Ung gallion de malacca brise desenu les aux Rochiers a nostre veue [Portuguese Galleon wrecked in Eastern Java]

Description

copper engraving.

View of the Portuguese Galleon wrecked in Eastern Java first published by Cornelis Claesz in Amsterdam in 1602, to accompany Olivier van Noort’s account of his three year circumnavigation of 1598-1601). They were engraved by two of the foremost engravers of the day, namely Baptista van Doetecum and Benjamin Wright. Here the imprints are in final state, with numbers added in the lower corners, from Isaak Commelin’s 1646 “Begin ende Voortgangh of the VOC”, pl. 25.
The fourth print is not of Borneo but of East Java. After Borneo, Van Noort had intended to buy Spices in Bantam but was warned that the Portuguese were after him. Going to the spice islands was not possible because of the monsoon season. Because he did not have good charts or a good pilot, Van Noort decided to rely on Lodewijcks’ journal to buy pepper at Gresik in East Java and get out of the Indies via Bali Strait. On the way, off the coast of Pasuruan, a large Portuguese Galleon was stuck on a reef, with a crew of 700-800. They said that they were on a trip from Malacca to the spice islands and desperately needed to be rescued, but Van Noort was down to 45 men and knew that the Portuguese had received news overland of his sailing plans and were sent out from Malacca to ambush him in this strait between Java and Madura.