Seaman H 1771

Lucky Eddie

Sr. Member
Feb 9, 2010
358
187
An interesting topic for research maybe.

Much is known of the discoveries of Australia by some presume the Chinese fleets of Zeng He in the 1400's, Portugal's Christopher Mendonca in the early to mid 1500's and later the Dutch & French in the 1600's, the English in the 1700s and so it goes.

An item of interest to me is the little known "Seaman H, 1771" rock inscription located in the Kimberleys region of Western Australia!.

I've studied what I can find of early navigators travels in this area, and so far at least find no record of any voyages past this section of Australian coast line in 1771 within the common English, French, Dutch, Portuguese. Spanish expeditioners.

Yes Capt Cook Did sail the Endeavor back to England from the east coast of Australia (Botany Bay / Sydney) in 1771 - but certainly not bye this route past north west of Western Australia.

So - one gets to wondering who was this as yet unknown explorer / seaman, who landed on our North Western Shores of the Kimberley region, and engraved the first Letter of his name "H" and the year "1771" indelibly into the rocks there?

Leaving a record of ones visit is not so strange many did so upon our shores including Pieter Albertz of the Vergulde Draeck in 1656, Wickham and Stokes in the HMS Beagle in 1840, as but two well known examples.

But for such a man to have left such an inscription on our shores in the even now remote Kimberley's in the year 1771, we need to have had a voyage to these parts in that year.

So far - i've been unable to locate such a voyage mentioned anywhere on the internet or in the books etc that I've studied that encompasses that year and that area.

There are recorded voyages both before and after, but non so far in that year that I'm aware of that encompass the year 1771 and that p[articular part of Australia.

Anyone out there aware of any such voyages that might account for such an historic inscription?

Many thanks in advance.
 

OP
OP
L

Lucky Eddie

Sr. Member
Feb 9, 2010
358
187
Thanks for the wealth of reply's! ::)

Cook_Three_Voyages_59.png


You can see from the above that while Cook passed that way it was on his first journey not his return to England in 1771 - so seaman H of 1771 rock inscription fame cannot reasonably have been one of cooks men it would seem!.

Cheers!
 

mariner

Hero Member
Apr 4, 2005
877
18
Lucky Eddie,

Not an easy question to answer, of course. It is likely that the inscription was made by an English sailor, assuming that it is not a later fake.

I note from Cook's diary that as he put into Batavia in October 1770, on his way back to England, he noted that there was an East Indiaman ship from England there, called the Harcourt, and two English country ships, as well as several large Dutch ships and a number of smaller vessels.

It is quite possible that one of these English ships could have taken a trip to the West coast of Australia in the year or so after Cook saw them. It would take some research to do so, but at least with the Harcourt, there is a starting point. There might be a record of its voyage in the British Library, or some other UK source. I might be in England in October, and if I do, I will do a quick search at the BL. Their catalogues of manuscripts are not on-line as yet.

Mariner
 

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OP
L

Lucky Eddie

Sr. Member
Feb 9, 2010
358
187
Thanks ever so much mariner - thats going above & beyond the call of duty.

http://ahoy.tk-jk.net/MoreImages/DutchMap.jpg

I'm trying to find as many such maps as this depicting "who sailed where" over that time period.

I've got a hard copy somewhere that I can't locate right now.

I can't find it online sadly....

I'll keep looking till I do find it then post it here if for no other reason than to exclude various explorers/sailors who were here either before or after.

The age - has actually been "dated" by a world expert as being contemporaneous with its engraved date by microscopic erosion edge wear analysis.....

We are reasonably sure it is not a fake - but thus far haven't been able to track down a likely engraver / sailor visitor to that area in that year.

Could be anyone - an American whaler even...

Cheers
 

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