An interesting story! I haven't read any of the other more famous books about the Batavia, so I can't compare them to this.

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 had trouble with the commander, skipper, and heretic's names.

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. ( )

In 1628 the Dutch East India Company loaded the Batavia, the flagship of its fleet, with a king’s ransom in gold, silver, and gems for her maiden voyage to Java; the ship itself was a tangible symbol of the world’s richest and most powerful monopoly.

The company also sent along a new employee to guard its treasure. He was Jeronimus Corneliszoon, a disgraced and bankrupt man with great charisma and dangerously heretical ideas. With the help of a few disgruntled sailors, he hatched a plot to seize the ship and her riches. The mutiny might have succeeded, but in the dark morning hours of June 3, 1629, the Batavia smashed through a coral reef and ran aground on a small chain of islands near Australia. The captain and skipper escaped the wreck, and in a tiny lifeboat they set sail for Java—some 1,500 miles north—to summon help. More than 250 frightened survivors waded ashore, thankful to be alive. Unfortunately, Jeronimus and the mutineers had survived too, and the nightmare was only beginning.

Boeiend geschreven. Soms wat saai, maar gortdroge opsommingen ontbreken. Veel noten en andere zaken. Goed om wat te lezen over de Batavia. Geen roman, toch goed te lezen ( )

The story of what happened after the 1629 wreck of the ship "Batavia" in the Houtman Abrolhos off the coast of Australia on a voyage from Amsterdam to Batavia (now Jakarta).

We are definitely in Lord of the Flies territory rather than Swiss Family Robinson with somewhere between 110 and 125 survivors of the wreck being killed by Jeronimus Cornelisz and his followers, who had been plotting a mutiny on the ship.

The sections on the historical background discussing the early days of the VOC and Dutch life at the time were the most interesting. However, the book definitely needed a better editor. I spent a long time wondering whether the island referred to in the text as the High Land to the north of the wreck site was the same as the island on the map called the High Island to the northwest of the wreck site. A list of characters might have been useful as the author would often refer to one person 3 times in 2 sentences once each by their first name, surname, or rank, and there seems to have been a distinct shortage of names in the 17th century Netherlands. A map of the relevant parts of Australia would also have been useful -- too much of they may have landed at place I've never heard of and couldn't tell you where it is or at another place I've never heard of and couldn't tell you where it is. ( )

Ce livre aurait pu passer pour un roman d'aventures bien mené et bien documenté, un peu glauque, certes, mais entraînant et riche. Sauf que d'emblée l'auteur nous met au parfum: "Ce récit ne contient aucun élément purement imaginaire".
Voilà, c'est une histoire vraie, et une histoire vraiment horrible, et vraiment bien écrite aussi.
Bien plus que le récit d'un naufrage et de ses suites pour les survivants, c'est un témoignage sur la société hollandaise du XVIIème siècle, les atrocités commises, en partie par un groupe d'hommes dits hérétiques, mais en partie aussi des atrocités très comparables commises au nom du commerce, de la religion, même de la justice, et tutti quanti.
Alors bon malgré tout, et très franchement, je me serais assez bien passée des scènes de torture et de tuerie: je ne suis pas sûre d'avoir envie de connaître tout ce que sont capables de s'infliger mes congénères les uns aux autres.
Ce n'est donc pas une belle histoire, mais c'est une histoire prenante, qui s'attaque sans fausse manoeuvre aux différents aspects qui rentrent en ligne de compte: la société de l'époque, le contexte historique, la psychologie des personnages, et la documentation est solide! ( )

Imagine the Donner Party meets the Titanic: that comes close to describing the astounding story of this Dutch East Indies spice ship. But it's educational, too! Amazing research and organization on author's part. ( )

Fascinating true account of the mutiny, shipwreck on what is now known as Beacon Island near Australia and subsequent blood-filled killings. This involved a Dutch East India [VOC] ship Batavia on its way to Java in the 17th century. The mutiny was led by a half-crazed charismatic ship's officer with horrendous results. Conditions on shipboard as described were terrible. The epilogue described present-day archeological expeditions, that found the results. The author researched very well, with both primary and secondary material.

