Hartog plate

Hartog Plate or Dirk Hartog's Plate is either of two plates, although primarily the first, which were left on Dirk Hartog Island during a period of European exploration of the western coast of Australia prior to European settlement there. The first plate, left by Dutch explorer Dirk Hartog, is the oldest-known artifact of European exploration in Australia still in existence. The original dish was returned to the Netherlands where it is on display in the Rijksmuseum. A replacement and additional dish were subsequently discovered on three additional visits over the next 200 years.

Dirk Hartog was the first confirmed European to see Western Australia, reaching it in his ship, the Eendracht. On 26 October 1616, he landed at Cape Inscription on the very northernmost tip of the island. Before departing, Hartog left behind a pewter dinner plate, nailed to a post and placed upright in a fissure on the cliff top.

The plate bears the inscription:

1616, DEN 25 OCTOBER IS HIER AENGECOMEN HET SCHIP D EENDRACHT
VAN AMSTERDAM, DEN OPPERKOPMAN GILLIS MIBAIS VAN LVICK SCHIPPER DIRCK HATICHS VAN AMSTERDAM
DE 27 DITO TE SEIL GEGHM (sic) NA BANTAM DEN
ONDERCOOPMAN JAN STINS OPPERSTVIERMAN PIETER DOEKES VAN BIL Ao 1616.

Translated into English:

On the 25th October, arrived here the ship Eendracht of
Amsterdam; the upper merchant, Gilles Mibais of Luyck; Captain Dirk
Hartog of Amsterdam; the 27th ditto set sail for Bantam; undermerchant
Jan Stein, upper steersman, Pieter Doekes from Bil, Ao, 1616.

81 years later, in 1697, the Dutch sea captain Willem de Vlamingh also reached the island and discovered Hartog's pewter dish with the post almost rotted away. He removed it and replaced it with another plate which was attached to a new post. The new post was made of a cypress pine trunk taken from Rottnest Island. The original dish was returned to the Netherlands, where it is still kept in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. De Vlamingh's replacement dish contains all of the text of Hartog's original plate as well as listing the senior crew of his own voyage. It concludes with:

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