Dirck Gerritsz Pomp

Dirck Pomp Gerritz ( Dirck Gerritsz also, Dirk Gerritz, Dirck China, Dirck Gerritzsoon, Dirck Gerritzsoon pomp ) (* 1544 in Enkhuizen, † 1608) was a Dutch navigator.

The age of eleven drew pomp with relatives to Lisbon, where he learned Portuguese and a dealer apprenticeship completed. In 1568 he became a merchant in Goa, Portuguese India. On board the Portuguese merchant ships he visited Japan and China. 1590 he returned to Enkhuizen, where he became friends with Jan Huygen van Linschoten, the pomp knowledge made ​​his advantage and pieces of it in his book Itinerary: Voyage ofte schipvaert van Linschoten January Huyghen van Oost ofte naer Portugaels India, 1579-1592 published.

1598 returned pomp to sea, this time under the Dutch flag under the command of Jacob Mahu. The aim of the trip was to get through circumnavigation of the tip of South America to the East Indian spices. Alternatively, you strove for Japanese silver and Chinese silk. Pomp had raved in the Netherlands by rich inventories of both products in China or Japan. On board was also William Adams, who later toured the first Englishman Japan. After Mahu died before reaching the Strait of Magellan, took over command of the pomp Blijde Boodschap. The ship was drifted southward, and this is at 64 ° S, a mountainous coast have been identified. If this message is true, pomp would be the true discoverer of the South Shetland Islands and thus also the first European who had seen a belonging to the Antarctic continent land mass. The indication is, however, controversial.

The Blijde Boodschap never reached the East Indies. When the supplies were scarce, controlled pomp mid- November 1599 the port of Valparaiso, where he was captured by the Spaniards. Five years later, he came as part of a prisoner exchange with the Netherlands again. He spent his last years in the service of the Dutch East India Company.