Beacon Island Massacre
Founded in 1602, the VOC, the world's first joint-stock company, was granted sweeping privileges, not counting the exclusive right to trade with Asia. The company could conclude treaties, declare and wage war, establish colonies, mint its own coins, judge, imprison and execute. It was given complete authority over the expanses east of the Cape of Good Hope as far as Cape Horn. During its existence, the VOC sent more than a million Europeans on 4 ships to trade in Asia and delivered about 785 million tons of Asian goods to European countries. The financial power of the East India Company is evidenced by the fact that its capital, converted to today's monetary equivalent, is equal to the combined capital of the 2,5 largest modern world companies.
On October 29, 1628, a convoy of seven Company ships, led by the flagship, the sailing ship Batavia, left the Dutch port of Texel and set out on a long journey, usually lasting from 8 to 9 months, to Batavia (present-day Jakarta).
The usual route for VOC ships to the East Indies
The Batavia was one of the largest and newest ships of the VOC (commissioned on June 29, 1628). It was a three-masted ship with a displacement of 1200 tons. The sails, covering an area of 3100 m², provided a speed of up to 5 knots, and for self-defense the Batavia was armed with 24 cannons.
Replica of the Batavia
The ship left the port with, according to official data, 341 people on board (although some of them probably deserted before leaving): VOC merchants, 180 crew members, 100 soldiers, 50 passengers, including 22 women, and children. To purchase Asian goods, primarily spices so prized in Europe, the ship was loaded with 12 chests of silver coins worth 250 Dutch guilders, which are now valued at $000 million, as well as jewelry (another 8 million). In addition, the holds contained supplies for the colony on the island of Java, including... bricks and a fireplace, which also served as ballast.
A multi-month supply of food and fresh water was taken on board, as the next opportunity to replenish them would only present itself in a few months at the Cape of Good Hope. During long voyages, salted beef, dried fish, cheese, beans and crackers were used as food. All of this served as food not only for people, but also for all sorts of worms and bugs (the ubiquitous ship rats were also competitors) and therefore quickly acquired a very unappetizing appearance and taste. For drinking, 1,5 liters of water or beer per person per day were allowed. After a few weeks, the water turned into a foul-smelling slurry, so dysentery became a frequent guest on board ships, and a lack of vitamins led to scurvy. Live pigs, goats and chickens loaded on board the Batavia somewhat diversified the diet.
For most, life on board the Batavia, like other ships of the era, was spartan. While the captain, ship's officers, VOC officials and privileged passengers could still count on cabins with minimal comfort and some privacy, the rest of the passengers, crew and soldiers were crammed into the gun deck and the orlop deck below. In Dutch navy At that time, hanging bunks (hammocks) had not yet become widespread, and men, women and children slept side by side on mattresses or mats stuffed with buckwheat husks or wool. There was no ventilation, and people spent months in stuffy rooms filled with the stench of sweaty, unwashed bodies. If in the tropics they had to suffer from the heat, then in the northern regions - from the cold, since fire was allowed to be lit only in the galley.
The battery deck of the Batavia replica
Cockroaches were a real scourge. On one of the ships of that time, the captain was so tormented by them that he promised the sailors a portion of brandy for every thousand cockroaches killed. A few days later, he was presented with... 32 crushed insects!
The author of the article was lucky enough to visit a modern replica of the Batavia during its stay in the Australian port of Sydney. I was surprised by the small distances between decks, which did not allow an adult to stand up to his full height, and the design of the latrine (the naval name for WC, as well as the bow of a sailing ship) located on the bow. The role of the toilet was played by a board with a hole, and the toilet paper was a thick hemp rope swishing overboard.
The latrine of the Batavia replica
On the Batavia, as on other East India Company ships, there was a system of dual power. Captain Ariaen Jacobsz had to share his power with the senior merchant and company representative Francisco Pelsaert. They had known each other for a long time and felt mutual dislike, close to hostility.
Pensaert's deputy was the junior merchant Jeronimus Cornelisz, who became the evil genius of Batavia and the initiator of the bloodiest rebellion in stories navigation. He was a follower of the teachings of the Dutch artist Johannes Symonsz van der Beeck (1589–1644), known under the pseudonym Johannes Torrentius, who was accused of heresy, blasphemy, atheism and Satanism. For Calvinist Holland with its strict morals, this was a very serious crime.
