Overview

Batavia was a ship of the Dutch East India Company. Built-in Amsterdam in 1628 as the company's new flagship, she sailed that year on her maiden voyage for Batavia, capital of the Dutch East Indies, and on 4 June 1629, she was wrecked on the Houtman Abrolhos, a chain of small islands off the coast of Western Australia. The Commander (or upper-merchant) of the Batavia, was Captain Francisco Pelsaert. An indecisive man he was somewhat naive 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. 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 before 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.

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