Highly recommended but the reader should have a strong stomach. ( )

This is one of the most readable and powerful accounts of the story of those incredible centuries when companies such as the VOC (Dutch East Indies Company) ruled the sea lanes between Asia and Europe. There are many books that cover this topic, but few with the page-turning alchemy of this book. (The closest that comes to mind is [b:Nathaniel's Nutmeg: How One Man's Courage Changed the Course of History|29386|Nathaniel's Nutmeg How One Man's Courage Changed the Course of History|Giles Milton|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348583235s/29386.jpg|29844].)

Against a background of the spice trade and the hierarchical Dutch society of the 1600 and 1700s, is the story of how the VOC was founded and run, its managers (the 'Gentlemen XVII'), its employees, their families and religion, life onboard a VOC ship, early shipping routes, maps and map-making, and the morals and morays of the time.

"Dutch interest in the Indies dated to the 1590s" (p. 57); and for the next 200 years, a million or so people sailed with the VOC during the lifetime of the Company. However, fewer than one in three returned (p. 22). "During its 200-year history, the VOC lost 1 in 50 of its ships outward bound, and nearly 1 in 20 on the return voyage". This volume covers the story of one doomed ship on its outward maiden voyage, the Batavia, which foundered and sank, leaving hundreds of survivors stranded on a few bare rocks off the coasts of Indonesia and Australia after it went off course. But within its already tragic story is the violent story of a massacre that remains "one of the bloodiest pages in the history of white Australia" (p. 281) as one psychopath by the name of Houtman, carried out the merciless slaughter of the ship's passengers and crew to increase his own odds of survival.

Read this book for knowledge of the VOC or for the story of the shipwreck and massacre; both are valuable lessons. The shipwreck site was finally located in the early 1960s; today artifacts from the wreck can be seen in the Western Australian Maritime Museum in Fremantle.



( )

Ever wondered what would happen if a ship was wrecked in the middle of the ocean, the survivors abandoned on a barren rock, and a leader stepped forward that had secret and very unconventional religious beliefs?

No?

To be honest neither had I. But this is exactly what happened to the crew and passengers of the Dutch ship Batavia in 1629 just off the Australian coast. With the ship stricken and the captain and senior crew gone for help, the remaining survivors are shepherded onto an outcrop of coral rock, with no food or fresh water. Jeronimus Cornelisz (an apothecary) is amongst these refugees and soon begins to take control. While many people of this time were God fearing, Cornelisz proved the exception to the rule. Preferring to follow his own twisted branch of religion he felt that a man could be absolved of any wickedness on earth as surely all our actions are controlled through a higher power. This warped view leaves us a man with barely a conscience for his acts as displayed in his treatment towards his fellow castaways.

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. ( )

A no-holds-barred account of the chillingly brutal aftermath of a 1628 shipwreck on a reef fifty miles off the coast of what is now known as Australia. Dash explores the nastiness in great detail, and aside from a few speculative leaps at various points, this makes for riveting reading.

My one quibble is that the (very) extensive notes are not indicated in the text. ( )

"We have just come out of such a sorrow that the mind is still a little confused." -- Gijsbert Bastiaensz

*****

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 it’s something called antinomianism.

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.
( )

After reading this book, I think that under favorable circumstances, height of human cruelty could far surpass the physical height of Olympus Mons. Twice.

Because if not for the hyperinflation and the Versailles treaty, Adolf Hitler would have been a shitty painter and Hermann Göring would have been an exceptionally shitty ballet dancer.

But I never felt more confident about my assumptions (although they were derived after many complicated calculations and permutations) until I read Mike Dash's [b:Batavia's Graveyard: The True Story of the Mad Heretic Who Led History's Bloodiest Mutiny|128824|Batavia's Graveyard The True Story of the Mad Heretic Who Led History's Bloodiest Mutiny|Mike Dash|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320528804s/128824.jpg|124075].

**Minor Spoilers Ahead**

Batavia was a ship of the Dutch East India Company built in 1628 to procure spices from the East and as was the kind-of norm in the era, it was shipwrecked on her maiden voyage.





But what made this incident different from others was the horror that followed owing to the mutiny and massacre that took place amongst the survivors stranded on the reefs of Abrolhos Islands off the coast of Western Australia.

