William Keeling

Who is William Keeling?

William Keeling was an English mariner and East India Company sea captain best known for his role in the early English voyages to the East Indies in the early seventeenth century. Commanding the ship Red Dragon and later serving as General, or commander, of the Company's Third Voyage to the East Indies from 1607 to 1610, Keeling sailed extensively through the Indian Ocean, establishing English trading links with Bantam and other Southeast Asian ports. During the homeward leg of this voyage in 1609, Keeling's ships passed a low, uninhabited coral atoll in the eastern Indian Ocean and recorded its position, marking the first confirmed European sighting of what became known as the Keeling Islands. The atoll remained uninhabited for more than two centuries after his sighting, its remote position and low profile keeping it largely unvisited by other shipping. When British and other traders finally settled the atoll in the 1820s, the combined name Cocos (Keeling) Islands was adopted, joining Keeling's name to the Malay word for the coconut palms that cover the islands. Keeling went on to command further East India Company voyages and later served the Company in an administrative capacity in England.

Sources: The Voyage of William Keeling to the East Indies, 1607-1610, recorded in Purchas his Pilgrimes, compiled by Samuel Purchas (1625) · Gibson-Hill, C.A., "The Keeling Islands and Christmas Island", Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (1948) · Bunce, Pauline, The Cocos (Keeling) Islands: Australia's Atolls in the Indian Ocean, Cambridge University Press (1988)