Joris van Spilbergen anchors in Table Bay

Joris van Spilbergen’s fleet reached the Cape during its 1601 outward voyage to the Indian Ocean. The surviving voyage account describes the fleet’s approach past Aguada Saldanha and its anchorage near the island later called Robben Island; Dutch usage transferred the name Saldanha to the bay now called Saldanha Bay and used Table Bay for the bay beneath Table Mountain. The account also records striking animal-like cries heard from the shore, but does not preserve a detailed, balanced description of the people whose presence the sailors encountered.

The visit was a maritime passage and anchorage, not a settlement. It belongs to the sequence of European voyages that made the Cape a known stopping point and mapped its anchorages, while local Khoikhoi communities remained the established pastoral users of the surrounding coastal landscape.

Significance

The visit contributed to European nautical knowledge of the Cape and to the recurring use of its anchorages on voyages to Asia.