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{{Short description|Dutch sea captain and explorer (1640–1702)}}
{{Use Oxford spelling |date=April 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates |date=January 2020}}
{{Infobox person
 |name        = Willem de Vlamingh
 |image       = Portrait of Willem de Vlamingh, Johannes en Nicholaas Verkolje (1690 - 1700).jpg
 |caption     = Portrait thought to be of de Vlamingh by [[Jan Verkolje|Jan]] and [[Nikolaas Verkolje]] 
 |birth_name  = Willem Hesselsz de Vlamingh
 |birth_place = [[Oost-Vlieland]], [[Dutch Republic]]
 |baptised    = 28 November 1640
 |death_date  = {{nowr|Unknown date, {{circa|{{death year and age|1698|1640}}}}}}
}}

'''Willem Hesselsz de Vlamingh''' (baptized 28 November 1640 – after 7 August 1702{{sfnp |Houter |Nooy |2025 }}) was a Dutch sea captain who explored the central west coast of [[New Holland (Australia)|New Holland]] ([[Australia]]) in the late 17th century, where he landed in what is now [[Perth, Western Australia|Perth]] on the [[Swan River (Western Australia)|Swan River]]. The purpose of the mission was to look for survivors of the ''[[Ridderschap van Holland (1681)|Ridderschap van Holland]]'': this effort proved fruitless, but de Vlamingh charted parts of the continent's western coast.{{efn |The original maps were found in 2006 in the [[National Library of Australia]].{{cn |date=April 2025}}}}

== Early life ==
Willem de Vlamingh was born in [[Oost-Vlieland]] in the [[Dutch Republic]]. He was baptised on 28 November 1640. In 1664, de Vlamingh sailed to [[Novaya Zemlya]] and discovered Jelmerland.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hacquebord|first1=Louwrens|editor1-last=Nuttall|editor1-first=Mark|title=Encyclopedia of the Arctic|date=2012|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781136786808|pages=2140–2141|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Swr9BTI_2FEC&pg=PA2140|chapter=Vlamingh, Willem de}}</ref>{{sfnp | Witsen |1705 |p= }}{{page needed |date=April 2025}} In 1668, he married; his profession was skipper in [[whaling]], and he still lived on the island [[Vlieland]].<ref>[https://stadsarchief.amsterdam.nl/archieven/archiefbank/indexen/ondertrouwregisters/zoek/query.nl.pl?i1=1&v1=w*&a1=vlaming*&x=20&z=b# City Archives Amsterdam]</ref>{{full short|date=December 2019}} In 1687, he and his wife sold their "apartment" in the [[Jordaan]].<ref>[https://stadsarchief.amsterdam.nl/archieven/archiefbank/indexen/transportakten_voor_1811/zoek/query.nl.pl?i1=1&v1=W*&a1=vlaming&x=14&z=b# City Archives Amsterdam]</ref>

De Vlamingh joined the [[Dutch East India Company]] (VOC) in 1688, and made his first voyage to [[Batavia, Dutch East Indies|Batavia]] in the same year. Following a second voyage, in 1694, he was asked, on request of [[Nicolaes Witsen]], to mount an expedition to search for the {{ship||Ridderschap van Holland|1681|2}}, a VOC capital ship that was lost with 325 passengers and crew on its way to Batavia in 1694. VOC officials believed it might have run aground on the western coast of Australia.

== Rescue mission ==
[[File:Vlamingh ships at the Swan River, Keulen 1796.jpg|thumb|''Willem de Vlamingh's ships, with black swans, at the entrance to the Swan River, Western Australia'', coloured engraving (1796), derived from an earlier drawing (now lost)]]
In 1696, de Vlamingh commanded the rescue mission to Australia's west coast to look for survivors of the ''[[Ridderschap van Holland (1681)|Ridderschap van Holland]]'' that had gone missing two years earlier, and had admiral Sir James Couper on board.{{sfnp |Playford |1998 |p=4 }} There were three ships under his command: the frigate ''Geelvink'', captained by de Vlamingh himself; ''Nijptang'', under Captain Gerrit Collaert; and the [[galiot]] ''Weseltje'', under Captain Cornelis de Vlamingh, son of Willem de Vlamingh. The expedition departed [[Texel]] 'strictly incognito' on 3 May 1696<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vocsite.nl/schepen/detail.html?id=10355|title=De VOCsite : gegevens VOC-schip Geelvink (1696)|website=www.vocsite.nl|access-date=27 December 2019|archive-date=2 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190702000657/https://www.vocsite.nl/schepen/detail.html?id=10355|url-status=dead}}</ref> and, because of the [[Nine Years' War]] with France, sailed around the coast of Scotland to [[Tristan da Cunha]]. In early September the three ships arrived at [[Cape of Good Hope]], where they stayed for seven weeks because of scurvy among the crew. There, Cornelis de Vlamingh took command after Laurens T. Zeeman died.{{sfnp |Playford |1998 |p=5 }} On 27 October, they left using the [[Brouwer Route]] on the Indian Ocean route from the African [[Cape of Good Hope]] to the [[Dutch East Indies]]. On their way east they checked [[Île Saint-Paul]] and [[Île Amsterdam]], but no wreckage or survivors were found. On 5 December they sailed on.

