A brief history lesson about the Batavia, flagship for the VOC in 1629 wrecked at the Abrolhos Islands in Western Australia.
The Batavia was the impressive new flagship of the Dutch East India Company, and it was during its maiden voyage to its namesake in Java that it struck a reef at the Abrolhos Islands, some 70 kilometres off the Western Australian coast. This was sometime after midnight on the 4 June 1629 and there was no real way for those keeping watch to know that they were sailing into a treacherous cluster of reefs, shoals and low-lying islands. The impact threw Commander Francisco Pelsaert from his bed and soon the other 315 men, women and children on board were in a state of panic.
With sunrise, the situation became all too clear. While perhaps not in immediate danger of breaking up, the Batavia was in a perilous position. Strong winds had arisen, bringing rain and sending breakers crashing over the decks. Evacuations by boat commenced to one of the nearby islands (Beacon Island), later to be known as Batavia's Graveyard, scene of the worst of the massacres.
Pelsaert and 47 others, including all the senior officers, headed off in the sloop to find water and to ultimately seek help from the port of Batavia, some 1,200 nautical miles away.
With Pelsaert and the disgraced skipper, Adriaen Jacobsz, both gone, Jeronimus Cornelisz, who was responsible for the ship's cargo, began to hatch a variation on the mutinous plan that had been brewing in his mind since before the Batavia came to grief. He would enlist a small group of followers, convince them that their only chance of survival on these god-forsaken shores was to systematically kill off everyone else, then await the return of Pelsaert, commandeer the rescue vessel and set off with the 250,000 guilders worth of silver coins, the casket of jewels, and other valuable items of cargo that had been salvaged. And if Pelsaert, didn't return, they'd build a new boat out of the wreckage.
Cornelisz and his cronies succeeded in murdering at least 125 men, women and children - but were unable to penetrate the defences of Wiebbe Hayes and others who were holding out on West Wallabi island, where there was plentiful wildlife and fresh water.
By 17th September, when Pelsaert arrived from Java aboard a rescue ship, there were fewer than 150 survivors. Pelsaert had the mutineers arrested and immediately tried them for their crimes. It was swift justice. Seven were hung, with the evil Cornelisz first having both hands cut off. Two others were cast away on the mainland, while the others were taken back to the Castle at Batavia. Importantly for the Dutch East India Company, Palsaert was able to retrieve eight of the ten chests of silver.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Friday, November 6, 2009
Vinnie Jones to bring Batavia shipwreck drama to life
FORMER soccer star Vinnie Jones has been cast as the lead actor in a thriller about one of WA's great untold stories - the wreck of the Batavia.
Melbourne filmmaker David Blake, fresh from his first feature film, Lost and Found, heard the story of the Batavia and the Abrolhos Islands three years ago and within 24 hours had written a synopsis for Batavia's Temper: Blood Fury.
The $3 million film, which starts shooting in May on and around the Abrolhos Islands and Geraldton, has a contemporary setting with links to the massacre.
"After the experience of making my first film, I knew I wasn't going to get funding to make a film just about a 1629 shipwreck, so I realised it had to have a present-day take on the murders," Blake said.
"But I still needed a hook, a link to the Batavia and the murders, and I found that on my second trip up here when I read about the predikant or preacher's family, the Bastiaensz family.
"One of Cornelisz's men had fallen for the predikant's daughter and they were invited to dinner in Cornelisz's tent. While they were there seven of the other mutineers made their way to the Bastiaensz's tent and murdered the predikant's wife and their six other children, including a five-year-old boy."
Jump to today and a distant descendant of the family has decided to exact revenge on a relative of the murderers.
"A body is discovered hanging on Beacon Island in the Abrolhos and in comes Detective Inspector Cashlin Rose, a Brit working with the WA police. He's the guy they bring in on the weird cases. He's got a certain sensibility and he's got some education that the normal run-of-the-mill policeman doesn't have," Blake said.
