Batavia (ship, 1628)
 Parts of the recovered wreck
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The Batavia was a sailing ship of the Dutch East India Company . It ran into a reef and sank on its first voyage off Australia in 1629 . Mutiny and massacres broke out among the survivors of the shipwreck . A replica of the ship was built from 1985 to 1995 at the Batavia shipyard in Lelystad .
The VOC ship
The Batavia was an East Indiaman (Dutch: Spiegelretourschip ) intended for the transport of goods between the Republic of the Seven United Provinces and the settlements, cities and fortresses of the Dutch East India Company ( nl. Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie , abbreviated VOC ). On the way there, the ships usually carried weapons and bricks for the settlements and fortresses, as well as silver and gold coins for the purchase of Asian goods. On the way back to Europe, spices, textiles and Chinese ceramics were transported. Clothing and tools for the crews and soldiers were also transported in both directions .
The Batavia was commissioned on March 17, 1626 and after 183,000 hours of work it was completed in 1628 at the Peper shipyard in Amsterdam for the VOC. It was built from green oak . The ship was a square sail with three masts - mizzenmast , mainmast and foremast . Only on the mizzen mast was there a latin sail in the lowest position (undersan sail) . In addition, the blind could be placed on the bowsprit and the upper blind (Bouvenblinde) on the bowsprit mast. The Batavia ended in the stern area with a smooth transom , which was crowned by the city arms of Amsterdam. A gallery was integrated into the transom, which led into the side galleries . On the transom, there was a large lantern at the stern. The transom was crossed by several friezes , which were optically "supported" by several statues. As a figurehead , a lion adorned the bow, as is common on many sailing warships of Dutch design. The hull was planked in the Kraweel construction. The superstructures (i.e. the outer walls of the forecastle, aft deck and hut - see the green painted areas on the replica photos) were probably clad in an overlapping manner, as was common on Dutch-built ships at the time.
Ship disaster, mutiny, survivor drama 1629
Together with two other ships, the Batavia set out on her first voyage from Texel on October 29, 1628 under the orders of the captain and navigator Ariaen Jakobsz .
On larger VOC ships such as the Batavia there was the head merchant and sub-merchant who formally survived the captain and could give him instructions. The office of sub-merchant was therefore a high position on board. As a rule, anyone who served the VOC as an assistant or secretary for at least six years could become a subcontractor. On smaller ships he was often the highest ranking VOC officer and was allowed to give orders to the captain. However, the management of the expedition on the Batavia was the responsibility of the commercially responsible senior merchant Francisco Pelsaert . He was authorized to give the captain travel destinations and to sell the VOC goods carried in the destination ports as profitably as possible and to buy new goods for the return journey.
In the Atlantic, the Batavia lost contact with the other two ships with which she originally sailed in the Netherlands. On April 14, 1629, the ship reached the Cape of Good Hope and stayed there for eight days to pick up supplies. Ten people died during the six-month trip.
As a result of the navigation possibilities at that time and the not yet explored and recorded coastlines, the ship came too close to the Australian coast. On June 4, 1629 the ship ran onto a reef of the Wallabi Islands group , about 60 km off the Australian west coast (position 28 ° 29 ′ 25 ″ S , 113 ° 47 ′ 36 ″ E, ). The reef, known to seafarers as very dangerous, was marked on the charts, but Captain Ariaen Jakobsz had calculated the position of the ship incorrectly. The lookout interpreted the surf on the reef, which is characteristic of a shoal, as the glow of waves in the reflection of the moon.
20 people were killed in the immediate accident. Most of the crew and passengers were able to save themselves on small islands. The chief merchant, the captain and a few selected seamen then set out in the stronger of the two dinghies for Batavia ( Jakarta ), a good 1500 miles away on Java . The captain managed to navigate the small boat more than 1,600 nautical miles across the sea, after which they reached the trading post and were able to return with help.
For those who remained behind, who suffered from constant water shortages, a cruel reign of terror began under the leadership of the retarded sub-merchant Jeronimus Cornelisz from Haarlem with the aim of enriching himself and his followers in the event of a rescue from the valuable cargo of the Batavia . Most of the survivors of the shipwreck were murdered, with the sub-merchant resorting to the help of the mutineers who had already been recruited on the ship. The sub-merchant had a total of 125 men, women and children executed by his killing squads, some for strategic reasons, some on a whim.
After the head merchant returned from Java months later in a rescue ship, he was only able to avoid being boarded by the mutineers with the help and warning of some loyal soldiers who had fled to a side island ( West Wallabi Island ) . The sub-merchant was sentenced and executed on the spot, along with a few accomplices. The rest of the mutineers ended up in jails on Java. The captain was also imprisoned on Java.
The upper stern structure of the wreck as well as the ballast load of hewn sandstone blocks for a 6 m high portal, originally intended for the headquarters of the VOC in Batavia, were lifted and restored in the 20th century. It is now in the museum in Geraldton , Australia. A duplicate can be found in Fremantle.
