Batavia (ship)
Ship replica of the Batavia
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| History | |
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 Dutch Republic
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| Name: | Batavia |
| Namesake: | Settlement Batavia |
| Owner: |
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| Completed: | 1628 |
| Fate: | Wrecked on the Houtman Abrolhos on 4 June 1629 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage: | 650 tons |
| Displacement: | Circa 1200 tons |
| Length: | 56.6 m (186 ft) |
| Beam: | 10.5 m (34 ft) |
| Height: | 55 m (180 ft) |
| Draught: | 5.1 m (17 ft) |
| Propulsion: | Sails (1180 m2) |
| Crew: | 341 men (incl. passengers) |
| Armament: | 24 cast-iron cannons |
Batavia (Dutch pronunciation: [baːˈtaːviaː]) was a ship of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). It was built in Amsterdam in 1628, and armed with 24 cast-iron cannons and a number of bronze guns. Batavia was shipwrecked on her maiden voyage, and was made famous by the subsequent mutiny and massacre that took place among the survivors. A twentieth-century replica of the ship is also called the Batavia and can be visited in Lelystad, Netherlands.
On 27 October 1628, the newly built Batavia, commissioned by the Dutch East India Company, sailed from Texel for the Dutch East Indies, to obtain spices. It sailed under commandeur and opperkoopman (upper- or senior merchant) Francisco Pelsaert, with Ariaen Jacobsz serving as skipper. These two had previously encountered each other in Surat, India. Although 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 (under- or junior merchant) Jeronimus Cornelisz, a bankrupt pharmacist (a.k.a. heretic apothecary ) from Haarlem who was fleeing the Netherlands, in fear of arrest because of his heretical beliefs associated with the painter Johannes van der Beeck, also known as Torrentius.
During the voyage, Jacobsz and Cornelisz conceived a plan to take the ship, which would allow them to start a new life somewhere, using the huge supply of trade gold and silver then on board. After leaving the Cape of Good Hope, 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 small group of men around them and arranged an incident from which the mutiny was to ensue. This involved molesting a high-ranking young female passenger, Lucretia Jans, 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, the woman was able to identify her attackers. The mutineers were then forced to wait until Pelsaert made arrests, but he never acted, as he was suffering from an unknown illness.
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Wikipedia