about the ship and the first sailing journey on the Tasman Sea. As a result of this I now have a Publishing and Book Selling Company: "In 't Veld Editions".

Recently we managed to secure a small number of this unique 'Cape Horn' book for you. We are currently informing Cape Horn sailors and dreamers World-Wide about this book and expect to distribute the last copies in July 2003. That will also mean your last chance to obtain a copy of this unique book:

The Batavia book however will be made to order and personalized with your name and a serial number. Currently we are producing around number #0130.

Buy the Book NOW

Buy the book online !

The book will be send to you by airmail within 14 days after receiving the full payment. You will be notified by email when the book will be posted.

Due to currency fluctuations the non Australian amounts may be adjusted from time to time, what is advertised today is what yo pay now.

Thank You for your interest

If you do not want to order now but like stay informed about our future maritime publications please let us know by email:

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