Johannes Torrentius
Cornelis had a rather tarnished reputation. He had previously owned a pharmacy, but it had gone bankrupt, his newborn son had died of syphilis, and he was facing prison for his adherence to Torrentius's ideas. So he decided to leave the Netherlands, but it is completely unclear how Cornelis managed to bypass the strict personnel requirements of the East India Company.
A storm in the North Sea scattered the convoy's ships, and now the Batavia was accompanied by only two vessels. And in the tropical zone of the Atlantic, this trio was stuck in a dead calm for a long time. The supply of fresh water was running out, and to replenish it, they had to head to the coast of Sierra Leone. "Hospitable" Africa rewarded the Dutch with malaria and yellow fever, and then typhus visited them.
On June 14, 1629, the Batavia finally dropped anchor at the Cape of Good Hope, where they replenished their supplies. After a short rest, the convoy entered the Indian Ocean, and soon the Batavia separated from its companions, which the captain was later suspected of. The ship then followed the so-called Brouwer Route. This route was discovered by the Dutch navigator Hendrik Brouwer in 1611 and almost halved the time it took to cross the Indian Ocean to the Dutch East Indies. At the same time, the course from the Cape of Good Hope was initially laid strictly to the east, and in the eastern part of the ocean - to the north. But in this case, a difficult question arose with determining the turning point, since at that time geographic longitude could be determined very approximately - for this, it was necessary to know the exact time at a given point, but the first chronometers were created only in the first half of the 18th century.
At this time, sinister plans for mutiny and the seizure of the ship with its precious cargo were maturing in Cornelisz's head, possibly with the participation of Captain Jacobs. According to some evidence, they planned to engage in piracy in the future, based on the island of Mauritius or Madagascar.
Cornelis managed to secretly recruit about two dozen supporters, and he carried out effective “ideological work” with them, the main postulates of which were as follows:
• Hell and the devil do not exist
• The Bible is just a collection of fairy tales
• Any human action always occurs with the permission of God.
As in any adventure story, there was a love affair, which is not surprising given the long and boring voyage of young and energetic travelers. The main cause of the conflict was 27-year-old Lucretia van der Mijlen, who was traveling to her husband in Batavia accompanied by her maid Zwaantje Hendriks. Thanks to her wealth and acquaintance with Francisco Pelsaert, the lady lived in a separate cabin and moved in the circle of officers, and not on the common living deck.
Captain Jacobs had his eye on Lucretia, but when she refused to respond to his advances, he turned his attention to her maid, who apparently returned his feelings. Thus, several camps formed on the Batavia: Pelsaert and Lucretia on one side, and Adriaen Jacobs and Zwantje Hendriks on the other. Jeronimus Cornelisz played the role of the main intriguer, but in the background.
One night, a group of masked men attacked Lucretia, holding her by the legs overboard and threatening to throw her into the sea. They then smeared her with excrement and tar. Despite the horror of what had happened, the victim managed to identify one of the attackers, who was later hanged in Batavia.
The Lucretia incident could have been either an act of revenge by a rejected captain or an attempt by Cornelisz to provoke a mutiny among the crew. At the time, Pelsaert was seriously ill, rarely left his cabin, and had difficulty maintaining discipline on board.
Upper deck of the Batavia replica
The initial plans for the mutiny failed to materialize - early in the morning of June 4, 1629, the Batavia ran into the Morning Reef coral reef, located among the Wallaby Islands - the northern group of islands of the Houtman Abrolhos archipelago. The cause was a navigational error in determining the geographic longitude - the turn to the north was made more than 300 miles to the east of the calculated location. At the time of the shipwreck, there were 322 (according to other sources - 326) people on board, the rest died of diseases during the voyage.
The Wallaby Islands are the northern group of islands in the Houtman Abralhos archipelago.
Discovered in 1619 by Dutch explorer Frederick Houtman, the archipelago, located 80 kilometers off the coast of Western Australia, consists of 122 uninhabited islands surrounded by coral reefs. It is inhabited only by seabirds and sea lions, although one of the islands is home to a species of kangaroo.
Although the Batavia was lightened by throwing its guns and masts overboard, it was not possible to get off the reef. Therefore, it was decided to take the bulk of the castaways, fresh water and food in boats to the nearby island of Beacon Island, and a smaller group of about 40 people to Traitor's Island. Another 70 people, led by Cornelisz, remained on board.
