Willem Ysbrandtsz Bontekoe

From Freepedia

Willem Ysbrandtsz Bontekoe (1587-1657) was a skipper in the Dutch East India Company (VOC), who made only one voyage for the company (1618-1625). He became widely known because of the journal of his adventures that was published in 1646 under the title Journael ofte gedenckwaerdige beschrijvinge van de Oost-Indische reyse van Willem Ysbrantsz. Bontekoe van Hoorn, begrijpende veel wonderlijcke en gevaerlijcke saecken hem daer in wedervaren.

Bontekoe set out from his home port Hoorn in Holland in 1618. His destination was the town of Batavia in the Dutch East Indies; his ship was the Nieu Hoorn, an East-Indiaman (i.e. an armed merchant ship). After having put in at Cape Town, the ship sailed alone through the Indian Ocean. An accidental fire caused the gunpowder magazine to explode and sank the ship. The surviving crew and their wounded captain continued towards Batavia in two lifeboats. After a grueling journey, including an attack by hostile natives on Sumatra, they reached Bantam on Java. Bontekoe was given a new command and an order to harass the Chinese coast.

After his return to Holland, Bontekoe settled down in Hoorn to live a quiet life; he would have been forgotten had he not related his story to a publisher. The adventurous yarn, illustrated with etchings, was a bestseller in the 17th and 18th centuries and later became the basis of a very popular children's book by author Johan Fabricius, De Scheepsjongens van Bontekoe (1923), which is currently being filmed (release date 2006).