It is a well known fact Dutchman Abel Tasman is considered the first European to discover New Zealand and Tasmania.
There are few remaining artefacts from his voyage apart from maps, but now one Nelson man is convinced that a link to the past is buried in the sands off the coast of Australia, and he is determined to dig it up.
Grahame Anderson believes he has located the anchor Tasman lost from his ship just off Tasmania's coast in 1642 and he is hoping to bring it back to the surface.
Tasman left an enduring mark when he visited here over 360 years ago naming much of this country and Australia.
Now a 20 year search could uncover another link to the Dutch voyager.
"Recovering precious things from the seabed is a strong urge I guess and it certainly is for me," says Anderson.
According to Tasman's diary, it was lost off the coast of Tasmania, an island named after the man himself.
Anderson says he knows exactly where that anchor is lying there and he is aiming to salvage it.
"Apart from pieces of paper, there is nothing from the voyage, except this anchor," he says.
Those other pieces of paper, maps drawn by an officer on the ship, Isaac Gilsemans.
Anderson believes Gilsemans was the merchant on the voyage and also the coastal illustrator.
Those illustrations took Anderson to Tasmania's east coast in 1994. Using a global position system and magnetic equipment, he is certain the anchor is lying 45 metres below the surface.
"It's fascinating, the seabed is the depth that Tasman said it was and his journal said it was gently sloping sand and that's what's there," Anderson says.
He has been to the location twice already, failing due to technical and weather problems and he is hoping this will be third time lucky.
If it is, he will then have to give it away.
"The Tasmanian state government said it belongs to us, it's Tasman's anchor, this is Tasmania, so that's where it will stay," he says.
Anderson has however made them promise it will make a visit or two to New Zealand. He leaves for Tasmania next month.
