Jacob the Mayor

See also: Mayor (homonymy)

Jacob the Mayor (born in 1585 with Antwerp, deceased at sea the December 31st 1616) is a Dutch sailor with whom one owes the discovery of the strait bearing his name, between the Ground of Fire and the island of the States, in Argentine. He is the first sailor to cross the Cape Horn, proving thus that the Earth of Fire was not a Continent.

The father of Jacob, Isaac the Mayor, was commercial Dutch of ascent Wallon. As a founder of the Australian Company, it had been seen allotting the right to make four voyages of discovered and trade with the Moluques. It could not however exploit this very advantageous trade without finding an alternative to the two existing ways of navigation, namely the Cape of Good Hope and the Magellan Strait, because it should have paid strong royalties with the Compagnie Dutchwoman of the Eastern Indies which had the monopoly of it.

Persuaded that it was possible to find a new passage, it succeeds in convincing the tradesmen of the small town of Hoorn to finance a forwarding made up of two ships. Forwarding embarked on June 14th 1615. Isaac the Mayor was with the orders of the Eendracht , and Willem Cornelisz Schouten with the orders of the Hoorn . January 29th, 1616, they discovered indeed a passage around the southern point of the American continent, which they named Kaap Hoorn .

May 16th, 1616, he discovered the islands Tonga. But in October, whereas they approached Java, they were stopped by agents of the Company Dutchwoman. The two sailors were taken back connected with the Netherlands and the Eendracht was confiscated, the Hoorn having sunk before at the time of a fire in Patagonie. Jacob the Mayor died at the 31 years age during the voyage between Batavia and Amsterdam.

His/her Isaac father brought a lawsuit with the Company Dutchwoman and was compensated three years later. The Company not only had to replace the ship and the cargo in addition to the lost interests, but which as had to recognize as Jacob the Mayor had discovered a new passage around Cape Horn.

In addition to the strait which bears its name, the Eastern Schouten islands with broad of the New Guinea are sometimes appointed islands the Mayor to distinguish them from others Schouten islands more in the west.

External bond

reports/ratios of Jacob the Mayor. Posthumous original edition of 1621, with 25 original charts of the whole world.

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