The Mariner's Mirror Podcast

In this the second episode in our mini-series exploring the maritime history of Australia we hear all about the Duyfken - the small dutch ship which, in 1606, is credited as being the first vessel on board of which a European crew first sighted the Australian mainland. To find out more about this ship and this crucial moment in time in global history, and also about the replica of the Duyfken that was built in Fremantle in 1999, Dr Sam Willis spoke with Graeme Cocks, a founding member of the Duyfken 1606 Replica Foundation, and subsequently its Project Director, Graham was responsible for the launch and final fit out of the replica and also for the history-making Chevron 2000 Duyfken Expedition to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Queensland, as well as the VOC 2002 Duyfken Voyage from Sydney to Indonesia and The Netherlands. This was the longest age of discovery replica ship voyage ever completed. Graham is the author of a book to be released later this year titled Through Darkest Seas which documents the building of the Duyfken replica and tells the story of the ship’s voyages through Indonesia and around the world.

This is the first episode of a new mini-series on the maritime history of Australia. We begin in the port of Fremantle, Western Australia, at the Western Australian Shipwrecks Museum to learn about the long and fascinating history of the Dutch in Australia. To find out more Dr Sam Willis spoke with Elly Spillekom, who worked as the coordinator of the Duyfken 1606 Replica Foundation, is a volunteer at the Shipwrecks Museum and a curator of the Dutch Australian Foundation. As Sam and Elly explore the museum we hear the story of how and why the Dutch were the first Europeans to sight Australia on board the Duyfken in 1606; how they went on to explore the coast; and why so many of the Dutch ships that followed the Duyfken were wrecked off Western Australia. 

This is the second episode of a two-part mini-series on the history of maritime special forces. In this episode we explore the history of combat divers - an elite within an elite.Combat divers must pass selection twice – firstly into their chosen elite military unit before passing a specialist combat diving qualification. Units are extremely small; they use specialist kit and vehicles; their work is dangerous and lonely; and their operations are cloaked in secrecy. Their history is rich and fascinating and runs from the Second World War to the present day, as so powerfully shown in the recent attack on the Russian Nordstream gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea. As their kit and equipment has constantly evolved, so has the nature of their work and their capabilities. To find out more Dr Sam Willis spoke with former Royal Marines Commando Michael G. Welham, a man with extensive military and commercial diving experience and author of the recent ‘Combat Divers: An illustrated history of special forces divers’. Sam and Mike discuss the Second World War roots of combat divers working in Grand Harbour, Malta to protect allied shipping; managing risk underwater; navigation underwater; equipment and weapons; the use of marine mammals in underwater warfare; and a variety of operations that highlight the changing challenges of special forces divers over time including the actions of Soviet Spetsnaz divers in Swedish territorial waters during the Cold War.