The replica in the Batavia shipyard
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On the initiative of shipbuilder Willem Vos, a replica was built in Lelystad from 1985 to 1995 . This is the closest possible copy of the original ship. In the 17th century, however, no drawings were used in shipbuilding. Because of the short lifespan of the ship, there are only a few images. The details of the replica were therefore supplemented with the help of archaeological research results and historical descriptions of similar ships of that time. During the construction of the ship, in which many trainees were involved, new knowledge was gained in various old craft techniques due to the practical implementation. The replica reached Sydney Harbor in 2000 for the Olympic Games in Australia. Although the new Batavia is sailable, this voyage was carried out in tow.
For the movie The Admiral - Battle for Europe , the fourth most expensive Dutch film production up to 2015, the replica of the Batavia was used as a film set. The ship acted as the flagship of the Dutch admiral Michiel de Ruyter as part of the film plot and was used for numerous outdoor shots.
gallery
Report of the incident
The Batavia runs into the reef
The mutineers take power
The stranded survivors were attacked again and again
Some survivors banded together in groups against the mutineers
Cornelisz is hanged on the island; the other followers in Java were sentenced and some were tortured to death
Wreckage and salvaged sandstone gate
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See also
literature
- Ungeluckige voyagie, van't schip Batavia, nae de East India… Amsterdam 1647 ( Pelsaert Journal )
- Spoken version (nl) by Ongeluckige voyagie, van't schip Batavia, nae de East India… Amsterdam 1647 here online on the website of the Dutch National Library
- Silke Kern: Batavia - 1629 . ISBN 3-404-14365-5
- Henrietta Frances Drake-Brockmann: Voyage to Disaster . 1963 (University of Western Australia Press; reprinted in 2006)
- MRC Fuhrmann-Plemp van Duiveland (ed.): The sinking of the Batavia and other ship journals and original reports from the great days of Dutch seafaring in the 17th and 18th centuries . Horst Erdmann, Tübingen 1976, ISBN 3-7711-0194-8 .
- Mike Dash : The sinking of the Batavia . 2007, ISBN 3-442-30984-0
- Annette von Droste-Hülshoff : The retaliation . wortblume.de
- Colin Falconer : Wrath of the Seas . Heyne, 2002, ISBN 3-453-21100-6 . (Novel)
- Batavia Cahiers . Stichting “Nederland bouwt VOC-Retourschep”, Lelystad 1990–1995, ISBN 90-73857-01-5 to 90-73857-05-8
- Gretler, Parthesius, van der Zee: Batavia . Stichting "Nederland bouwt VOC-Retourschip", The Hague 1991, ISBN 90-12-06873-8
Web links
- Data sheet Batavia of the Western Australia Museum, Fremantle
- De VOCsite (Dutch)
- The replica in the Batavia shipyard Lelystad (Dutch / English)
- Pelsaert Journal English introductory page for the Ongeluckige Voyagie van't schip Batavia
- Online facsimile: Ongeluckige Voyagie van't schip Batavia of the Royal Library of the Netherlands (Dutch with English user guidance , requires the Flash player )
- Angelika Franz: The massacre of the terrible Jeronimus; Discovery of skeletons and graves on Beacon Island 2005. In: Spiegel Online. April 17, 2015, archived from the original on April 17, 2015 ; Retrieved April 17, 2015 .
Footnotes
- ↑ Dash, p. 366, footnote 39
- ↑ Dash, p. 365 ff, footnote 38
- ^ Australian Dictionary of Biography: Francisco Pelsaert
- ^ As quoted in Dash, p. 349, footnote 9.
- ↑ The ship originally put to sea with 332 people. At the time of the accident there were 270 people below deck, 150 of them seamen - 50 seamen were on watch; so cited in Dash, p. 349.
- ↑ Dash cites on p. 94 the preacher Bastiaensz, who had to sell his property in Dordrecht because of high debts and had eight children to support. As a result, he applied to be a preacher in India and thus became a passenger of the Batavia with his wife and children . On p. 95ff, Dash mentions the passenger Creesje Jans, who followed her husband Boudewijn van der Mijlen. Van der Mijlen was a VOC subcontractor and sailed to India alone in 1625/1626. Thus, these two examples already explain the mixed passenger list with men, women and children.
- ↑ Most of the ship's cargo belonged to the VOC or the passengers. In addition to the private ownership claims and those of the VOC, none of the ship members had ownership claims on the cargo.
- ↑ As captain he was fully responsible for the sunk ship and had to be responsible for the much more serious loss of cargo. Although he had reached Jakarta and thus indirectly "saved" a large part of the remaining crew, his private fortune was obviously insufficient to cover the "damage caused". In addition, the captain was strongly suspected that with his knowledge, possibly even with his support, the mutiny happened. Admittedly there was no confession from a witness or the captain himself, not even under torture (which is why he was detained for a longer period in order to obtain this from him or a witness). The judging council members were convinced, however, that bad manners prevailed on the ship and that the captain had his share in it, but could not clearly determine whether the captain or the merchant was to be blamed for the most part. Ultimately, no clear participation or support could be proven to the captain, at least there are no further records of the further decisions of the council in matters of the captain's fate and also not about the whereabouts of the captain, so that the outcome of the proceedings is open to the captain as well as his further career (unless he died in custody or torture). Read in Mike Dash, p. 300 ff.
- ↑ See the Bataviawerf website .
- ↑ See also website omroep flevoland ( memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Flevopost website .
