Mike Dash · 2002 · sea
Mike Dash's account of the wreck of the Dutch East Indiaman Batavia in 1629. She struck a reef off Western Australia on her maiden voyage, and while the commander sailed an open boat to Java for help, an apothecary named Cornelisz took charge of the survivors on a waterless island and organised the murder of more than a hundred of them.
- 1Texel
The Batavia sails from the Dutch coast in 1628, the finest ship of the season, carrying silver, passengers and a bankrupt apothecary called Jeronimus Cornelisz who is travelling to escape a heresy investigation.
- 2Cape Town
The fleet waters at the Cape and the Batavia becomes separated - and by then Cornelisz and the skipper have already begun planning to seize her, the silver and the passengers for themselves.
- 3The Houtman Abrolhos
Running her easting down toward Java she strikes a reef off Western Australia in the dark, and three hundred survivors are put onto low coral islands with no fresh water - and the commander leaves in an open boat for help.
- 4Batavia
Pelsaert navigates an open boat two thousand miles to Java and comes back with a ship - to find Cornelisz has spent three months running a murder cult on the islands, and a hundred and twenty-five people are dead.