Batavia Mutiny

''Batavia'' () was a ship of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). She was built in Amsterdam in 1628 as the flagship of one of the three annual fleets of company ships and sailed that year on her maiden voyage for Batavia, capital of the Dutch East Indies. On 4 June 1629, ''Batavia'' was wrecked on the Houtman Abrolhos, a chain of small islands off Western Australia.

As the ship broke apart, approximately 300 of the ''Batavia''s 341 passengers and crew made their way ashore, the rest drowning in their attempts. Her commander, Francisco Pelsaert, sailed to Batavia to get help, leaving in charge senior VOC official Jeronimus Cornelisz, unaware he had been plotting a mutiny prior to the wreck. Cornelisz tricked about twenty men under soldier Wiebbe Hayes into searching for fresh water on nearby islands, leaving them to die. With the help of other mutineers, he then orchestrated a massacre that, over the course of several weeks, resulted in the murder of approximately 125 of the remaining survivors, including women, children and infants; a small number of women were kept as sex slaves.

Meanwhile, Hayes' group had unexpectedly found fresh water and, after learning of the atrocities, waged battles with Cornelisz's group. In October 1629, at the height of their last and deadliest battle, they were interrupted by the return of Pelsaert aboard the rescue vessel '' Sardam''. Pelsaert subsequently tried and convicted Cornelisz and six of his men, who became the first Europeans to be legally executed in Australia. Two other mutineers, convicted of comparatively minor crimes, were marooned on mainland Australia, thus becoming the first Europeans to permanently inhabit the Australian continent, although nothing more was heard of them. Only 122 of the original passengers made it to the port of Batavia.

Associated today with "one of the worst horror stories in maritime history", ''Batavia'' has been the subject of numerous published histories. Due to its unique place in the history of European contact with Australia, the story of ''Batavia'' is sometimes offered as an alternative founding narrative to the landing of the First Fleet in Sydney.

Of the forty-seven or so VOC wrecks which have been located and identified, ''Batavia'' is the only early 17th century example from which the remaining hull components have been retrieved, conserved and subject to detailed study. Many ''Batavia'' artifacts are housed at the Western Australian Shipwrecks Museum in Fremantle, while a replica of the ship is moored as a museum ship in Lelystad in the Netherlands.

Construction

In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Dutch were the major ship-builders of northern Europe, innovating both designs (e.g. the Fluyt) and technology (the windmill driven sawmill). They did, though, use the "bottom-based" construction sequence, which uses a shell-first system for the lower part of the hull. The planks are shaped and then laid edge to edge, having the appearance of carvel construction, but are put in position before the s are installed. The shape of the bottom of the hull is therefore derived from the shaping of the hull planks. The "bottom-based" construction sequence is the same as used on Medieval cogs and some argue that this is an older Romano-Celtic building tradition.

Ships belonging to the Dutch East India Company (VOC) were generally built in the company's own shipyards. The VOC issued charters which gave detailed specifications for these ships; these were updated from time to time. The charters gave a range of key hull dimensions and scheduled the sizes of the . However, the designs did not exist as plans or drawings that determined the shape of the hull. Unlike ships built for European trade, the VOC East Indiamen were planked with a double skin of oak structural planking. This was sheathed with a double layer of pine which incorporated tar and animal hair, together with closely spaced iron nails. The pine layer was intended to resist teredo worm.

The length to beam ratio of Batavia was 4.4:1. This made her narrower than preceding VOC ships. A 1619 VOC ship-building charter gives a length to beam ratio of 3.9:1. It is suggested that there was a trend for VOC to have increasingly narrower designs in the early part of the 17th century. All VOC ships had a relatively high length to beam ratio, covering a range of 3.7:1 to 4.5:1. This was at a time when a 3:1 ratio would not have been unusual.

''Batavia'', in common with other Dutch ships of the time, was built from oak imported from the forests bordering the Vistula. The Dutch trade in timber from the Baltic, particularly oak, dates back to the early 13th century. (By the early 17th century, Dutch merchants dominated the European timber trade.) Oak from the Vistula region ceased to be used after 1643. It is possible that Dutch shipbuilding had, by then, been a cause of deforestation of the area.

''Batavia'' may have been one of two ships specified in the VOC shipbuilding charter of 29 March 1626normally it took 18 months to build one of these vessels, so a small delay would fit the dates. The name "Batavia" was chosen on 29 June 1628. The leaders of the VOC pushed for the ship to be ready for the next fleet (consisting of five other ships), which was due to leave in September or October 1628. ''Batavia'' would be the flagship of this fleet.

Maiden voyage

On 29 October 1628, the newly built ''Batavia'', commissioned by the VOC, sailed from Texel in the Netherlands for the Dutch East Indies, to obtain spices. Their orders were to use the Brouwer Route, like all ships of the Dutch East India Company. This involved sailing to the south of a direct course to Jakarta, but without any way of measuring longitude, it was difficult to judge when to make the turn north. A late turn gave the risk of running aground on the coast of Australia.

