Our seasoned expedition vessel, m/v Plancius, has a storied history in service with us across the Arctic and Antarctica and in her previous roles with the Dutch Navy. But did you know that our plucky little Plancius is named after an important figure in cartography, the Dutch-Flemish astronomer, cartographer, and clergyman Petrus Plancius?
A figure of importance in the Age of Exploration
Born in West Flanders, today part of Belgium, in 1552, Petrus Plancius at times lived with his Protestant parents in England and Germany, studying theology, history, and languages, along with mathematics, astronomy, and geography, all of which would later shape his understanding of the known world and establish him as an important figure in 16th and 17th-century exploration of the globe.
Before his involvement in cartography, Plancius spent time as a Calvinist preacher, living in Flanders and the cities of Mechelen, Leuven, and Brussels. With the Spanish seizure of the low countries in 1585, Plancius fled to Amsterdam to escape religious persecution. Here, his interest in cartography and maritime navigation flourished, partly thanks to his access to Portuguese nautical charts smuggled out of Lisbon.
Some of Plancius's earliest work as a cartographer was the production of several maps for the Dutch bible of 1590, one of which would go on to be published separately as the double-paged world map, Orbis Terrarum Typus De Integro Multis In Locis Emendatus auctore Petro Plancio in 1594. This map was vital as it showed the four possible sailing routes from Europe to the increasingly lucrative markets of Southeast Asia.
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At the time, Dutch trade with emerging colonies in India and what would become the Dutch East Indies was beginning to grow, with many small trading companies arising and seeking safer navigation routes to these lucrative ports in the east. Plancius became closely involved with the training and equipping expeditions to the East Indies in the 1590s, particularly through navigational instructions and maritime-based maps.
It was at this time that Plancius published Insulae Moluccae celeberrimæ, also known as the spice map, which was, at the time, celebrated as a comprehensive chart of the East Indies based on smuggled Portuguese manuscripts and reports from recent travelers to the region.
Of note was his involvement in the Eerste Schipvaart (the first Dutch expedition to the East Indies), which was undertaken between 1595 and 1597. Led by Cornelis de Houtman, the expedition was instrumental in opening the East Indies as a possibility for Dutch trade. Plancius trained all the navigators on the expedition, provided maps and charts, and instructed them to take star observations and chart constellations.
When the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC) was founded in 1602, Petrus Plancius was an early investor and, according to some sources, acted as their first hydrographer. Plancius is known to have produced over 100 maps for the VOC, along with navigational guides and maritime charts.
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Charting the known world and the stars in the sky
Plancius's best-known world map, Nova et exacta Terrarum Orbis Tabula geographica ac hydrographica, was published in 1592. Like all his maps, this used the Mercator projection, of which Plancius was a strong promotor. But, alongside mapping the known world, Plancius also developed an interest in charting the night skies.
In 1589, Plancius collaborated with the Dutch cartographer Jacob van Langren to produce a celestial globe. This made use of the sparse information available regarding the southern hemisphere and had rough approximations of southern constellations such as the Southern Cross and Southern Triangle.
In 1595, when assisting the preparations of the Eerste Schipvaart expedition, Plancius trained Pieter Dirkzoon Keyser, navigator of the Hollandia, to make astronomical observations to fill in the blank portions of European maps of the southern sky. At the time, no reliable charts of the southern skies existed, which was a significant hindrance to maritime navigation at a time when sailors made use of the stars to set their heading and pinpoint their position.
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Keyser didn't survive the Hollandia voyage but succeeded in gathering invaluable information during the journey to the Spice Islands. He developed a catalog of around 130 new stars, which formed 12 new southern constellations. When Hollandia returned to the Netherlands, Keyser's findings were presented to Plancius, who utilized them in a new, larger celestial globe in 1597/98, created in collaboration with another renowned Dutch cartographer and family namesake of our expedition vessel m/v Hondius, Jodocus Hondius the Elder.
These new constellations, Apis, Apus, Chamaeleon, Dorado, Grus, Hydrus, Indus, Pavo, Phoenix, Tucana, and Volans, were named for animals or features from contemporary natural history journals. The Southern Cross and Southern Triangle were also plotted accurately, making Plancius the earliest surviving source for their recorded positions.
In 1612, Plancius added eight further constellations on another celestial globe; however, only two, Monoceros and Camelopardalis, survive in modern skies, with the others now considered part of larger constellations. His constellations from the Hollandia voyage were later incorporated into Johann Bayer's Uranometria, the first star atlas covering the entire celestial sphere to be published.
Plancius's impact on our understanding and interpretation of the night sky continues today. Of the 88 constellations now accepted by modern astronomers, Plancius is credited with authorship of 15. His contributions to terrestrial and celestial cartography were significant, paving the way for the expansion of trade globally and empowering sailors, explorers, and adventurers to venture to the edges of the known world.
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A brief history of m/v Plancius
The vessel today known as m/v Plancius was launched in 1975 as an oceanographic research vessel for the Royal Dutch Navy, named Hr. Ms. Tydeman. The ship sailed for the Dutch Navy until June 2004 in oceanographic and hydrographic roles, both in military and civilian research service. Notably, the Tydeman fracture zone between Maderia and the Azores was named after the vessel.
Following her retirement from Dutch Naval service, she was purchased by Oceanwide Expeditions and converted to an expedition cruise vessel, being rechristened m/v Plancius in 2009. Today, Plancius flies the Dutch flag and fully complies with the latest SOLAS regulations (Safety Of Life At Sea). She sails in the Arctic and Antarctica, taking guests from the shores of Greenland and the glaciers of Svalbard to the icy depths of the Antarctic Peninsula and far-flung sub-Antarctic islands.
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