Nigel Ridgway – who prefers to be called Nig – presented an interesting account of the Duyfken sailing vessel; best known for making the first European landing on the Australian continent in 1606. This predated Captain James Cook’s arrival on the eastern coast by 164 years and marked the first contact that Europeans had with indigenous Australians. Duyfken means “Little Dove”, and she was used by the Dutch East India Company as a scout ship to explore uncharted territories and to break into the very lucrative East Indies spice trade. Her Captain was Willem Janszoon, and in 1608 the vessel was damaged beyond repair after a battle with three Portuguese galleys. In the mid 1990s it was decided that a replica of the Duyfken should be built in Fremantle to match the replica of the Endeavour, and the Duyfken replica was launched in January 1999. It spent several years travelling around and being stationed in various ports in Australia, finally coming to rest in Darling Harbour in Sydney – adjacent to the Endeavour replica. Nig presented a series of photos which gave a very good insight into much of the detail of the Duyfken replica, and it is clear that there wasn’t much space where crew members could sleep due to all the bags of spices! It is still possible to inspect the vessel and to go on sailing expeditions around the harbour – for a small fee.