Jacob Quaeckernaeck

Jacob Jansz. Quaeckernaeck (or Quackernaeck or Kwakernaak) was a native of Rotterdam and one of the first Dutchmen in Japan, arriving as one of William Adams's shipmates (the captain) on the De Liefde, which was wrecked on the coast of Kyūshū in 1600. The De Liefde departed Rotterdam in 1598, on a trading voyage and attempted a circumnavigation of the globe. The 24 survivors shipwrecked on the coast of Bungo Province in Japan were received by future Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, who questioned them at length on European politics and foreign affairs. Quaeckernaeck was allowed to leave Japan on 1604 on a Red Seal Ship provided by the daimyo of Hirado, together with another former crewman of the Liefde, Melchior van Santvoort, with the destination of Pattani in the Malay Peninsula.

From Pattani, Quaeckernaeck joined the fleet of Cornelis Matelief de Jonge, a compatriot and his nephew, on August 19, 1606. He died however in a naval engagement where Matelief destroyed half of the Portuguese armada near Malacca, on September 21, 1606.

Melchior van Santvoort returned directly to Japan from Pattani, and continued being active in trade between Japan and Southeast Asia.

References

• Boxer, Charles Ralph. The Christian Century in Japan: 1549-1650. University of California Press (1951)
• Clulow, Adam. The Company and the Shogun: The Dutch Encounter with Tokugawa Japan. Columbia University Press (2014). ISBN 0231164289