[AUSTRALIA-WA] Bedout Island to Cape Cuvier

Scarce very large scale Hydrographic chart of Western Australia, with insets at lower right of Port Robinson and Port Walcott. The chart extends from Port Hedland to Red Bluff. First issued 5th February 1883 with large corrections to 1902 and small corrections IV-1914. An added section has been pasted on at lower left . At top centre is the historically famous Barrow Island which from 1622 to 1820 were known as the Trial (or Tryall) Islands. See below.

Collections:
National Library Australia:  Not in collection

TRIAL ISLANDS HISTORY / present Barrow Island, off the Pilbarra coast, Western Australia.

On many early Dutch charts the Trial Islands are clearly marked, as their supposed discovery by Captain Brookes in 1622, placed them directly in the path of VOC ships sailing to Batavia. Their position caused great concern to Hessel Gerritsz who had been appointed the first cartographer of the VOC in 1617 and quickly added the island on Dutch charts. The island was named after Brookes ship the Trial, which had sailed for Java using the new sea route to the Indies pioneered by Brouwer in 1611 and had struck unknown rocks on the night of 25th May 1622, and wrecked with only forty-six survivors including Captain Brookes. In his subsequent report to the VOC authorities in Batavia, Brookes stated that the rocks were well west of their true position in an attempt to avoid blame for his error. Soon after, a Dutch ship, the Wapen van Hoorn, ran aground in a storm at the land of d’Eendracht but managed to sail after the storm abated. Concerned for the viability of their trade route, the VOC prioritised the accuracy of their charting of the region, with captains and pilots required to record all shallows and reefs in the area. Due to their incorrect placement on the Gerritsz chart, the Trial Rocks remained a mystery for a further two hundred years until Phillip Parker King, sailing in the Mermaid, investigated their position in 1820 and finally confirmed, ‘there remains no doubt in my mind but that Barrow Island … are the same Tryal Rocks’.