Abel Tasman

Born around 1603 in Lutjegast, Tasman worked as a merchant seaman before joining the Dutch East India Company in 1633 and sailing to Batavia. In 1642 the VOC sent him to probe the uncharted Southern Pacific for trade routes: he tracked east through the Roaring Forties, named the coast of Van Diemen's Land after his patron Anthony van Diemen, then pushed northeast to sight New Zealand's west coast, which he called Staten Landt. A clash with Māori on the South Island killed four of his men; he returned to Batavia having opened no trade and made no lasting contact. He continued with the Company until his death in 1659, and more than a century later James Cook used his charts to unlock British exploration and colonization of Australia and New Zealand.