Batavia sailed under commandeur and upper-merchant Francisco Pelsaert and was captained by Ariaen Jacobsz. But the main villain of this tragedy was one frustrated under-merchant (working under upper-merchant Francisco Pelsaert), Jeronimus Cornelisz, who was a bankrupt apothecary (pharmacist) from the Netherlands who had left his wife behind forever in the Netherlands in order to escape from his creditors and find himself a comfortable life somewhere in the East, by any means. But what made Cornelisz truly dangerous was his mad belief in antinomianism: the theological doctrine that by faith and God's grace a Christian is freed from all laws (including the moral standards of the culture). Even murder. Or rape.

Mike Dash has provided detailed and interesting background information on all the major characters which mainly includes Francisco Pelsaert, Ariaen Jacobsz and Jeronimus Cornelisz. The book could be considered to be divided in two major parts. The shipwrecking is described in the first chapter and then Mike Dash delineates the chain of events that eventually led to Batavia's doom. The second half deals with the massacre committed by Cornelisz and his fellow mutineers on the islands and its aftermath.

There was some previous history between Francisco Pelsaert and the captain of Batavia, Ariaen Jacobsz who had previously encountered each other in Surat, India. The encounter had left a bitter taste in the mouth for Ariaen Jacobsz as he was publicly reprimanded, and that too quite sternly by Francisco Pelsaert regarding disciplinary issues.

So during the voyage, Jacobsz and Cornelisz (driven by his greed and beliefs) conceived a plan to take the ship by mutiny, which would allow them to start a new life as the ship contained lots of silver and moreover they also decided to get more rich by becoming pirates.

Jacobsz deliberately steered the ship off course, away from the rest of the fleet (There were more than half a dozen ships with the “Batavia”). The ship struck Morning Reef, part of the Abrolhos islands off the Western Australian coast. Of the 322 passengers aboard, 40 people drowned in the initial disaster. They were luckier than those who were to die on the islands. The survivors were transferred to nearby islands which contained no fresh water and only very limited food in form of birds and some sea-lions.

No rescue was coming as they were way off course, so Captain Jacobsz alongwith Francisco Pelsaert, senior officers, a few crewmembers, and some passengers left the wreck site in a longboat, and headed north to the city of Batavia (Jakarta). This journey, which they completed successfully, was a feat in itself.

But on the other hand, in the absence of his two superiors, Jeronimus Cornelisz was left in charge of the survivors. He was afraid that Pelsaert might discover his mutinous plans. Therefore, he made plans to hijack any rescue ship that might return and use the vessel to seek another safe haven.

With a dedicated band of murderous young men, he began to systematically (at first) kill anyone he believed would be a problem to his reign of terror, or a burden on their limited resources. The mutineers became intoxicated with killing, and no one could stop them which led to a splurge of random killings.



But Cornelisz had also left some soldiers on another island who were led by one Wiebbe Hayes, and to their good fortune, they had found abundant sources of water and food on the other island. With his own supply dwindling, Cornelisz decided to take over Hayes’ island (by killing everyone there, of course).

The events that ensued were nothing sort of dramatic, so I am not going to ruin it for anyone. But the naked truth is that that of the original 341 people on board the Batavia, only 68 made it safely to the port of Batavia (Jakarta).

So know this, although this book is well written, I am not recommending it for everyone as the second half is extremely graphic and gruesome. You will have to decide for yourself on this one. ( )

Wow... what an amazing story! Mike Dash's "Batavia's Graveyard" tells the story of the Batavia, a ship that was dashed on a coral reef near Australia in 1629. More than 200 survivors climbed onto a nearby island with limited supplies. Their leader, Jeronimus and a band of mutineers, set about systematically murdering some 115 of these survivors-- at first to keep the supplies to themselves and later to hide their crimes.

