On October 28th 1628, the Batavia sailed from Texel in the Netherlands to the East Indies. Seven other ships sailed along with her. In command of the Ship was Francesco Palsaert who was a senior merchant. There were around 330 people on board. The members on board included around 220 sailors, 100 soldiers, and around 10 passengers who were going to or returning to the Indies. Most passengers were men and there were very few women on board.
The journey was of to a bad start, with strong storms separating the fleet. When the storm calmed(Jesus did it!) only 3 out of the 7 ships were in sight of one another. They didn’t have any troubles after that and they reached the Cape of Good Hope a month ahead of schedule. Here, it became evident that there was some tension between Palsaert and the Captain, Adrien Jacobsz, after Jacobsz’ drunken behavior. After leaving Cape York, the ships once again lost sight of each other and the Batavia travelled alone.
The fact that there were many men and few women on the ship caused problems. Lucretia Van den Mylen was on the ship to visit her husband in Batavia. In mid-ocean, she was assaulted by masked men, who claimed that she would be hanged overboard. She claimed the voice was that of one of the captains’ acquaintances. It has been since thought that this whole incident was part of a plan for the culprits to be punished by Palsaert.
On the morning of the 4th of June, they Batavia struck uncharted rocks on the Houtman Abrolhos. She was the first of the Dutch ships lost of the West Australian coast. Immediately after, 180 people evacuated the ship, while around 70 people remained, including Jeronimus Cornelisz, the under merchant. The survivors landed on Beacon Island. Pelsaert, Jacobsz, and some 40 other men camped on Traitors Island. From the ship, they had rescued some bare essentials like biscuits, and water.
Pelsaert mentioned in his journal, that if they could not access barrels from the ship, or if their search for water inland proved unsuccessful, then they would sail to Batavia. It did, indeed prove unsuccessful, and 48 people, including Palsaert and Jacobsz went to Batavia, Indonesia for help and for drinking water. They arrived after 33 days. In Batavia, Jacobsz was arrested for negligence. Pelsaert left seven days later in the yacht Sardam to locate the survivors. Meanwhile, the Batavia broke into pieces completely, and 40 or so people on board drowned, and some survived.
This is when the killing and mutiny started. Corneliusz, along with his fellow mutineers set out to kill any other survivors because he believed in Torrentius’ philosophy of fulfilling his sensual pleasures and also because there was no one to stop him, as Pelsaert was still at ocean. He sent cabin boys to an island falsely claiming there was water there. He sent soldiers to explore some “High Islands” and stole their weapons. He also drowned many by giving them pointless jobs. He was extremely evil; killing women and children, but starting with the frail and ill. Surprisingly, the team sent out to the “High Islands” actually found some water. This was a great blow to Corneliusz, as people had survived, and they could alert any rescue ships of Corneliusz’ presence and evil motives. Corneliusz was furious, and led the men into a trap. They avoided it, and instead, he was tied up, but not killed.
Palsaert finally arrived 63 days later and was informed of Corneliusz’ actions. Corneliusz blamed everyone else, but was captured along with the fellow mutineers, and killed. He soon found out about the occurrences that had happened. Palsaert recovered the items that had been stolen, and other valuable items from the wreck.
On 5th December 1629, the remaining survivors along with recovered items were taken on the Sardam to Batavia. Some of the men who resisted the mutineers were offered a promotion. In the end, out of the 316 people, only 116 survived.
Bibliography:
http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/collections/maritime/march/DHI-site/bat-hist-01.html
http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/collections/maritime/march/DHI-site/bat-hist-02.html
http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/collections/maritime/march/DHI-site/bat-hist-03.html http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/collections/maritime/march/DHI-site/bat-hist-04.html
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