The Brouwer Route was a
17th-century route used by ships sailing from the
Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa.
A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...
to the
Dutch East Indies, as the eastern leg of the
Cape Route
The European-Asian sea route, commonly known as the sea route to India or the Cape Route, is a shipping route from the European coast of the Atlantic Ocean to Asia's coast of the Indian Ocean passing by the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Agulhas ...
. The route took ships south from the Cape (which is at
34° latitude south) into the
Roaring Forties
The Roaring Forties are strong westerly winds found in the Southern Hemisphere, generally between the latitudes of 40°S and 50°S. The strong west-to-east air currents are caused by the combination of air being displaced from the Equator ...
, then east across the
Indian Ocean, before turning northeast for
Java. Thus it took advantage of the strong westerly winds for which the Roaring Forties are named, greatly increasing travel speed.
The problem with the route was that there was no accurate way, at the time, to determine
longitude,
and thereby to know how far east a vessel had travelled. A sighting of either
Amsterdam Island
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban are ...
or
Saint Paul Island was the only cue for ships to change direction and head north.
However, this was reliant on the captain's expertise. Consequently, many ships were damaged by or wrecked on rocks, reefs, or islands on the western
continental shelf of
Australia, which was virtually unknown to Europeans at the time.
The route was devised by the Dutch explorer
Hendrik Brouwer
Hendrik Brouwer (; 1581 – 7 August 1643) was a Dutch explorer and governor of the Dutch East Indies.
East Indies
Brouwer is thought to first have sailed to the Dutch East Indies for the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in 1606. In 1610, ...
in 1611, and found to halve the duration of the journey from Europe to Java, compared to the previous Arab and Portuguese
monsoon route, which involved following the coast of
East Africa northwards, sailing through the
Mozambique Channel
The Mozambique Channel (french: Canal du Mozambique, mg, Lakandranon'i Mozambika, pt, Canal de Moçambique) is an arm of the Indian Ocean located between the Southeast African countries of Madagascar and Mozambique. The channel is about l ...
round
Madagascar and then across the
Indian Ocean, sometimes via India. By 1616 the Brouwer Route was compulsory for ship captains of the
Dutch East India Company
The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock co ...
.
For the
British East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...
, Captain Humphrey Fitzherbert on ''Royal Exchange'' trialled the route in 1620, which they called the Southern route, and initially thought it a great success, but the second English ship to use the route, (sometimes spelt ''Trial''), incorrectly judged the longitude, sailed too far east before turning north, and was wrecked on
Tryal Rocks
Tryal Rocks, sometimes spelled Trial Rocks or Tryall Rocks, formerly known as Ritchie's Reef or Greyhound's Shoal, is a reef of rock located in the Indian Ocean off the northwest coast of Australia, northwest of the outer edge of the Montebel ...
off the
Pilbara coast of Australia in May 1622. The English then avoided the route for the next two decades.
The Brouwer Route played a major role in the European discovery of the west coast of
Australia. Many ships were wrecked along the coast, including in 1629, in 1656, in 1712, and in 1727. In 1696,
Willem de Vlamingh
Willem Hesselsz de Vlamingh (November 1640 – ) was a Dutch sea captain who explored the central west coast of New Holland ( Australia) in the late 17th century, where he landed in what is now Perth on the Swan River. The mission proved fruit ...
explored the Australian coast while looking for survivors of the , which had disappeared in 1694 with 302 souls on board. Neither survivors nor the ship was ever found.
See also
*
Clipper route
The clipper route was the traditional route derived from the Brouwer Route and sailed by clipper ships between Europe and the Far East, Australia and New Zealand. The route ran from west to east through the Southern Ocean, to make use of the s ...
References
Readings
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{{Trade route
Age of Sail
History of Western Australia
Transport in the Indian Ocean
Maritime history of the Dutch East India Company