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Model Ship Batavia The Batavia was a ship of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), built in 1628 in Amsterdam, which was struck by mutiny and shipwreck during her maiden voyage. It had 24 cast-iron cannons. Batavia is also the name of a replica of the same ship.
On 29 October 1628, the newly built Batavia, commissioned by the Dutch East India Company, sailed for the Dutch East Indies. It was headed to its destination for spices under Commandeur and "opperkoopman" François Pelsaert and skipper Ariaen Jacobsz. These two had previously encountered each other in Surat, India. Some animosity had developed between them there. (It is not known whether Pelsaert even remembered Jacobsz when he boarded Batavia). Also on board was the "onderkoopman" Jeronimus Cornelisz. From Haarlem, he was a bankrupt pharmacist with heretic ideas, for which he had to flee the Netherlands. During the voyage, Jacobsz and Cornelisz conceived the plan to hijack the ship and start a new life somewhere, using a supply of trade gold and silver then onboard. After leaving South Africa, where they had stopped for supplies, Jacobsz deliberately steered the ship off course away from the rest of the fleet. Jacobsz and Cornelisz had already gathered a group of men around them and arranged an incident from which the mutiny was to ensue. This involved attacking a young woman passenger on board 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, Pelsaert made no arrests and the mutineers were forced to wait. But on June 4th, 1629, the ship struck a reef on Beacon Island off the Western Australian coast (28° 30' South, 113° 47' East), part of the Houtman Abrolhos. Today they are known as the Wallabi reefs. Of the 341 on board including 38 passengers, women and children, most were transferred in the ship's longboat and yawl to nearby islands, but 40 drowned. For the VOC, a shipwreck was not unusual, but this time things went very badly. Because there was no fresh water and limited food (sea lions and birds) found on initial survey of the islands, the captain and his senior officers, and Francisco Pelsaert, a few crewmembers, and some passengers left the disaster site in search of drinking water, leaving 268 people behind. The commanders' group soon aborted the search for water on the mainland and made their way to the city of Batavia, now Jakarta in a thirty-foot longboat (of which a replica has also been made). This journey, which ranks as one of the greatest navigation feats of the day, took thirty-three days and all aboard survived. After their arrival in Batavia, Pelsaert was sent back to rescue the survivors who were still on the wreck. He arrived at the site two months after leaving Batavia on the vessel Saardam, only to discover that a mutiny had taken place. Jeronimus Cornelisz was well aware that Pelsaert would report the impending mutiny and that Jakobsz would put the blame on him. Therefore, he made plans to hijack the rescue ship when it arrived and seek a safe haven with that. He even made plans to start a new kingdom. For this, he needed to eliminate any possible opponents. His followers murdered a total of 125 men, women, and children, after having moved a group of soldiers under Wiebbe Hayes to a nearby island (West Wallabi) under false pretences. Location of the wreck of the Batavia Just as he was about to eliminate this remaining group as well, Pelsaert arrived, and this combined force captured the mutineers after a short battle. The worst offenders, after a brief trial, were executed on the island. Two young sailors were marooned on mainland Australia, never to be heard of again. Reports of unusually light-skinned Aborigines in the area by later British settlers suggested the two men might have actually been adopted into a local Aboriginal clan. (In fact, any pre-1788 European survivors in the area are much more likely to have been from the thirty or so who escaped the wreck of the Zuytdorp in the same region in 1712.) The lesser offenders were taken back to Batavia to be tried. In Batavia, most of them were executed, after already having been punished by flogging, keelhauling and being dropped from the yard arm. As an example, Cornelisz's second in command was broken on the wheel because Cornelisz himself had already been executed. In total, almost all mutineers were killed, except Jakobsz, who did not confess despite torture, so not enough evidence could be amassed against him. What finally happened to him is not known, but he is suspected to have died in the prison at Batavia. Pelsaert was held partly responsible for what happened because of lack of authority. Wiebe Hayes was promoted. Cornelisz never committed any murders himself; using his powers of persuasion instead to let others do the dirty work for him. Of the original 341 on board the ship Batavia, only 68 made it to Jakarta, the final destination.
The model of the Batavia below is another exquisit model built by Premier Ship Models of the UK.
Source: Batavia Picture - Wikipedia Article - Wikipedia Model - Premier Ship Models
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