She sailed under commander and senior merchant Francisco Pelsaert, with Ariaen Jacobsz serving as skipper. Pelsaert and Jacobsz had previously encountered each other in Dutch Suratte, when Pelsaert publicly dressed-down Jacobsz after he became drunk and insulted Pelsaert in front of other merchants. Animosity existed between the two men after this incident. Also on board was the junior merchant Jeronimus Cornelisz (30), a bankrupt apothecary from Haarlem who was fleeing the Netherlands, in fear of arrest because of his heretical beliefs associated with the painter Johannes van der Beeck.

Mutiny plot

According to Pelsaert's account, Jacobsz and Cornelisz conceived a plan to take the ship during the voyage, which would allow them to start a new life elsewhere, using the huge supply of trade gold and silver on board. After leaving the Cape of Good Hope, where they had stopped for supplies, Jacobsz is alleged by Pelsaert to have deliberately steered the ship off course, and away from the rest of the fleet. Jacobsz and Cornelisz had already gathered a small group of men around them and arranged an incident from which the mutiny was to ensue. This involved sexually assaulting a prominent young female passenger, Lucretia Jans, in order to provoke Pelsaert into disciplining the crew. They hoped to paint his discipline as unfair and recruit more members out of sympathy. However, the woman was unable to identify her attackers.

Shipwreck

On 4 June 1629, ''Batavia'' struck Morning Reef near Beacon Island, part of the Houtman Abrolhos off the western coast of Australia. Of the 322 aboard, most of the passengers and crew managed to get ashore, although 40 people drowned. The survivors, including all the women and children, were then transferred to nearby islands in the ship's longboat and yawl.

An initial survey of the islands found no fresh water and only limited food (sea lions and birds). Pelsaert realised the dire situation and decided to search for water on the mainland. A group consisting of Jacobsz, Pelsaert, senior officers, a few crew members, and some passengers left the wreck site in a longboat in search of drinking water. After an unsuccessful search for water on the mainland, they left the other survivors and headed north in a danger-fraught voyage to the city of Batavia, Dutch East Indies, the ship's namesake, to seek rescue. En route the crew made further forays onto the mainland in search of fresh water.

In his journal, Pelsaert stated that on 15 June 1629, they sailed through a channel between a reef and the coast, finding an opening around midday at a latitude guessed to be about 23 degrees south where they were able to land, and water was found. The group spent the night on land. Pelsaert commented on the vast number of termite mounds in the vicinity and the plague of flies that afflicted them. Pelsaert stated that they continued north with the intention of finding the "river of Jacob Remmessens", identified first in 1622, but owing to the wind were unable to land. Drake-Brockman has suggested that this location is to be identified with Yardie Creek.

It was not until the longboat reached the island of Nusa Kambangan in the Dutch East Indies that Pelsaert and the others found more water. The journey took 33 days, with everyone surviving. After their arrival in Batavia, the boatswain, Jan Evertsz, was arrested and executed for negligence and "outrageous behavior" before the loss of the ship (he was suspected to have been involved). Jacobsz was also arrested for negligence, although his culpability in the potential mutiny was not guessed by Pelsaert.

Governor-General Jan Pieterszoon Coen immediately gave Pelsaert command of to rescue the other survivors, as well as to attempt to salvage riches from ''Batavia''s wreck. Within a month, Pelsaert reached the general area where the shipwreck had occurred, but it took another month of searching to locate the islands again. He finally arrived at the site only to discover that a bloody massacre had taken place among the survivors, reducing their numbers by at least a hundred.

Murders

Cornelisz was one of the few men who stayed on ''Batavia'' to pillage and steal. He was one of the few who survived the final break-up of the ship and made it to Beacon Island after floating for two days. Though neither sailor nor soldier, Cornelisz was elected to be in charge of the survivors due to his senior rank in the Dutch East India Company. He made plans to hijack any rescue ship that might return and use the vessel to seek another safe haven. Cornelisz made far-fetched plans to start a new kingdom, using the gold and silver from the wreck. However, to carry out this plan, he first needed to eliminate possible opponents.

Cornelisz's first deliberate act was to have all weapons and food supplies commandeered and placed under his control. He then moved a group of soldiers, led by Wiebbe Hayes, to nearby West Wallabi Island (located roughly to the northwest), under the pretense of having them search for water. They were told to send smoke signals when they found water and they would then be rescued. Convinced that they would be unsuccessful, he then left them there to die, taking complete control of the remaining survivors.

