Seafaring Sunday: Doctor van Riebeeck

April 21, 1619: Jan van Riebeeck is born in the Netherlands. Van Riebeeck will follow his father into the physician's trade. He became a naval surgeon and was instrumental in the founding of what is now Cape Town in South Africa. The stop, complete with van Riebeeck's brainchild the Fort of Goede Hoop (Good Hope), would give sick and injured seamen a resting point on the long, arduous cruises undertaken by the Dutch and later the British East India Companies.

Header: Contemporary portrait of van Riebeeck by an anonymous artist via Wikimedia