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From the bestselling author of Tulipomania comes Batavia's Graveyard, the spellbinding true story of mutiny, shipwreck, murder, and survival. It was the autumn of 1628, and the Batavia, the Dutch East India Company's flagship, was loaded with a king's ransom in gold, silver, and gems for her maiden voyage to Java. The Batavia was the pride of the Company's fleet, a tangible symbol of the world's richest and most powerful commercial monopoly. She set sail with great fanfare, but the Batavia and her gold would never reach Java, for the Company had also sent along a new employee, Jeronimus Corneliszoon, a bankrupt and disgraced man who possessed disarming charisma and dangerously heretical ideas. With the help of a few disgruntled sailors, Jeronimus soon sparked a mutiny that seemed certain to succeed--but for one unplanned event: In the dark morning hours of June 3, the Batavia smashed through a coral reef and ran aground on a small chain of islands near Australia. The commander of the ship and the skipper evaded the mutineers by escaping in a tiny lifeboat and setting a course for Java--some 1,800 miles north--to summon help. Nearly all of the passengers survived the wreck and found themselves trapped on a bleak coral island without water, food, or shelter. Leaderless, unarmed, and unaware of Jeronimus's treachery, they were at the mercy of the mutineers. Jeronimus took control almost immediately, preaching his own twisted version of heresy he'd learned in Holland's secret Anabaptist societies. More than 100 people died at his command in the months that followed. Before long, an all-out war erupted between the mutineers and a small group of soldiers led by Wiebbe Hayes, the one man brave enough to challenge Jeronimus's band of butchers. Unluckily for the mutineers, the Batavia's commander had raised the alarm in Java, and at the height of the violence the Company's gunboats sailed over the horizon. Jeronimus and his mutineers would meet an end almost as gruesome as that of the innocents whose blood had run on the small island they called Batavia's Graveyard. Impeccably researched and beautifully written, Batavia's Graveyard is the next classic of narrative nonfiction, the book that secures Mike Dash's place as one of the finest writers of the genre.… (more)
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During the long passage (which could easily take more than a year), the head merchant of the company (top authority in the fleet) did not get along with the Batavia's captain. The under-merchant, a heretical apothecary fleeing from a failed business and poor choice of associates, fomented mutiny along with the ship's captain. When the ship unexpectedly wrecked on some uncharted reefs, the vessel's longboat, along with the upper-merchant and captain departed for a Dutch port on Java to bring help. Approximately 150 people, ranging from artisans to soldiers to women and children were left to fend for themselves as best they could on the barren archipelago. Kept alive by rain water, birds and seals, the survivors eked out a meager existence.
However, the mutiny was to proceed. The under-merchant decided they would capture the rescue ship when it came, and the only way that would be practical is if a majority of survivors was with him. Since the mutineers were heavily outnumbered, some re-balancing was necessary. First, he managed to ship off two groups onto other islands, where they were abandon, ostensibly to search for sources of water. When one group was surprisingly successful and sent up the signal, the desperate members of the second group created a makeshift raft and attempted to travel to that island. The under-merchant, who was in the process of consolidating is power, sent a group of thugs to commandeer the raft and eliminate those on board. This happened in sight of everyone on both islands, his hand was tipped, and the reign of terror was begun.
First, the sick and injured were murdered under the pretext they were costing valuable resources and bringing nothing back in return. The blood lust then started claiming the lives of those who refused to sign a pact agreeing to be a mutineer. Then children and other unskilled or redundant people were murdered. The priest lost his wife and five children in a single bloody rampage as the under-merchant's men started slaughtering people for sport. However, the time came when they felt they had to deal with the folks on the other island...many which were soldiers and sailors, and while stranded unarmed, they proved resourceful and not only repulsed the attacks, but eventually captured the under-merchant as he attempted a parlay. During the final assault, the rescue ship led by the upper-merchant appeared; and in the coming weeks, justice was meted out to the lions share of mutineers. Most of the worst were executed on one of the islands, two were abandon on the west coast of Australia (which was terra incognito in those days). The final death toll was given as 124.
The book also has some good information on the inner-workings of the Dutch East India Company. 1 in 50 ships were lost on the outbound voyage, 1 in 20 inbound. Conditions on ship were so bad that even on a new ship, disease ran rampant and 10% of the crew and passengers would die en route (in some cases, more than 50%, at worst not enough were left alive to sail the ship). The Spice Island ports were no paradise either, life expectancy was short, particularly for white foreigners with no natural immunity to the local cooties. There were fortunes to be made for sure, although the rank and file rarely ever saw it, unless they dealt illicitly on the side (and corruption was rampant). Mike Dash does a remarkable job piecing together the story from the facts, although the fate of many of the survivors went undocumented.
