The National Library has been generously lent four rare Dutch navigational charts by businessman Kerry Stokes.
The charts, circa 1725-1740, were issued with other charts and instruments to voyages bound for the East Indies. Two of them show part of Western Australia and the plots of an actual voyage with the skipper getting lost and taking evasive action in a storm. This is the only document in Australia with an original plotted course of the Dutch to these waters and its survival is significant given the charts were mostly wiped clean after each voyage, to be used for the return journey.
The charts were created by the VOC, also known as the Dutch United East India Company, which, from 1602, sent ships to Asia to buy spices for the European market.
