Nandels Expedition

The Nandels Expedition was a series of historic expeditions from 1694 to 1704 resulting in the colonization of what is now the Nandels Port Metropolitan Area.

Background
In 1683, Sir Edmond Nandels, an English scholar, had been studying about the island of Doggerland and its historic settlements there. Noting that these settlements had since moved on, either leaving for the nearby mainland or being forced out by other colonists, he decided to set up an expeditionary force and travel there in an effort to form the first permanent settlement there. Unbeknownst to him, a group of Dutch colonists had been permanently settling in the southwestern regions of the island since a few decades earlier. After an extensive period of planning, he proposed the idea to King William II, who rejected to support these forces. He felt that it was much too dangerous on account of the failed attempts in the centuries prior to establish settlements there and that granting permission to Nandels' team would only result in failure. As a compromise, Nandels asked permission to survey the land to better establish a plan before his crew's arrival, to which the King agreed.

Surveillance
In 1694, Nandels set off on his first mission. The plan was to sail around the island and see if they could spot an ideal place to settle. On May 6, the crew left the pier at Dartford and set sail for the North Sea. On May 19, they arrived at Texel, an island off the coast of the Netherlands, though they had initially assumed it to be Doggerland. When they started surveying the land, they started noticing more islands in the distance, and anchored on the island's coast. They calculated that they had drifted off course and made their corrections, though this cost them a few days' time. On June 13, they arrived at Doggerland, and until July 4, circumnavigated the island before arriving at a bay leading into the island. They decided not to sail into it, but made notes as it seemed to them to have the best landscape and access to the ocean for their settlement. They had also failed to notice Dutch settlements toward the tip of the island, believing them to be reminants of prior settlements, so they avoided that area. On August 8, they returned to Dartford.

Crew
It is said that Nandels brought with him thirty men to assist in getting an accurate measure of the island. One of these men, Hugh Tybert, is said to have drowned after falling off the boat, though the reason is disputed. The official reason for this accident given was that he was attempting to fix a broken rail and upon leaning on it for a brief moment, it collapsed and fell with him into the sea. However, it was discovered in 2001 that a journal from crewmate Edward Tyson might have indicated that he fell over the rail from laughing too hard at another crewmate's joke. His body was not recovered.

16 crewmates have been identified:

The First Expedition, 1699
Nandels relayed his findings to King William, who was now more confident in the expedition. Put off by the troubles navigating there and Hugh Tybert's drowning, Nandels did not set off on his attempt to settle until 1699. On January 26, 1699, Nandels and most of his crew set off again from Dartford to head to the bay they had discovered at Doggerland. A noted exception was that of Mathew Smith, who had died in 1697 and thus was not present on this mission. On February 3, the crew had arrived and to their amazement, found the area was suddenly full of people establishing a port. Upon re-evaluating their map, they realized they had made it to Rotterdam, also in the Netherlands. As a result of this complication and due to bad weather, they stayed at Rotterdam for a week and then returned to Doggerland. The cartographer, known only by his surname Lannister, was dismissed due to the failures of this mission and the previous one. He was replaced the next year by James Ong, of London. Despite all of these troubles, Nandels was eager to return at the next chance they could.

The Second Expedition, 1703-04
Convinced the expeditions were failures, King William had refused to let Nandels venture out again due to all of his previous misfortune. After he died in 1702, Nandels received a final chance from Queen Anne in mid-1703. With a new cartographer and an extended crew now of fifty members, Nandels and his crew set out for Doggerland on December 26, 1703. Having been delayed again by bad weather, they arrived on January 30, 1704 on the opposite side of the island than they had intended (near Port Hope, Medost), though focused on finding the bay by foot. Though not properly equipped for this unexpected detour, they only lost two crewmembers along the way: James Neill and Robert McFarland, of unspecified illnesses. They were buried near the spots where they died, Neill near modern-day Calvinstown in Medost, and McFarland in Abester in Brun-South. They decided to follow the West Star (the planet Venus) to get to their destination, as it was also by the direction in which the sun would set. On March 29, 1704, they finally sighted the bay they had seen in their surveillance mission and settled in that spot, called West Star as a placeholder. After staying there a few months and establishing their settlement, they noted another ship coming into their bay. They had instructed for another crew to come with supplies to their bay should they not return before the summer months. This was especially fortunate, as they had been running out of supplies in their settlement before their help arrived. Some of the original expeditionists also left on this supply ship to return to England, while more from this ship replaced them. The majority of the expeditionists would remain on the island for the rest of their lives, settling in the areas surrounding their initial colony as well, which are now the Nandels Port Metropolitan Area.

Aftermath
The initial population of the settlements after the year was over was around 75 men. More civilians gradually left England for the Nandels settlements in the coming years, and by 1710 there were over 400 men and women inhabiting this part of the island. The first child born in the Nandels settlements was George Escott, son of expeditioner John Escott, in 1708. By the time Nandels himself died in 1733, there were at least four separate settlements in the area, and over 900 permanent residents of the initial colonies. This population would continue to grow rapidly starting in the mid-1800s, when Dutch settlements from the south made their way up to the Nandels settlements. Nandels only returned to England once, in 1728, when he was knighted by King George II for his efforts. He went on to live the rest of his life in what is now Viestern.