SAILING IN ABEL TASMAN’S WAKE – A THEORY ON WHERE TO PLACE WITS AND SWEERS EŸLANDEN IN VAN DIEMEN’S LAND.

Wits, Sweers and Maetsuijker Eÿlanden were the first three groups of islands named by Abel Tasman on the west and south coasts of Van Diemen’s Land in November 1642. The first theories about where to place Wits Eÿlanden go back to French and British expeditions in the late 1700s. Others have later suggested where to place the second group, Sweers Eÿlanden. This article presents a study of the charts, sketches and descriptions in Tasman’s journals, comparing them with the landscape they passed, and shows that the combined information hidden in the old sources may be more precise than previously believed. This understanding can be used to sail in Tasman’s wake and suggest where these “islands” should be placed on the modern map. As an entry to the analyses, it is necessary also to look at some questions connected to the placing and naming of Wits Eÿlanden on the old charts and to modern-day De Witt Island. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]