Pieter Kielmann

Píter Kílman
A portrait of Kílman from 1670, shortly after his return from the Levantine circumnavigation. Painted by Gerolt Anderssón.
Born	(1619-05-30)May 30, 1619 Hernemünde, Hendalarsk
Died	May 21, 1693(1693-05-21) (aged 73) Hernemünde, Hendalarsk
Occupation	Merchant, explorer, cartographer, author
Known for	Charting the Vandarch Circumnavigating and mapping the Levantine coast
Notable work	Two Years in the Vandarch Five Years 'Round Levantia

Pieter Kielmann (Hendalarskisch: Píter Kílman; 30th May 1619 - 21st May 1693) was a Hendalarskara merchant, explorer, cartographer and writer known for his accounts of his travels in, around and beyond Levantia during the seventeenth century; these are considered some of the earliest classic literature in the Hendalarskara language. As Hendalarsk became a more stagnant and isolated society in the century after his death, his chronicles and maps are also considered some of the last great works of the Hendalarskara Golden Age.

Early life

Born into a Hernemünde mercantile family, the young Píter (in his own telling) acquired his love for nautical travel while accompanying his father Henrik on trade trips along the Herne river and across the central Vandarch to the Pentapolis; the Kílmans were copper merchants and the Maximilianic Unification had fully opened the Herne watershed (and its rich seams of copper) to commercial interests. Píter was remarkably well-educated even by the standards of a merchant; in addition to the typical education in mathematics, navigation and languages such as Middle Argot, Fhasen, Khunyer, Burgoignesc and Lebhan, he was also a keen student of Hernemündre history and had some knowledge of engineering principles.

By the age of 18, Píter was conducting his own voyages to the Kílmans' factor in Jendaburg, where the family's copper was eagerly sought by the island's many gunsmiths; it was on Jendaburg that Píter also met his future wife, Íbhe, the daughter of a prominent local syndic. The two were married in 1638, in a strategic marriage which nevertheless soon became a love match and produced three children. Tragedy struck in 1641 - Henrik died in the waters off the Pentapolis when his ship struck a reef and foundered, along with its copper cargo. Píter's older brother Mikel inherited control of the family firm, with Píter as a minor partner, and over the subsequent decade the two brothers worked to repair the damage of 1641 and then take the firm to new heights. Píter remained in Mikel's employ as a trusted lieutenant until 1651, but then requested that Mikel buy him out so that he could dedicate himself fully to exploration.

Vandarch journeys

Hernemünde to the Pentapolis

Kílman sailed from Hernemünde to Hukenen, then as now the political centre of the Pentapolis, in March 1651, at the outset of the Vandarch sailing season. The journey to the Pentapolis, although 500 miles as the crow flies, took Kílman's crew closer to 750 miles; premodern Gothic sailors had a tradition of sailing in sight of land wherever possible. This was doubly important in Kílman's case, since the main aim of his expedition was to make more accurate charts than any which had previously been compiled. The journey consequently took 21 days, far longer than the week a sailing ship might typically expect to take, as Kílman and his crew regularly stopped off at coastal villages to check their bearings and amend their records. In addition to charting the coastline itself, Kílman's fleet managed to identify the precise locations of dozens of reefs and other hazardous offshore features which had otherwise only previously been defined in relative terms. Many of these hazards were subsequently highlighted by Hendalarsk's first national lighthouse programme, with the primitive towers (some of which have been preserved in working order down to the present day) known as "Kílman houses". This work was not, however, without risk; the ship Sant Herast ran aground on a particularly complex network of shoals off the coast of Tewested, with 54 of the vessel's complement of 230 men lost to the Vandarch. The ship's captain was put ashore at Tewested in disgrace; the ship's pilot, found to be drunk at the wheel, was subsequently hanged from the yardarm of Kílman's flagship Henrik.

Nor did the expedition's troubles end there. The fleet's charting work, although invaluable for sailors across the Vandarch, drew suspicion as soon as Kílman arrived in the Pentapolis. The archipelago was notorious across the region for its maze of thousands of small islets, reefs, shoals and whirlpools, which in centuries past had rendered this narrowest stretch of the sea all but unnavigable; much of the Pentapolis' commercial advantage was based on the cities' provision of skilled pilots to passing vessels, allowing them to transit the bottleneck safely - while the vessels' own crews were kept below decks, to prevent independent charting. Kílman's expedition therefore, to the great syndics of the archipelago, represented a substantial threat to their interests, while Kílman himself was not initially prepared to compromise on his work, since conceding to the Pentapolitan authorities could have been seen by other maritime powers in the region as license to restrict his work themselves. The fleet, having passed through the relatively well-known (and consequently less commercially sensitive) waters of Molinstadt, therefore spent almost two months at anchor off the small island of Habel, in the territory of Wrzeszcz-Kokoszki, with its ships under the close supervision of the Pentapolitan fleet and its crew largely confined to quarters barring rare excursions onto the island. Kílman himself was taken to Hukenen to negotiate with the syndics there, while he also sent word back to Hendalarsk in the hope of receiving formal royal authorisation to continue his work as planned. The royal response, when it finally arrived in early June, was vague but emphatic; Kílman had to be allowed to continue his work unhindered. The explorer himself had, however, leveraged his family ties through his wife to achieve a less sweeping proposal in the meantime. He would be allowed to consult Pentapolitan charts, under close supervision, in the offices of the Pilots' Guild of Hukenen, and thereby mark out any islands over quarter of a mile in length in the entire archipelago, as well as unimpeded access to the coasts of Wrzeszcz-Kokoszki and Jendaburg. The fleet would not, however, be permitted to visit or chart the most commercially sensitive waters of the Pentapolis - the treacherous sea between Wrzeszcz-Kokoszki, Miledaas and Hukenen - in any detail, with knowledge of the safe routes through the reefs and shoals to remain the sole possession of Pentapolitan pilots. These provisions would be kept secret until after the completion of his task, so as not to jeopardise his position with other authorities whose standing the Pentapolis had no interest in safeguarding. With these tortuous negotiations concluded, Kílman and the fleet finally left Habel under escort on 13 June 1651; a journey which would take an ordinary merchant vessel a week or so had now taken three months.