Joris Carolus

Joris Carolus (c. 1566, Enkhuizen - c. 1636, Amsterdam? ) was a Dutch cartographer and explorer. He served for both the Noordsche Compagnie and the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (Dutch East India Company).

Carolus apparently was a native of Enkhuizen. After he lost a leg at the Siege of Ostend (1601–04) he turned to the art of navigation and became a pilot (Stierman). In 1614 he was pilot of the Enkhuizen ship den Orangienboom (“Orange Tree”), under Jacob de Gouwenaer, one of the two ships sent by the whaling company Noordsche Compagnie on a voyage of discovery. Carolus claimed to have reached 83° N, but this would have been impossible given the ice conditions described by Robert Fotherby, who was also on a voyage of discovery in the ship Thomasine, sent by the rival Muscovy Company of England. According to Fotherby—who saw the Dutch ships riding off Amsterdam Island on July 6/16, "ready for the first opportunity to discover", and on August 9/19 "two ships of the Hollanders, that were appointed for northern discovery, were seene thwart of Faire Haven, sayling to the southwards"— the ice was packed along the northern coast of Spitsbergen. Even in shallops the English were only able to go as far north as Castlins Point (modern Gråhuken, at 79° 48’N).

On the same voyage Carolus came upon the island of Jan Mayen, which may have been discovered earlier the same year by the Dutchman Fopp Gerritsz., sailing in a whaleship sent by the Englishman John Clarke, of Dunkirk. Carolus named it after himself: Mr. Joris eylandt. He also named a bay Gowenaers bay (which name was moved to Gouwenaerbåen) after the master of his ship, and a cape Jan Meys hoeck. This latter name, in honor of Jan Jacobsz. May, master of the other ship sent on discovery, de goude Cath (“The Golden Cat”) of Amsterdam, was later (1620) applied to the island as a whole, giving it the name it retains to this day.

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