Beacon Island, modern view
"Batavia" on the reefs
Since the sailors and soldiers who were busy lifting the water and food supplies stored in the hold onto the deck quickly got drunk when they got to the alcohol, only about 900 liters of fresh water and 20 barrels of crackers were saved before the hold flooded. The situation was aggravated by the increasing wind and waves. Later, a number of barrels of fresh water and food were washed ashore from the destroyed hull of the ship.
Realizing that with such small supplies the situation was becoming catastrophic, Pelsaert decided to sail in two boats with 48 people on board, including Captain Jacobs with his mistress Zwantje Hendrix, two more women and a child, to the island of Java for help. Having set out on June 7 or 8, they covered 33 nautical miles in 1600 days without loss of life, reaching the shores of the East Indies.
In Batavia, Jacobsz and Zwantje Hendriks were imprisoned, and one of the attackers on Lucretia van der Meelen was hanged. To rescue the victims of the Batavia and the valuables on board, the local governor-general assigned the 500-ton sailing ship Sardam to Pelsaert. This ship was part of a flotilla led by Francisco Pelsaert that left Texel and arrived in Batavia on July 7, 1629. The rescue expedition's journey to the distant shores of Australia and the search for the shipwreck took 63 days. Finally, on the evening of September 16, the wreckage of the Batavia was discovered.
Meanwhile, a chilling bloody tragedy was unfolding on the islets of the Houtman Abrolhos archipelago. On June 13, the Batavia's hull was completely destroyed by the waves. Of the 70 people on board, 40 drowned, and the rest, including Jeronimus Cornelisz, managed to reach the shore of Beacon Island after drifting for two days on the wreckage of the ship.
Sandy and covered in seabird guano in places, the waterless Beacon Island islet is only 5,25 hectares in area, has a maximum size of 450 by 275 meters and rises two meters above sea level. Only here and there are tough grasses growing.
Being the senior among the shipwrecked survivors on the islands, Cornelisz took command, giving himself the rank of "captain general", and demanded that everyone swear allegiance to him in writing in the name of God (which was done on July 12 and later) and hand over to his disposal weapon and food. He also organized a "council" that was supposed to give some "legitimacy" to the actions of Cornelisz and his henchmen.
The conspirators hatched sinister plans to kill most of the survivors, intending to reduce their numbers to an absolutely certain 45 people. On the one hand, they intended to reduce the number of eaters, and on the other, to form a group of people ready to seize the ship that came to rescue them and engage in piracy.
A group of unarmed soldiers loyal to the East India Company (about 20 people), led by 42-year-old Wiebbe Hayes, were taken to West Wallaby Island, nine kilometers away, "to look for water" and left there. If they found water, they were to give a smoke signal, although Cornelisz hoped that the soldiers would die on the island from hunger and thirst.
The first murders took place in early July, with the executions, mainly for theft of food, being approved by the "council" at the first stage, and later they turned into a real bacchanalia. Often the murders became a kind of entertainment.
The victims were drowned in the sea, had their throats cut, were hacked with swords, were beaten to death, and children were sometimes simply strangled. Cornelisz's hands remained clean - he personally did not participate in the killings. But on his orders, between 115 and 125 people were killed, including 12 women and 7 children.
Beacon Island Massacre
The rebels left seven women alive for sexual pleasures, and forced them to sign a written pledge that they would unquestioningly obey the men who desired them. Five of them were intended for "common use", Lucretia went to Jeronimus Cornelisz, and the eldest daughter of a Calvinist preacher (whose wife and seven younger daughters were mercilessly murdered) had to share a bed with one man.
Meanwhile, Hayes's soldiers managed to find fresh water on one of the islands and gave a prearranged signal, but there was no response. However, soon at night, people began arriving from Beacon Island in small groups on makeshift rafts, trying to escape the massacre. Their number reached forty-seven.
Having learned of the bloody massacre and fearing an attack by the rebels, Hayes ordered the construction of some kind of stone fortifications around the water well (considered the first European buildings in Australia), and improvised weapons - pikes, clubs, etc. - were made from wooden and metal (hoops, three-inch nails) shipwreck debris washed ashore. Water, eggs and the meat of birds, tammar-wallabies (a type of kangaroo) and sea lions allowed this group to maintain good physical condition, unlike the half-starved inhabitants of Beacon Island.
During August and September, the rebels made four unsuccessful attempts to break Hayes's group. During the third of these, Cornelisz was captured and four of his henchmen were killed.
