About the book
The Dutch East India Company ship Batavia struck a reef in the Houtman Abrolhos, off what is now Western Australia, in June 1629 on her maiden voyage. Her commander Francisco Pelsaert took the longboat to Java for help. In his absence the under-merchant Jeronimus Cornelisz and his followers murdered more than a hundred of the survivors on the islands before a party of soldiers held out against them until Pelsaert returned.
FitzSimons tells it as narrative history in his usual full-blooded style, from the ship's departure from Texel to the executions on the islands. The wreck was found in 1963 and much of what was recovered, including part of the hull, is in the Western Australian Museum.
Notes
To come.