Discovery of the Prince Edward Islands
- When
- 1663
- Where
- Prince Edward Islands
- Episodes
- 2
In 1663, Barent Barentszoon Lam of the Dutch East India Company discovered the Prince Edward Islands aboard the Maerseveen. He named them Dina and Maerseveen, though erroneous coordinates prevented their rediscovery by later Dutch sailors.
Episodes
- Arrival of the Maerseveen
Barent Barentszoon Lam reached the Prince Edward Islands on 4 March 1663 while commanding the Dutch ship Maerseveen.
- Naming and Navigational Error
Lam named the islands Dina and Maerseveen, but recorded their latitude incorrectly as 41° South, preventing their rediscovery by Dutch sailors.
Background and detail
Dutch Discovery. Barent Barentszoon Lam, sailing for the Dutch East India Company, reached the islands on 4 March 1663 aboard the ship Maerseveen. The islands are described as small, uninhabited, and subantarctic, located in the southern Indian Ocean.
Initial Naming. Lam named the islands Dina and Maerseveen. However, the islands were erroneously recorded at 41° South latitude. This navigational error meant that subsequent Dutch sailors failed to locate them again.
People involved
- Barent Barentszoon Lam · Dutch East India Company sailor
Sources
- Prince Edward Islands Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-07
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.