It was an exciting time for the many passengers sailing on a great adventure and a chance for a better life, until their incompetent Commander ran the ship aground. Then began one of the most notorious events in Western Australia's history.
In 1628 the Dutch Merchant Ship, Batavia, set off from the Netherlands loaded with gold, silver and jewels. Also on board were several hundred passengers bound for a new life in the East Indies. Her destination on this, her maiden voyage, was Java. However, blown severely off course, and with a Commander reluctant to admit he was lost, the ship ran aground off the Western coast of Australia.
A Journey Heading for Disaster
The unfortunate survivors were stranded on a small group of coral islands with a band of wild and dangerous crewmen who had been planning a bloody mutiny just prior to the shipwreck. To make matters worse, they had no food, water, or shelter.
The Commander (or upper-merchant) of the Batavia, was Captain Francisco Pelsaert. An indecisive man he was somewhat naïve regarding the unrest and grave characters of the crewmen around him. He left the survivors and crew to their fate on the islands, and with a small band of trusted employees took the ship’s only longboat and headed for Java to summon help, little knowing he had a journey of 1800 miles ahead of him.
The Slaughter Begins
What happened in the weeks that followed became Western Australia’s most gruesome historical event, and an unwanted claim to fame. A group of desperate and bloodthirsty men systematically slaughtered over 100 men, women and children. Victims were chosen at random and suffered horrific injuries prior to death. Most were hacked with knives, strangled, battered over the heads, or mutilated and then drowned. Women were repeatedly raped and if they would not submit willingly they, too, were slaughtered.
A small group of survivors managed to reach a neighboring island and there they listened in horror to the screams and blood-curdling cries from across the water.
When eventually Pelsaert returned on the ship Sardam he was just in time to avert a final massacre as the remaining group of mutineers were planning a fatal attack on the survivors on the small island.
Pelsaert wasted no time in trying and convicting most of the murderers. The ring leaders, as was custom, had their hands chopped off, and were then hung from hastily erected gallows. Others were to return on the Sardam to face trial back in the Netherlands.
The story is told in Mike Dash's book Batavia's Graveyard
Jane Finch - After 25 years working in Family Law I decided on a career break and have not looked back. Being a homemaker has enabled me to home ...
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