Cornelisz never committed any of the murders himself, although he tried and failed to poison a baby (who was eventually strangled). Instead, he coerced others into doing it for him, usually under the pretense that the victim had committed a crime such as theft. Cornelisz and his henchmen had originally murdered to save themselves, but eventually they began to kill for pleasure or out of habit. Cornelisz planned to reduce the island's population to around 45 so that their supplies would last as long as possible. He also feared that many of the survivors remained loyal to the company. In total, Cornelisz's followers murdered at least 110 men, women, and children. A small number of women were kept as sex slaves; among them was Jans, who Cornelisz reserved for himself.

Rescue

Although Cornelisz had left the soldiers, led by Hayes, to die, they had in fact found good sources of water and food on West Wallabi Island. Initially, they were unaware of the massacres taking place and sent pre-arranged smoke signals announcing their finds. However, they soon learned of the killings from survivors fleeing Beacon Island. In response, the soldiers devised makeshift weapons from materials washed up from the wreck. They also set a watch so that they were ready for Cornelisz's men, and built a small fort out of limestone and coral blocks.

Cornelisz seized on the news of water on the other island, as his own supply was dwindling and the continued survival of the soldiers threatened his own success. He was fearful that any rescue vessel would sight the soldiers first, therefore dispatched his men to eliminate this threat. But the trained soldiers were by now much better fed than Cornelisz' group and easily defeated them in several battles. Seeking to bring Hayes under his command he traveled to the island himself, whereby Hayes and his soldiers took Cornelisz hostage. The men who escaped regrouped under soldier Wouter Loos and tried again, this time employing muskets to besiege Hayes' fort and almost defeating the soldiers. However, Hayes' men prevailed again just as ''Sardam'' arrived. A race to the rescue ship ensued between Cornelisz' men and the soldiers. Hayes reached the ship first and was able to present his side of the story to Pelsaert. After a short battle, the combined force captured all of Cornelisz's group.

Aftermath

Pelsaert decided to conduct a trial on the islands, because ''Sardam'' on the return voyage to Batavia would have been overcrowded with both survivors and prisoners. After a brief trial, the worst offenders were taken to Seal Island and executed. Cornelisz and several of his henchmen had both hands chopped off before being hanged.

Loos and a cabin boy, Jan Pelgrom de Bye, who were considered only minor offenders, were marooned on mainland Australia, and were never heard of again. This made them the first Europeans to have permanently lived on the Australian continent. This location is now thought to be Wittecarra Creek near Kalbarri, Western Australia, though another suggestion is nearby Port Gregory.

The rest of Cornelisz' henchmen were taken to Batavia for trial. Five were hanged, while several others were flogged, keelhauled or dropped from the yardarm on the later voyage back home. Cornelisz' second in command, Jacop Pietersz, was broken on the wheel, the most severe punishment available at the time. Jacobsz, despite being tortured, did not confess to his part in plotting the mutiny and escaped execution due to lack of evidence. What finally became of him is unknown; he might have died in prison in Batavia. A board of inquiry decided that Pelsaert had exercised a lack of authority and was therefore partly responsible for what had happened. His financial assets were seized, and he died within a year of disease. His journals on the matter would be published in 1647 and widely read, spreading knowledge of the dangers of the coast of Western Australia.

Hayes was hailed a hero and promoted to sergeant, which increased his salary, while those who had been under his command were promoted to the rank of corporal. Of the original 332 people on board ''Batavia'', only 122 made it to the port of Batavia. ''Sardam'' eventually sailed home with most of the treasure previously carried on ''Batavia''. Of the twelve treasure chests that were originally on board, ten were recovered and taken aboard ''Sardam''.

Wreck

Surveying the north-west coast of the Abrolhos Islands for the British Admiralty in April 1840, Captain John Lort Stokes reported that "the beams of a large vessel were discovered", assumed to be , "on the south west point of an island", reminding them that since ''Zeewijk''s crew "reported having seen a wreck of a ship on this part, there is little doubt that the remains were those of the ''Batavia''".

In the 1950s, historian Henrietta Drake-Brockman argued, from extensive archival research, that the ''Batavia'' wreck must lie in the Wallabi group of islands. The wreck was first sighted in 1963 by lobster fisherman David Johnson.

A systematic archaeological investigation was carried out in the 1970s. Most of the excavation work was carried out over four years, starting in 1972, with an initial survey in 1971. A large amount of the surviving hull was raised and conserved. This is about 20 tons of timber, which is about 3.5% of the original ship's hull. Other large items including port-side stern timbers, cannons and an anchor. A large selection of smaller items were excavated, with a many pottery containers, weapons, cooking equipment, navigation items (including four astrolabes). Added to this were various trade items carried as part of the ship's cargo.

The excavation was carried out in challenging conditions, with the swell coming in from the Indian Ocean preventing diving on 173 days of the 447 days spent on site. Some of that diving was restricted to the inner wreck site, where material had been carried to an area sheltered from the swell inside the reef. In the fourth season on site (starting September 1975) only 10 days of diving were possible on the more exposed main wreck site.