On 29 December 1696, de Vlamingh's party landed on [[Rottnest Island]]. He saw numerous [[quokka]]s (a native marsupial), and thinking they were large rats he named the island {{lang |nl |{{'}}t Eylandt 't Rottenest}} ({{lit |Rats' Nest Island}}). He afterwards wrote of it in his journal:{{sfnp |Playford |1998 |p= }}{{page needed |date=April 2025}}
{{blockquote |text=I had great pleasure in admiring this island, which is very attractive, and where it seems to me that nature has denied nothing to make it pleasurable beyond all islands I have ever seen, being very well provided for man's well-being, with timber, stone, and lime for building him houses, only lacking ploughmen to fill these fine plains. There is plentiful salt, and the coast is full of fish. Birds make themselves heard with pleasant song in these scented groves. So I believe that of the many people who seek to make themselves happy, there are many who would scorn the fortunes of our country for the choice of this one here, which would seem a paradise on earth [...].}}

On 10 January 1697, he ventured up the [[Swan River (Western Australia)|Swan River]]. He and his crew are believed to have been the first Europeans to do so. However, they were not the first Europeans to see [[black swan]]s, as in 1636, Dutch mariner Antonie Caen observed black swans at sea off [[Bernier Island]].{{sfnp | Whittell |1954 |p=}}{{page needed |date=June 2025}} de Vlamingh named the river {{lang |nl |Zwaanenrivier}} ({{lit |Swan River}}) after the large number of swans they observed there. The crew split into three parties, hoping to catch an [[Aboriginal Australians|Aboriginal]] person, but about five days later they gave up their quest to catch a "South lander".{{sfnp |Playford |1998 |pp=36, 41 }}

On 22 January, they sailed through the [[Geelvink Channel]]. The next days they saw ten naked Aboriginal people. On 24 January they passed Red Bluff. Near Wittecarra they went looking for fresh water. On 4 February 1697, he landed at [[Dirk Hartog Island]], Western Australia, and [[Hartog Plate|replaced the pewter plate]] left by [[Dirk Hartog]] in 1616 with a new one that bore a record of both of the Dutch sea-captains' visits. The original plate is preserved in the [[Rijksmuseum Amsterdam|Rijksmuseum]] in Amsterdam.<ref>{{Cite web | title = Hartog & de Vlamingh Plates  | publisher = Western Australian Museum  | url = http://www.migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au/exhibition/objectsthroughtime/hartog/  | access-date = 18 May 2010}}</ref>{{sfnp |Major |1859 |p=lxxxii }}

De Vlamingh, with his son and Collaert, commanded a return fleet from the Indies on 3 or 11 February 1698,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vocsite.nl/schepen/detail.html?id=10363|title=de VOCsite : gegevens VOC-schip Gent (1693)|website=www.vocsite.nl|access-date=27 December 2019|archive-date=20 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220120101722/https://www.vocsite.nl/schepen/detail.html?id=10363|url-status=dead}}</ref> which arrived in his hometown, Amsterdam, on 16 August. However, it is not certain that de Vlamingh was still alive at that point, and burial records from Vlieland around this time do not exist. On an earlier retourship, de Vlamingh had sent [[Nicolaes Witsen|Witsen]] a box with seashells, fruits and vegetation from [[New Holland (Australia)|New Holland]] (now called ''Australia''), as well as eleven drawings that Victor Victorsz had made on the expedition. De Vlamingh also included some black swans, but they died on the voyage. Witsen offered the drawings to [[Martin Lister]].<ref>Smit, P & A.P.M. Sanders & J.P.F. van der Veen (1986) Hendrik Engel's Alphabetical List of Dutch Zoological Cabinets and Menageries, p. 306.</ref> Witsen, who had invested in the journey, was disappointed the men had been more interested in setting up trade than in exploring.{{sfnp |Heeres |1899 |pp=xvi, 83 }} In 1699, [[William Dampier]] would explore the coast of Australia and New Guinea.

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist |20em}}

==Sources==
{{Refbegin |30em |indent=yes}}
*{{cite report |last1=Houter |first1=Jan |last2=Nooy |first2=Kitty |year=2025 |title=After the trip |website=New Information About Willem De Vlamingh <!-- |url=https://new-information-about-willem-de-vlamingh.jouwweb.nl/after-the-trip |access-date=2025-04-19 -->}}
*{{cite Q |Q133908667 |mode=cs1 |last=Heeres |first=Jan Ernst }}{{sfn whitelist|CITEREFHeeres1899}}
*{{cite Q |Q19090938 |mode=cs1 |editor-last=Major |editor-first=Richard Henry |editor-link=Richard Henry Major }}{{sfn whitelist|CITEREFMajor1859}}
*{{cite book |last=Playford |first=Phillip |author-link=Phillip Playford |year=1998 |title=Voyage of Discovery to Terra Australis by Willem de Vlamingh in 1696–97 |publisher=Western Australian Museum |location=[[Perth]] |isbn=0730712214 }}
*{{cite Q |Q7747557 |last=Whittell |first=Hubert Massey |author-link=Hubert Whittell |publication-date=1954 |mode=cs1 }}{{sfn whitelist|CITEREFWhittell1954}}
*{{cite book |last=Witsen |first=Nicolaes |author-link=Nicolaes Witsen |year=1705 |title=Noord en Oost Tartarye |language=nl |publisher=François Halma |location=Amsterdam |url=https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/wits008noor02_01/wits008noor02_01_0174.php |access-date=2025-04-19 |via=Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren }}
{{Refend}}

<!-- *[http://willemdevlamingh.jouwweb.nl New Information About Willem De Vlamingh] -->

{{subject bar |auto=y |portal1=Netherlands |portal2=Biography }}
{{Polar exploration}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Vlamingh, Willem de}}
[[Category:17th-century Dutch explorers]]
[[Category:1640 births]]
[[Category:1690s deaths]]
[[Category:Dutch polar explorers]]
[[Category:Explorers of Western Australia]]
[[Category:Maritime exploration of Australia]]
[[Category:People from Vlieland]]
[[Category:Sailors on ships of the Dutch East India Company]]