A brief history lesson on The Batavia

 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.