author
Cornelis Janszoon Coen
A 17th-century Dutch seafarer, he is remembered for the journal he kept during Maarten Gerritsz. Vries’s 1643 voyage to the waters north and east of Japan. His account offers a rare firsthand glimpse of early Dutch exploration in East Asia.
1 Audiobook
Reize van Maarten Gerritsz. Vries in 1643 naar het Noorden en Oosten van Japan volgens het journaal gehouden door C.J. Coen, op het schip Castricum
by Maarten Gerritszoon Vries, Cornelis Janszoon Coen, Philipp Franz von Siebold
About the author
Cornelis Janszoon Coen is known today through the journal he kept as opperstuurman (chief mate) on the ship Castricum during the 1643 expedition led by Maarten Gerritsz. Vries. Later readers came to know him mainly through that voyage narrative, which preserves a firsthand record of Dutch travel and discovery in the seas around Japan and northeastern Asia.
Older Dutch biographical references identify him as being from Hoorn. One of those sources also says it was considered highly likely that he was related to the better-known Jan Pieterszoon Coen, though that link is presented as a probability rather than a firmly documented fact.
For modern readers, his importance lies less in a long famous career than in the survival of his writing. The journal associated with his name remains a valuable window into 17th-century navigation, exploration, and the Dutch encounter with East Asia.