Eighth Issue: Batavia

The story of Batavia seems to be a pretty well-known one, but I honestly had never heard of it until stumbling upon the Wikipedia page. Maybe it's bigger in Australia. If you already know about it then don't worry about reading this issue because the whole thing is about Batavia! Batavia was a ship of the Dutch East India Company in the 17th century. It sailed to the Dutch East Indies to get some spices. The captain was Francisco Pelsaert, and the skipper was Ariaen Jacobsz. They knew each other in India a while back but it isn't clear if they were friends or enemies. Another person onboard was Jeronimus Cornelisz, who was an apothecary, who was fleeing his homeland because he had heretical beliefs relating to Johannes van der Beeck (sidenote, apparently the beliefs were relating to the painter being Rosicrucian (??) I googled but I don't know enough about Christianity to puzzle this one out) and also atheism and Satanism. Honestly this just sounds like justification to explain why the later events relating to the Batavia took place. Anyway.

Jacobsz and Cornelisz became buddies on board, and decided to take the ship and not go to the East Indies, instead taking the ship and using the gold and silver on board to start a new life. They came up with a plan. First of all Jacobsz started steering the ship the wrong way, near Australia, and the two men got their buddies to molest a high-class young woman on board named Lucretia Jans  (Wikipedia provides some more information about her but don't read it until you've finished the rest of this newsletter because *spoilers). This was supposed to provoke a punishment by the Captain, and that would be enough for the other crew members to revolt and mutiny against the Captain. Unfortunately, Lucretia couldn't identify her attackers and the captain never punished anyone as he was not feeling well and was sick.

The ship struck a reef near Beacon Island off of the Western coast of Australia. Out of the 322 people on board, only 40 drowned and the rest made it to some islands. There were women and children, and they were all taken to nearby islands.There was no fresh water or any food besides sea lions and birds, so the captain decided to go to the mainland to find some. Jacobsz, the captain, and a few others took a longboat to find water. They didn't find any and headed to Indonesia instead, abandoning the rest of the survivors. This journey took them THIRTY THREE DAYS and they all survived! Once they got to Jakarta, the boatswain was arrested and executed because they thought he had something to do with the sinking of the ship. Jacobsz was also arrested for negligence but nobody suspected he was behind a potential mutiny. The captain was given a ship by the Governor and headed back to Batavia to pick up the other survivors and maybe even some of the gold and silver from the wrecked Batavia. He got there two months later only to find that there had been a massacre in his absence.

Okay, so you remember Cornelisz, the heretic apothecary? He was left in charge of the survivors. He was stressing because he thought if the Captain made it to Jakarta he'd tell on him and then he'd be arrested for being involved in the planned mutiny. So he began making plans to escape. He thought he'd hijack a rescue ship and used it to find another place to live. He even thought about getting gold and silver from the ship wreck of the Batavia and starting a new kingdom. For any of this to work though, he had to get rid of his potential opponents from among the survivors.

Cornelisz had all of the weapons and food brought under his control. He took a group of soldiers to another island to look for water. He told them to light signal fires when they found water and then he'd come back and get them. He left them there to die, with no intention of ever returning for them. The rest of the survivors then faced two months of chaos.

"With a dedicated band of murderous young men, Cornelisz began to systematically kill anyone he believed would be a problem to his reign of terror, or a burden on their limited resources. The mutineers became intoxicated with killing, and no one could stop them. They needed only the smallest of excuses to drown, bash, strangle or stab to death any of their victims, including women and children.^"

Cornelisz never did any of the murdering himself, though he apparently tried to poison a baby and failed (not even a GOOD apothecary), so he had someone strangle it instead. He usually persuaded people to murder for him by convincing them that they had committed some crime and needed to be punished, but eventually the mutineers didn't need persuasion and just killed people when they felt like it. Cornelisz was cool with this, since he had only so much food and wanted it to last longer, so the fewer people to feed the better. His people ended up murdering a total of 110 men, women, and children.
Meanwhile, the soldiers on the other island found some water and food and had a decent time. They had no idea about the murders and sent the prearranged smoke signals but nobody answered. Eventually survivors fleeing the other island found them and told them what was going on so the soldiers made weapons with what they could, and built a fort to be ready if the mutineers ever came for them. Cornelisz finally paid attention to the smoke signals and decided he wanted to go over there and get the water since he didn't have very much anymore. He also wanted to eliminate the threat of the soldiers since he hadn't gotten it right the first time.

Cornelisz wasn't going to get this victory. The soldiers were trained, and better fed than the mutineers, plus they were ready to fight. They defeated them in not one, not two, but several battles, and took Cornelisz hostage. The mutineers regrouped and fought back and the soldiers just managed to hold them back when the Captain arrived from Jakarta. The mutineers and the soldiers raced to the ship because whoever got their first could tell their side of the story. The soldiers made it first, and the combined force of the Captain's men and the soldiers was able to capture and defeat the mutineers. Can you imagine the relief that the survivors felt? It must have been so awful and they were finally safe. The captain decided to hold a trial on the islands (see above), because he didn't want to take all these people back on the overcrowded ship. He executed several of the worst offenders, and hanged some of the others, including Cornelisz (his hands were cut off first). Two minor offenders were marooned on mainland Australia and never heard from again (but some later British settlers said they saw some unusually light-skinned Aboriginal people in the area). Several other mutineers were taken to Jakarta, where some were hanged, and others were flogged. Cornelisz's second in command was broken on the wheel (don't click the link unless you're ready for it).

Jacobsz, the guy who tried to get the mutiny going way back before the shipwreck never confessed, despite being tortured, and probably died in prison later on. Despite everything, an inquiry determined that the Captain had not been authoritative enough and was partly responsible for everything. His financial assets were all siezed and he died in poverty not even a year later. The leader of the soldiers though, Wiebbe Hayes, was hailed as a hero, and he got promoted to sergeant and then lieutenant. Out of the 341 people on the Batavia, only 68 actually made it to Indonesia in the end.

You can go see parts of the Batavia in Australia, that they brought up out of the ocean in the 1970s. Let me know how it is if you are able to go. I'd like to someday.