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The Most Famous

EXPLORERS from Netherlands

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This page contains a list of the greatest Dutch Explorers. The pantheon dataset contains 405 Explorers, 14 of which were born in Netherlands. This makes Netherlands the birth place of the 10th most number of Explorers behind Germany and Italy.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Dutch Explorers of all time. This list of famous Dutch Explorers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Dutch Explorers.

Photo of Abel Tasman

1. Abel Tasman (1603 - 1659)

With an HPI of 77.10, Abel Tasman is the most famous Dutch Explorer.  His biography has been translated into 97 different languages on wikipedia.

Abel Janszoon Tasman (Dutch: [ˈɑbəl ˈjɑnsoːn ˈtɑsmɑn]; 1603 – 10 October 1659) was a Dutch seafarer and explorer, best known for his voyages of 1642 and 1644 in the service of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Born in 1603 in Lutjegast, Netherlands, Tasman started his career as a merchant seaman and became a skilled navigator. In 1633, he joined the VOC and sailed to Batavia, now Jakarta, Indonesia. He participated in several voyages, including one to Japan. In 1642, Tasman was appointed by the VOC to lead an expedition to explore the uncharted regions of the Southern Pacific Ocean. His mission was to discover new trade routes and to establish trade relations with the native inhabitants. After leaving Batavia, Tasman sailed westward to Mauritius, then south to the Roaring Forties, then eastward, and reached the coast of Tasmania, which he named Van Diemen's Land after his patron. He then sailed north east, and discovered the west coast of New Zealand, which he named Staten Landt, but later renamed Nieuw Zeeland after the Dutch province of Zeeland. Despite his achievements, Tasman's expedition was not entirely successful. The encounter with the Māori people on the South Island of New Zealand resulted in a violent confrontation, which left four of Tasman's men dead. He returned to Batavia without having made any significant contact with the native inhabitants or establishing any trade relations. Nonetheless, Tasman's expedition paved the way for further exploration and colonization of Australia and New Zealand by the British. Tasman continued to serve the Dutch East India Company until his death in 1659, leaving behind a legacy as one of the greatest explorers of his time.

Photo of Willem Barentsz

2. Willem Barentsz (1550 - 1597)

With an HPI of 73.00, Willem Barentsz is the 2nd most famous Dutch Explorer.  His biography has been translated into 73 different languages.

Willem Barentsz (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈʋɪləm ˈbaːrənts]; c. 1550 – 20 June 1597), anglicized as William Barents or Barentz, was a Dutch navigator, cartographer, and Arctic explorer. Barentsz went on three expeditions to the far north in search for a Northeast passage. He reached as far as Novaya Zemlya and the Kara Sea in his first two voyages, but was turned back on both occasions by ice. During a third expedition, the crew discovered Spitsbergen and Bear Island, but subsequently became stranded on Novaya Zemlya for almost a year. Barentsz died on the return voyage in 1597. The Barents Sea, among many other places, is named after him.

Photo of Jan van Riebeeck

3. Jan van Riebeeck (1619 - 1677)

With an HPI of 67.81, Jan van Riebeeck is the 3rd most famous Dutch Explorer.  His biography has been translated into 39 different languages.

Johan Anthoniszoon "Jan" van Riebeeck (21 April 1619 – 18 January 1677) was a Dutch navigator and colonial administrator of the Dutch East India Company.

Photo of Jacob Roggeveen

4. Jacob Roggeveen (1659 - 1729)

With an HPI of 65.42, Jacob Roggeveen is the 4th most famous Dutch Explorer.  His biography has been translated into 42 different languages.

Jacob Roggeveen (1 February 1659 – 31 January 1729) was a Dutch explorer who was sent to find Terra Australis and Davis Land, but instead found Easter Island (called so because he landed there on Easter Sunday). Jacob Roggeveen also found Bora Bora and Maupiti of the Society Islands, as well as Samoa. He planned the expedition along with his brother Jan Roggeveen, who stayed in the Netherlands.

Photo of Willem Janszoon

5. Willem Janszoon (1570 - 1631)

With an HPI of 62.55, Willem Janszoon is the 5th most famous Dutch Explorer.  His biography has been translated into 35 different languages.

Willem Janszoon (Dutch: [ˈʋɪləm ˈjɑnsoːn]; c. 1570 – c. 1630), sometimes abbreviated to Willem Jansz., was a Dutch navigator and colonial governor. Janszoon served in the Dutch East Indies in the periods 1603–1611 and 1612–1616, including as governor of Fort Henricus on the island of Solor. During his voyage of 1605–1606, he became the first European known to have seen the coast of Australia.

