Episode 510: The Batavia: Maritime Mutiny and Mass Murder
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On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we look at one of the greatest maritime disasters in history, the wreck of the Batavia. I know what you’re thinking. It’s like the Titanic but back in time. No, not at all. This one involved mutiny, hanging a young girl off the side of the boat, a shipwreck, murder, sex slaves, more murder, and a war between the survivors on small islands in the East Indies.
The Batavia was the newly build flagship of the Dutch East Indies Company (not to be confused with their rival the British East India Company). It set sail on its maiden voyage with a fleet loaded with silver and gold. Their job was to make it around the world on a very dangerous 8 month voyage to buy spices in Java. It was said that only one in four sailors would make it back from such a trip, but all would be sharing in a split of the riches if they did.
This particular trip started off poorly. The skipper of the ship was named Ariaen Jacobsz. He had to take his order from the fleet commander Francisco Pelsaert. But, based on pervious encounters at sea, they hated each other’s guts. Toward the end of the journey, the animosity grew so much that Jacobsz and a merchant named Jeronimus Cornelisz planned for a mutiny. They had a poor woman named Lucretia Jansz get assaulted in the night on the ship. They knew the Commander would over react, and they could use this as an excuse to mutiny. Then, they could take the gold and silver and go start a new island nation, like you do.
But the dumb asses ran ashore the next day in dangerous waters and wrecked the ship. 40 passengers died in the wreck, and the rest reached shore. The Commander got a ship and some of the heartiest of the men and headed out to find water. It took them 33 days to make it back due to a series of bad luck at island after island. In the meantime Cornelisz took over and lost his marbles. He started to orchestrate murders of the healthy and those who could stop him. He consolidated power, boats, and weapons and sent those loyal to the company off to “Find water,” so he had no competition. Throats were slit, people were pushed off boats, he even planned to poison a baby. There were sex slaves and starvation, and pretty much the worst depravity you could imagine.
So, how did the banished soldiers end up fighting back? What type of inter-island war started between these groups? How did the soldiers survive the fights when they had no weapons? What became of the the Batavia’s Commodore, and how was he able to return at the helm of a big new ship? What happened to the mutineers and murderers? Why do they think this wreck was the first time Europeans colonized Australia? Listen, laugh, learn.
Visit Our Sources:
https://www.sea.museum/2016/06/04/barbarism-and-brutality-surviving-the-batavia-shipwreck
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batavia_(1628_ship)
https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/wreck-of-the-batavia
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