To facilitate the monitoring and any future treatment, the hull timbers were erected on a steel frame. Its design—and that of a stone arch, also recovered—was such that individual components could be easily removed.

In 1972, the Dutch government transferred rights to Dutch shipwrecks in Australian waters to the Australian government. Excavated items are on display at the Western Australian Museum's various locations, though the majority of cannons and anchors have been left ''in situ''. The wreck remains one of the premier diving sites on the Western Australian coast.

Bullion and jewels

''Batavia'' carried a considerable amount of silver coins, manufactured silver items and jewels. The manufactured silverware were trade goods that Pelsaert had specifically requested to use in improving the VOC's trading capabilityhe had found that these were sought after by the "great men" he had dealt with in Agra. Though Pelsaert's divers recovered some of the silverware in his salvage operations, a large quantity still remained to be recovered in the archaeolocial investigation. As well as more usual tableware, the silver finds included parts of bedsteads.

Each ship in the ''Batavia'' class carried an estimated 250,000 guilders in twelve wooden chests, each containing about 8,000 silver coins. This money was intended for the purchase of spices and other commodities in Java. The bulk of these coins were silver rijksdaalder produced by the individual Dutch states, with the remainder being mostly made up of similar coins produced by German cities such as Hamburg.

Pelsaert was instructed to recover as much of the money as possible on his return to the Abrolhos Islands, using divers "to try if it is possible to salvage all the money ndthe casket of jewels that before your departure was already saved on the small island". Recovery of the money was far from easy. Pelsaert reported difficulties in pulling up heavy chests, e.g. 27 October 1629, when a chest had to be marked with a buoy for later recovery. On 9 November, he recorded sending four money chests to ''Sardam'', and three the next day, but then abandoned further recovery work. By 13 November, Pelsaert recorded that ten money chests had been recovered—about 80,000 coins—leaving two lost since there had been twelve loaded originally. One was jammed under a cannon, and the other one had been broken open by Cornelisz' men.

''Batavia''s cargo also included special items being carried by Pelsaert for sale to the Mughal Court in India where he had intended to travel on to. There were four jewel bags, stated to be worth about 60,000 guilders, and an early-fourth-century Roman cameo, as well as numerous other items either now displayed in Fremantle and Geraldton, Western Australia, or recovered by Pelsaert.

Legacy

A ''Batavia'' ship replica was built from 1985 to 1995, using the same materials and methods utilized in the early 17th century. Her design was based on contemporary accounts, recovered wreckage, and other contemporary ships such as . After a number of commemorative voyages, the vessel is now moored as a museum ship in Lelystad in the Netherlands.

Media

The story was retold in Hugh Edwards' ''Islands of Angry Ghosts'' which described the wreck and aftermath and then followed with the story of the discovery and recovery.

In 1973, Bruce Beresford produced a film about the ship called ''The Wreck of the Batavia''. Another documentary film, ''The Batavia – Wreck, Mutiny and Murder'', was aired on the Nine Network in 1995.

In 2001 the Welsh author Mike Dash published his book, '' Batavia's Graveyard: The True Story of the Mad Heretic Who Led History's Bloodiest Mutiny'', a historiographic account of the events and people aboard the ''Batavia''.

Arabella Edge's debut novel, '' The Company: The Story of a Murderer'' (2000) provided a fictionalised account of the wreck of the ship, and the aftermath.

In 2011 Peter Fitzsimons released a book called ''Batavia'' discussing the events in detail and in 2017, a ''60 Minutes'' report detailed the archaeological recovery of the skeletal remains of some of the victims.

The voyage, shipwreck and subsequent events are the subject of David Mark's 2022 novel ''Anatomy of a Heretic'' as well as Jess Kidd's 2022 novel ''The Night Ship''.

Several podcasts have covered the incident including: ''The Dollop'' in September 2015, '' Casefile True Crime Podcast'' in February 2020, as did ''Omnibus'', Ken Jennings and John Roderick's podcast in 2022 and Last Podcast on the Left in 2025.

The Dutch music ensemble Flairck processed the unfortunate voyage of the Batavia on their 1996 album ''De Gouden Eeuw'' and on a subsequent tour with stage performances.

The extreme metal band Deströyer 666 wrote a song about the mutiny, "Batavia's Graveyard", which is featured on their album ''Never Surrender''.

In a 2023 interview, the developer of reality TV show The Traitors, Jasper Hoogendoorn, stated that the original concept of the show was strongly influenced by the story of the ''Batavia.''

See also

*List of massacres in Australia
*Shipwrecks of Western Australia

Notes

References

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1620s ships
Crime in Western Australia
History of Western Australia
Maritime history of the Dutch East India Company
Naval mutinies
Ships of the Dutch East India Company
Shipwrecks of Western Australia
Piracy in Australia