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. ( )

Wow what an amazing story, I couldn't put it down. A true-crime classic from the Age of Sail - if you like mutiny, debauchery and lunacy - sort of like The Raft of the Medusa + Treasure Island. Appropriately for the time, Dash focuses on the grotesque, 1629 was a brutal time in European history, the same period as the Thirty Years War the worst war in European history (prior to the 20th century). The book is useful for imagining the types of ordinary people who lived through it - mercenary, wavering loyalties to God, king, state or company; torn by religion, desperate souls on the margins of life and death with no safety nets. We read about the period with a sense of horror, glad to not to have lived through it, but it was through these violent fractures and mistakes that the modern world was born. The story of the Batavia is fascinatingly dark, but also a gateway for understanding a vital time in history. ( )

This is a very well-written account of life on board a Dutch East Indianman ship as well as a gruesome mutiny and it's aftermath. Mike Dash has obviously done extensive research and there are so many fascinating details that one really does get a vivid idea of what it must have been like to live in 17C Holland, the perils of sea voyages and the ruthlessness of these criminals and authorities alike. I found it truly a gripping story. ( )

A real life Lord of the Flies. The shipwrecked passengers and crew of a Dutch East India Company live a real life horror epic as the dark leaders bring barbaric rule to the stranded victims. The parallels to Lord of the Flies are profound, except that these were adults. No excuses about the descent into evil being the result of youthful anarchy here. What a story.

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. ( )

An amazing story. These sorts of passages rapidly became exasperating: "We know nothing about Mr X, but if the average Dutchman in the 16th century... [proceeds to imagine Mr X's entire life]". The whole story is precariously balanced on a thousand assumptions. ( )

With the chance that the upcoming game on the East India Company doesn't suck, I thought I'd read up on the subject. This book is the true story (as best as it could be pieced together from records) of the 1629 wreck of the merchant ship Batavia off the coast of Australia while on it's maiden voyage from the Dutch United Provinces. I would not be surprised that Golding got some of his ideas for [i]Lord of the Flies[/i] from this story.

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. ( )

I couldn't put this book down. Very well written history. A true story! You learn without knowing you are learning. I had never heard of the terrible sea disaster of the Batavia. In 1628 the Dutch East India Company (aka the VOC or the Jan Company) built the Batavia and filled it with gold, silver, gems and precious metal "toys" to trade and buy spices with in the Dutch trading settlements at Java in the East Indies, the islands between Australian and the Asian continents. The Batavia left with several other ships to make the trip in October 1628. Francisco Pelsaert was the Upper Merchant (the VOC's representative and the leader of the expedition) with Jeronimus Cornelisz as the Under Merchant. The Skipper or Captain of the ship (although he reported to Pelsaert) was Ariaen Jacobsz. 332 crewmen, soldiers and passengers were aboard but 216 men, women and children didn't survive. As they approached Australia, Ariaen Jacobsz and Jeronimus Cornelisz put their heads together and decided they could make more money by leading a mutiny and taking over the ship, stealing the VOC treasures aboard and try pirating for awhile. They managed to ditch the other ships. They began whispering with other seaman and soldiers aboard and had started their plans when they ran up on a reef at the Houtman's Abrolhoss reef islands about 50 miles off the coast of Australia.

The reef they ran up on held the ship fast so they had to abandon ship. The Batavia's sloop was able to ferry people to a tiny island they called Batavia's Graveyard and to a narrow spit called Seal's Island. They were able to get most of the people off the ship but still there were 70 men including Jeronimus Cornelisz still on the ship when weather haulted the rescue. Pelsaert and Jacobsz took about 40 passengers with them when they left in the sloop to try and get help. They tried the Australian coast but couldn't find a place with water and landing so they decided to head on up the 1500 miles to Batavia on Java (the Dutch trading settlement, not the ship). While they were gone, the ship finally split apart and most of the men were battered and drowned in the coral reefs but Jeronimus was one of the men who made it to Batavia's Graveyard. From the broken ship, the survivors were able to gather a good bit in debris and stores. With the rain, they had water and with the fishing/bird/seals they had food. The ship's carpenters set about making small boats and rafts. They set some of the soldiers, under Wiebbe Hayes, on the West Wallabi Island. It was a much bigger island but still with little vegetation and no known fresh water source. As it happens there were some fresh water wells hidden on the island that Wiebbe Hayes and his men found. They lit their beach fires (as agreed upon) to notify the survivors on the other 2 islands that they had found water but no one came to the island. Later, they found out why. Jeronimus Cornelisz got together his mutiny crew and decided to take over so they could still claim a good bit in salvaged treasure AND survive with the hope of capturing a rescue ship and begin their pirating. They decided there were too many people which lowered their chances of survival on the tiny islands so they began a killing spree over the next several months that killed over 120 men/women/children.

