For a few moments, as it was lifted off the deck of a cargo ship and was suspended in the air above Newcastle Harbour, the Duyfken was the Flying Dutchman.
However, unlike that legendary ghost ship, the replica of the Duyfken, a late 16th-century Dutch sailing vessel, had safely arrived in port and was gently lowered back into the water on Wednesday morning.
"You can get quite emotional about these things," said Peter Bowman, CEO of the Duyfken 1606 Replica Foundation. "To see it in the water, where it's supposed to be is fantastic."
The replica was transported from Fremantle in Western Australia, where it was built and launched in the late 1990s as a reminder of Dutch maritime connections to Australia.
The Duyfken represents the earliest recorded connection. The ship, belonging to the Dutch East India Company, had sailed from modern-day Indonesia to the coastline around Cape York in 1606. It is believed to be the first European ship to have reached Australia.
"It was the starting point of the rich maritime history between the Dutch and the Australian continent, some 164 years before Cook," said Mr Bowman.
The Duyfken replica is bound for a new home at the Australian National Maritime Museum on the shores of Sydney Harbour. The museum has been handed the replica, after the WA government's funding for the ship's operation stopped earlier this year.
COVID-related restrictions meant the ship could not be easily sailed east to its new home, so the Duyfken was carried from WA by the cargo ship Marsgracht, which is, appropriately, given its historic Dutch maritime cargo, owned by a Netherlands-based company.
The cost of shipping the Duyfken from Fremantle to Newcastle was $285,000, Mr Bowman said.
From Newcastle, the Duyfken will journey to its new home under sail, once the masts and rigging have been reinstalled at the Thales shipyard in Carrington.
"We are pleased that the Duyfken has arrived safely in Newcastle to be re-rigged," said Kevin Sumption, Director and CEO of the Australian National Maritime Museum.
A team from the museum and the foundation would prepare the Duyfken for the journey to Sydney, Mr Sumption said, "where we can continue to tell the story of the early European exploration of the continent".
Peter Bowman said he hoped the Duyfken would be able to set sail on Monday and would arrive in Sydney by Wednesday, ready to greet a new audience.
"When people step aboard, it's quite an experience," he said. "You you feel like you're going back in time."
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