Zaandam

Duyfken was a small Dutch ship built in the Netherlands. She was a fast, lightly-armed ship probably intended for undeep water, small valuable cargoes, bringing messages, sending provisions, or privateering. The tonnage of Duyfken has been given as 25-30 lasten (50-60 tons). In 1606, during a voyage of discovery from Bantam (Banten), Java, captained by Willem Janszoon, she encountered the Australian mainland and Janszoon is thus credited with the first authenticated European discovery of Australia. A full size replica of the Duyfken was built by the "Duyfken 1606 Replica Foundation" jointly with the Maritime Museum of Western Australia and launched on January 24, 1999 in Fremantle. After goodwill tours to Sydney, Queensland, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, South Africa, and finally Texel in Netherlands. While in the Netherlands, the floor of the hold was replaced by antique Dutch bricks. For a period in 2005, The Duyfken was berthed alongside the Old Swan Brewery on the Swan River in Perth, Western Australia. The replica was open for visits by the public. In 2006, Western Australia played a big role in the 400th anniversary of the original Duyfkens visit to Australia and a national group has begun planning to commemorate the arrival of the Duyfken and to mark this important milestone in Australia's history by also giving recognition to all who followed her and contributed to the mapping of the Australian coast. The Duyfken is currently berthed at the Queensland Maritime <b>...</b>