*****
Commerce.
Psychopaths.
What do the two have in common?
If I were asked that before I read this book, I’d be glib and respond with something like “trajectory.” But no. I’ve learned
If you don’t know what that means, don’t get discouraged. I didn’t either. Not right away, at least. Oh, I’m sure I’d read it before somewhere, probably years ago when I was knee-deep in Karen Armstrong and had a more particular interest in the monotheistic religions that have informed civilizations for thousands of years. But, as the irreligious say, I’ve slept since then.
Before I get to antinomianism, though, let me tell you a story. When I was a kid, I knew this other kid. We shall call him Sicko, so as to preserve his anonymity. Sicko was the first person my age I met upon moving to a new town. With adolescence looming, I was overjoyed to find myself just a few houses away from a fellow pre-teen traveler. But it soon dawned on me that age, gender and geography were poor rationales for friendship -- the two of us were completely different. I was an awkward and shy kid, but nevertheless independent, an only child who had just the year before lived in a single-parent home in Los Angeles County; contrariwise, Sicko was athletic and confident, yet oddly deferential, having been home schooled and subjected his entire life to a severely patrician Christian orthodoxy.
When my family moved again, this time within the town, Sicko and I lost touch. It wouldn't be until we were both nineteen that we found ourselves in the same social circles. By this time, Sicko's family had moved to Alaska, leaving him the solitary occupant of their 2400 square foot home. He extended an invitation to me to roommate with him and I quickly accepted. Over the next few months, I saw firsthand how manipulative and slyly sadistic he had become. Especially toward women. Sicko was a handsome guy, much more handsome than me, and there were young women at the house on various occasions. Most, however, never visited more than once. Then one night I had to rescue one of those young women from Sicko when she called out my name in distress. Soon after this incident, I moved out. I wouldn't see Sicko again for several years, whereupon I learned that he worked as a pharmaceutical sales representative, had married into a fairly prominent banking family and had developed a taste for bestiality films.
What's that saying about water seeking its own level?
Anyway, antinomianism. It is defined by wikipedia.org as "belief originating in Christian theology that faith alone, not obedience to religious law, is necessary for salvation." Jernonimus Cornelisz, the fellow at the center of this story of bloody mutiny, took this to mean that he wasn't bound by the same laws as other homo sapiens. He aspired to a life of piracy and manipulated several people into committing all manner of atrocity, the most chilling being the hanging of an infant. Then he was butchered and himself hanged.
I give this book five stars because it is meticulously researched, very well-written, and because I will remember the name Batavia for the rest of my life.
If you'd like to read more about the actual mutiny itself, the information available on Wikipedia is not contradicted by the book.
No?
To be honest neither had I. But this is exactly what happened to the crew and
I won't go into the events that happened upon Batavia's Graveyard but it really does give an eye opener into life on board a ship in the 17th century. Mike Dash has really done his research here and I am surprised at just how much information he has managed to cram into the book without it turning into an essay.
My one and only criticism of the book is that the last quarter is made up of notes that relate to the preceding text. This meant that they were a little disjointed and I didn't really want to read through them. I would have much preferred these to have been included as footnotes on the actual pages they relate to. This way the text would have been far more enriched.
You need to be aware that a great deal of this telling is conjecture. It isn't as if predators or prey left comprehensive as it happened journals. But there is more than enough primary source information to make this too real to be fiction.
not for the squeemish.
Batavia's Graveyard is a glaring look at the capacity for evil that lies in the human heart. A very frightning story made all the more terrifying because it's true.
A sort of non-fiction Lord of the Flies with the innocence of children but,
Pretty scary stuff.
My one
Highly recommended but the reader should have a strong stomach.
The company also sent along a new employee
The story is absolutely fascinating and while Dash uses a great deal of conjecture to fill in the gaps between the scanty details, he does so effectively. It takes a good long while to get to the meat of the story, as he takes a lot of time talking about the history of the Dutch East India Company and conditions in Holland, yet most of the material is so interesting I really didn't mind the delay.
An utterly fascinating and well-written book.
I liked the backstory, though I didn't really like how Dash divided the story - I would have preferred it to be more chronological to keep the names straight. I consistently
My other main complaint was how much detail Dash went into for the deaths. It seemed excessive and bloodthirsty. I wasn't as concerned with the division between known accounts and filling in the blanks as I would be with Erik Larson (always a good thing).
Other than that though, I liked all of the contextualization of the time. I liked the reminder of how dangerous heretics were, even for beliefs that would seem fairly tame to modern standards.
But holy shit it was so bloody. Horrifying.