Leadership on Beacon Island passed into the hands of Cornelis's closest henchman, the bloodthirsty 24-year-old soldier Wouter Loos, and the carnage continued.
On September 17, the Sadam approached West Wallaby Island, and Vibbe Hayes, who had arrived in a yawl captured earlier from the mutineers, warned Pelsaert of the tragic situation and the mutineers' intention to seize the arriving vessel. Therefore, the crew of the Sadam met the mutineers' boat in full readiness and forced them to surrender.
"Sardam"
The arrival of the Sardam to the rescue
Over the next couple of months, Pelsaert led the investigation into the mutiny and the salvage of the company's sunken assets. Thirteen people were accused of mutiny, murder, theft and damage to VOC property and other crimes. During the torture-inflicted investigation, Cornelisz considered himself innocent and tried to blame others for the murders, but later he partially admitted the truth of the accusations. Lucretia van der Meelen, whom the accused named as the mastermind of the massacre, also came under attack. However, the subsequent investigation in Batavia failed to gather sufficient evidence of Lucretia's guilt.
British historian Mike Dash, in his work "Batavia's Graveyard", argues, based on Dutch archives, that Hieronymus Cornelisz was a psychopath and probably suffered from neurosyphilis.
The ruins of Australia's first prison, where the Batavia mutineers were held on Beacon Island during their trial.
On October 2, 1629, seven of the criminals were hanged, having had their right hands cut off (Cornelis had both). Wouter Loos and another mutineer were put ashore on the Australian coast, their subsequent fate is unknown. Such actions were caused by fears for the fate of the Sardam, since the number of mutineers exceeded the number of its crew. The fate of the rest was to be decided in Batavia.
Torture and execution of rebels
By mid-November, with the help of divers from India on board, ten of the twelve chests of silver and a number of other valuables had been recovered from the sunken wreckage of the Batavia. On December 5, the Sardam returned to Batavia. Along the way, the accused were subjected to various punishments: flogging, being pulled under the keel, and being thrown from the yards.
Following an investigation in Batavia on January 31, 1630, six more mutineers were hanged or broken on the wheel. The captain of the Batavia, Arian Jacobs, although tortured, never confessed to his participation in the conspiracy. However, he was found guilty of the ship's sinking and ended his life in prison.
Francisco Pelsaert, who allowed the Batavia to sink and the mutiny to occur, was deprived of his post and property by the East India Company. And Wilbe Hayes, who became a national hero, and his soldiers were promoted in rank.
In 1647, the book “Ongeluckige voyagie van't schip Batavia” (The Tragic Voyage of the Ship “Batavia”) was published in Amsterdam, based on the “Journal of Francisco Pelsaert” and illustrated with fifteen engravings with the most tragic scenes of the past events.
The wreck of the Batavia was discovered by Australian fishermen in 1963. In the 1970s, the stern of the ship, several guns, an anchor and other artefacts were brought to the surface. Some of these finds are on display at the Western Australian Maritime Museum.
The wreck of the Batavia at the Fremantle Museum, Western Australia
Beacon Island is currently designated a National Heritage Site and the entire Houtman Abrolhos archipelago is designated a National Park.
Archaeological excavations on Beacon Island
Skeleton of a Beacon Island Massacre Victim
In 1985-1995, an exact replica of the East India Company sailing ship Batavia was built at the Batavia-Werf in the Dutch town of Lelystad using traditional Dutch shipbuilding technology from the 17th century and the appropriate materials. The founder of the shipyard, Willem Vos, supervised the construction.
Willem Vos
Replica of the Batavia
In the autumn of 1999, the Batavia was transported to Australia on board the ship, where it was displayed at the pier of the National Maritime Museum in Sydney, and occasionally went out to sea. In June 2001, the replica returned to the pier of its native shipyard, where it is open to the public.
References
1. Dash, Mike. Batavia's Graveyard – The True Story of the Mad Heretic Who Led History's Bloodiest Mutiny. London, 2002
2. Pelsaert, Francisco. The Batavia Journal of François Pelsaert. Western Australian Maritime Museum, 1994
3. Batavia's History.
4. Rupert Gerritsen. Australia's First Criminal Prosecutions in 1629. Batavia Online Publishing 2011
5. Rupert Gerritsen. The Batavia Mutiny: Australia's First Military Conflict in 1629. Batavia Online Publishing 2011
6. Internet resources
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