''Batavia's Graveyard: The True Story of the Mad Heretic Who Led History's Bloodiest Mutiny'' is a book released in 2001 by Welsh author

Mike Dash Mike Dash is a Welsh writer, historian, and researcher. He has written books and articles about dramatic episodes in history. Biography Dash was born in London. He attended Peterhouse, Cambridge, a college particularly noted for teaching histo ...

about the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( ; VOC ), commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, was a chartered company, chartered trading company and one of the first joint-stock companies in the world. Established on 20 March 1602 by the States Ge ...

ship , shipwrecked in 1629 on a small atoll of the

Houtman Abrolhos The Houtman Abrolhos (often called the Abrolhos Islands) is a chain of 122 islands and associated coral reefs in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia about west of Geraldton, Western Australia. It is the southernmost true coral r ...

, off the western shore of Australia.

Description

The book retells the story of one of the largest mutinies in history, led by one of the ship's officers,

Jeronimus Cornelisz Jeronimus Cornelisz (c. 1598 – 2 October 1629) was a Dutch apothecary and Dutch East India Company merchant who sailed aboard the merchant ship which foundered near the Australian mainland. Cornelisz then led one of the bloodiest mutinies i ...

, who oversaw the massacre of at least 110 people. The book explores the background of the period in history, and many of the people involved in the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands ...

. It casts a light on the tortuous trip from the Dutch Republic to the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

, and provides a detailed account of events after the captain and some of the crew's departure for Batavia in an open boat. The final chapter highlights the survivors' fates and the rediscovery of the wreck.

References

1629 in Australia 2002 non-fiction books Batavia (1628 ship) History books about the Dutch Empire Houtman Abrolhos Weidenfeld & Nicolson books Works about the Dutch East India Company History books about the 17th century {{Netherlands-hist-book-stub

Description

See also

References