Photo of Willem Schouten

6. Willem Schouten (1567 - 1625)

With an HPI of 60.77, Willem Schouten is the 6th most famous Dutch Explorer.  His biography has been translated into 30 different languages.

Willem Cornelisz Schouten (c. 1567 – 1625) was a Dutch navigator for the Dutch East India Company. He was the first to sail the Cape Horn route to the Pacific Ocean.

Photo of Frederick de Houtman

7. Frederick de Houtman (1571 - 1627)

With an HPI of 57.38, Frederick de Houtman is the 7th most famous Dutch Explorer.  His biography has been translated into 26 different languages.

Frederick de Houtman (c. 1571 – 21 October 1627) was a Dutch explorer, navigator, and colonial governor who sailed on the first Dutch expedition to the East Indies from 1595 until 1597, during which time he made observations of the southern celestial hemisphere and contributed to the creation of 12 new southern constellations.

Photo of Anthony van Diemen

8. Anthony van Diemen (1593 - 1645)

With an HPI of 56.32, Anthony van Diemen is the 8th most famous Dutch Explorer.  His biography has been translated into 25 different languages.

Anthony van Diemen (also Antonie, Antonio, Anton, Antonius; 1593 – 19 April 1645) was a Dutch colonial governor.

Photo of Cornelis de Houtman

9. Cornelis de Houtman (1565 - 1599)

With an HPI of 55.61, Cornelis de Houtman is the 9th most famous Dutch Explorer.  His biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Cornelis de Houtman (2 April 1565 – 1 September 1599) was a Dutch merchant seaman who commanded the first Dutch expedition to the East Indies. Although the voyage was difficult and yielded only a modest profit, Houtman showed that the Portuguese monopoly on the spice trade was vulnerable. A flurry of Dutch trading voyages followed, eventually leading to the displacement of the Portuguese and the establishment of a Dutch monopoly on spice trading in the East Indies.

Photo of Olivier van Noort

10. Olivier van Noort (1558 - 1627)

With an HPI of 55.13, Olivier van Noort is the 10th most famous Dutch Explorer.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Olivier van Noort (1558 – 22 February 1627) was a Dutch merchant captain and pirate and the first Dutchman to circumnavigate the world.Olivier van Noort was born in 1558 in Utrecht. He left Rotterdam on 2 July 1598 with four ships and a plan to attack Spanish possessions in the Pacific and to trade with China and the Spice Islands during the Eighty Years' War between the Netherlands and Spain. His ships were poorly equipped, especially in the way of armament, and the crews were unruly. Van Noort sailed through the Strait of Magellan, and captured a number of Spanish and other ships along the Pacific coast of South America. While in the strait his men killed around forty indigenous Selknam, in what was the bloodiest recorded event in the strait until then.He lost two ships on the way due to a storm, including his largest ship, the Hendrick Frederick, which was wrecked on Ternate in the Maluku Islands. In November and December 1600, he established a berth for his two remaining ships, Mauritius and Eendracht, in the surroundings of Corregidor Island at Manila Bay in the Philippines. From there he engaged in what were perceived by the Spanish as pirate activities, targeting the sailing route to and from Manila. This situation was ended after the naval combat of Fortune Island on December 14, 1600. The Spanish lost their flagship, the galleon San Diego (its wreck would be found in 1992 and yield a treasure in porcelain and gold pieces) but the Spanish captured the Dutch Eendracht, making van Noort's position untenable and forcing him to retire from the Philippines. Van Noort returned to Rotterdam via what would become the Dutch East Indies and the Cape of Good Hope, on 26 August 1601 with his last ship, the Mauritius, and 45 of the original 248 crew. The venture barely broke even, but was the inspiration for more such expeditions. The united Dutch East India Company was formed a few months later. Van Noort's voyage is also told by Hans Koning in the book The Golden Keys (Doubleday 1956, 1970), a fictionalized retelling of the voyage for children.

Pantheon has 14 people classified as explorers born between 1550 and 1835. Of these 14, none of them are still alive today. The most famous deceased explorers include Abel Tasman, Willem Barentsz, and Jan van Riebeeck. As of April 2022, 1 new explorers have been added to Pantheon including Olivier van Noort.

Deceased Explorers

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Newly Added Explorers (2022)

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