Jacob Le Maire

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Jacob Le Maire (c. 1585 - December 22, 1616) was a Dutch mariner, born in Antwerp, who circumnavigated the earth in 1615-16. He discovered the strait between Tierra del Fuego and Staten Island, Argentina; that strait is now named the Le Maire Strait in his honour. He was the first person to round Cape Horn, proving that Tierra del Fuego was not a continent.

In June 1615 Jacob le Maire and Willem Schouten sailed with two vessels, Eendracht and Hoorn, from Texel in the United Provinces, in command of an expedition whose objective was to evade the trade restrictions of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) by finding a new route to the Pacific and the Spice Islands. They followed the north coasts of New Ireland and New Guinea and visited adjacent islands, including what became known as the Schouten Islands. In 1616 they rounded Cape Horn, which they named for the Hoorn, which was lost in a fire. The Dutch city of Hoorn was also the birthplace of Schouten. Although they had opened an unknown route, the VOC claimed infringement of its monopoly of trade to the Spice Islands. Le Maire and Schouten were arrested and the Eendracht was confiscated in Java. After being released, they returned from Jacatra to Amsterdam; Le Maire died during that journey.

[edit] External links

• Le Maire reports, on line thanks to: Universitätsbibliothek Bielefeld (original edition from 1621, in Dutch, with 25 original maps from all over the world, 256 pages).
• Robert Kerr (1824): Voyage round the world, in 1615-1617, by William Cornelison Schouten and Jacques le Maire, going round Cape Horn.

[edit] References

• Dirk J. Barreveld, Tegen de Heeren van de VOC - Isaac Le Maire En De Ontdekking Van Kaap Hoorn, Sdu uitgeverij, 2002