A ROUSING version of the Dutch folk song All Who Want to be Privateers at a shanty night last week helped mark the 25th anniversary of the first sail of the Duyfken replica off WA’s shores.
Susie Vandermark was captain of the 100-tonne Duyfken on its final WA voyage before it was press-ganged into service at the Australian National Maritime Museum in 2020, and led the singing with former crew member Marjan van Dijk and former Duyfken 1606 Replica Foundation coordinator Elly Spillekom.
Ms Spillekom said although the folk song (Kaapren Varen in Dutch) was about hardtack-chewing crew members needing to have beards, the trio relished the opportunity to jump on stage with The Lost Quays.
“We did it,” she crowed.
“We sung our hearts out with Kaapren Varen; it was not about the men who had beards, but about three women who had the balls to get on stage and keep the Duyfken 1606 Replica alive.
“It was magic and we celebrated 25 years of Duyfken sailing history.”
The Duyfken was launched in January 1999, but the masts and sails were added later and her first trip under her own sail was from the MG Kailis Wharf on July 10 at 10am.
She was initially towed out of the harbour by a couple of tugs, but was soon under the command of her first captain Greg Tonnison.
Duyfken project director Graeme Cocks, who penned the definitive book on the construction, said at the time the sail would be the ultimate test of the experimental archaeology used to perfectly copy the original vessel.
“This will be the first time in 350 years that a Dutch ship of this kind has sailed in the Indian Ocean, or indeed, any ocean,” Mr Cocks said.
by STEVE GRANT
Perth Voice Interactive 
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