I hope I've wetted your appetite because this book is really good. Dash gives enough detail to explain a lot and yet, he doesn't bog you down and make it boring. There is a lot of documentation on this wreck, so Dash can lead you by the hand through every step of this story and you end up knowing what happened to everyone, even the survivors after the rescue. The last chapter was a little tedious and I skimmed it. But don't skim the other chapters! ( )

A fascinating account of naval disaster and the mutiny that followed. I am a fan of history, even dry history, but this is not one of those books.this is a history book for those who perhaps aren't so into history for history's sake. Dash does a great job of drawing the reader into the world of the Dutch East Indian Trade Company and the life of traveling on the huge trade ships. He uses meticulous research to paint a captivating narrative. As a history buff I enjoyed the copious end notes and the fact that Dash is to hold back his imagination and base his assumptions on hard facts. My favorite part of this book was the epilogue and its focus on Australian native/ marooned Dutch relations and the possibilities that lie there. Overall, a great book that makes this period of history fascinating. ( )

Reads like a very creepy novel, only this all really happened. Horrific and fascinating. ( )

If I ever wonder what life was like on a seventeenth century ship bound for the Far East, then this is the book to consult. Serious history, but written to be read instead of consulted, Batavia's Graveyard makes a time, a place and a cast of characters come alive off the page. The story, as it unfolds, becomes harrowing and somewhat depressing, as a community of shipwrecked survivors descend into a true life "Lord of the Flies". It's also a gripping narrative, and could as easily slot into a "True Crime" tagging as an "Historical" one. I often feel let down by historical accounts that promise to read like a best-selling thriller, but this book really does, serving both to educate and entertain as you plough through it. ( )

If you are planning on reading this, let me give you a heads up. What's between the covers of this book is NOT for the squeamish...I thought the story of the wreck of the Essex was bad but this takes the cake.

Batavia's Graveyard was the name given to a small island off the western coast of Australia, now known as Beacon Island. I first became aware of this story, which is true, through a wonderful program on the History Channel about recent finds on that island by archaeologists hoping to solve some of the mysteries of what exactly happened there in 1629 and the years during which the islanders, survivors of the shipwreck of the Batavia, were literally being held captive by a group of mutineers under the command/control of one single psychopathic individual. This book most definitely measures up to my rigorous standards for reading history. It is excruciatingly well documented (this author has notes & sources for every little detail).

Synopsis:

In June, 1629, a ship filled with goods, money & jewels on its way to Java (the ship belongs to the Dutch EIC) is wrecked on a reef on an uninhabited island. To his credit, the captain managed to get all of the civilians traveling on the ship off of the ship and onto the island; there were in all about 250 survivors. He left them under the charge of one Jeronimus Cornelisz, certified nutcase who believed that anything a person did, including the taking of life, was sanctioned by God.

The group divided itself onto three small islands all closely linked. What happens under his "leadership" was an outright tragedy and massacre. I won't go into specifics, but suffice it to say the Cornelisz and the gang that followed him reminded me a lot of Kurtz in Heart of Darkness. I've even seen this book called the Lord of the Flies for Adults...it wasn't that bad, but it was close.

Throughout the story, the narrative of events on the islands is interspersed with details of history of the EIC; of the spice trade in general; of the process of shipbuilding in the Netherlands; of Java; pretty much anything at all connected with the story historically is brought up in here. Some parts I found to be a bit dull, but only because I'm not really interested in the history of shipbuilding. However, there's enough to keep you focused and indeed riveted when he gets around to the events on the islands and their aftermath.

I would definitely recommend this book to those who are interested in shipwrecks or maritime history. Read this book slowly (or skim through the stuff you don't really like but savor the rest), because there is a wealth of information here. The author is thorough and the writing is good. ( )

This is a first rate historical book. Mike Dash has done a wonderful job of writing about a dreadful into the evil of man, in such a way that makes it readable. It is straightforward and unapologetic. "Batavia's Graveyard" accounts the action taken by the people who were shipped wrecked in truly desperate conditions, and explains how certain flaws in personalities can feed off each other. This is not a book for the faint of heart, because it is a story about mass killing, committed in most violent means contrived. ( )

An important historical book but,
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,
the horror of what diseased adult minds can dream up as well.
Pretty scary stuff.