"I knew from a marketing point of view I needed an international name if I was to have any possibility of any success outside of Australia's shores, and Vinnie Jones was suggested quite early on."
Jones was famous in Britain before he switched to acting - he played football for Wales and was sent off 12 times in an eventful English Premier League career with Wimbledon, Chelsea and Sheffield United.
He made his film debut in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels in 1998 before appearing in Snatch and Swordfish.
"He has a certain physicality that suits the Cashlin Rose character. I had an opportunity to meet up with Vinnie in New York and talk through the script with him and I like the fact we both came to some conclusions pretty much at the same time about how the character would dress and how we would play him quiet and reserved," Blake said.
WA's remote and somewhat desolate Abrolhos Islands would feature strongly and "become characters in their own right".
Melbourne filmmaker David Blake, fresh from his first feature film, Lost and Found, heard the story of the Batavia and the Abrolhos Islands three years ago and within 24 hours had written a synopsis for Batavia's Temper: Blood Fury.
The $3 million film, which starts shooting in May on and around the Abrolhos Islands and Geraldton, has a contemporary setting with links to the massacre.
"After the experience of making my first film, I knew I wasn't going to get funding to make a film just about a 1629 shipwreck, so I realised it had to have a present-day take on the murders," Blake said.
"But I still needed a hook, a link to the Batavia and the murders, and I found that on my second trip up here when I read about the predikant or preacher's family, the Bastiaensz family.
"One of Cornelisz's men had fallen for the predikant's daughter and they were invited to dinner in Cornelisz's tent. While they were there seven of the other mutineers made their way to the Bastiaensz's tent and murdered the predikant's wife and their six other children, including a five-year-old boy."
Jump to today and a distant descendant of the family has decided to exact revenge on a relative of the murderers.
"A body is discovered hanging on Beacon Island in the Abrolhos and in comes Detective Inspector Cashlin Rose, a Brit working with the WA police. He's the guy they bring in on the weird cases. He's got a certain sensibility and he's got some education that the normal run-of-the-mill policeman doesn't have," Blake said.
"I knew from a marketing point of view I needed an international name if I was to have any possibility of any success outside of Australia's shores, and Vinnie Jones was suggested quite early on."
Jones was famous in Britain before he switched to acting - he played football for Wales and was sent off 12 times in an eventful English Premier League career with Wimbledon, Chelsea and Sheffield United.
He made his film debut in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels in 1998 before appearing in Snatch and Swordfish.
"He has a certain physicality that suits the Cashlin Rose character. I had an opportunity to meet up with Vinnie in New York and talk through the script with him and I like the fact we both came to some conclusions pretty much at the same time about how the character would dress and how we would play him quiet and reserved," Blake said.
WA's remote and somewhat desolate Abrolhos Islands would feature strongly and "become characters in their own right".
Thursday, November 5, 2009
ABC Video on The Batavia
Take a voyage of discovery with Chris Taylor as he visits the stone ruins on Western Australia's remote West Wallabi Island - the oldest structures built by Europeans in Australia - which tell a tale of mutiny and murder. Built as a fort in 1629 by survivors of the shipwrecked Dutch merchant ship Batavia, the National Heritage-listed shipwreck site provides a lasting memorial to the treachery of under-merchant Jeronimus Cornelisz, who had conspired to mutiny and steal the treasure-laden ship before it struck a reef.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Batavia Shipwreck Historical Novel Extract - Zevanck Battles the Defenders
A small group of soldiers, led by a man named Wiebbe Hayes, rebelled against Corneliszoon's tyranny, building a fort on a nearby island and harboring fugitives from the under-merchant's camp. Eventually, Corneliszoon sent his lieutenant, David Zevanck, to try and wipe them out. This extract describes the second of two battles between Zevanck and the Defenders.
Extract written by Joe Snyder
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Pelsaert’s journal
A facsimile of Pelsaert’s journal "Unlucky voyage of the Ship Batavia" is available online, with English translations.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
