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 BATAVIA’S
GRAVEYARD (Crown
Publishers/ Random House) by Mike Dash. Nonfiction history. 2002. 371
pages. It’s 1628 and the Batavia, the flagship vessel for the Dutch
India Company, sets sail from Amsterdam for Java loaded with gold, silver,
many other valuables, and approximately 400 passengers and crew.
Unfortunately, aboard the Batavia’s maiden voyage is a new employee
named Jeronimus Corneliszoon, a socially disgraced man with insane
religious beliefs. With the help of a few fellow sailors, Jeronimus
devises and executes a plan for what seems to be a perfect mutiny.
However, the mutiny is interrupted one night as the Batavia slams into a
coral reef off the coast of Australia, causing hysteria among the crew and
passengers. As passengers struggle to make it to two nearby islands, the
ships’ commander and skipper, along with a handful of other crewmates,
head off in search of more hospitable refuge, but soon abandon the search
and sail away to find help. On the island, Jeronimus quickly takes control
and instantly orders the murders of the sick, weak, any anyone he deems as
threatening. On a nearby island, a small band of survivors witness
Jeronimus’s treachery and prepare to defend themselves if attacked. As
more and more innocent victims fall to the murderous mutineers, the
survivors pray and wait for help to arrive.
Being a fairly jaded person, there are very few things in this
world that disturb me. Batavia’s Graveyard disturbed the hell out of me.
There were many times I had to put this book down and do something,
anything, to help get my mind off of what I had just read. The insanely
detailed accounts of the murders on the island by Jeronimus and his
“men” are enough to give you nightmares. Painstakingly
researched, as attributed to the approx one hundred pages of notes and
nine page bibliography, Mike Dash uses eyewitness testimony, often
providing direct quotes taken from court ledgers, and leaves no questions
unanswered concerning this notorious mutiny and massacre. Although the
main emphasis of Batavia’s Graveyard is the mutiny, shipwreck, and the
atrocities carried out by Jeronimus and his henchmen, there is also a bevy
of historical information about the 1600s shipping industry, the Dutch
India Company (the world’s largest company at the time), what it was
like to be a passenger on one of these voyages (one had to be insane to do
this), religion, and Amsterdam. Mike Dash also gives a detailed account of
Jeronimus’ life and how he ended up on the Batavia. Shorter, but just as
detailed, biographies are included for many of the Batavia’s crew and
passengers. Dash does employ some educated speculation concerning the
aftermath of the mutiny; how various people were punished for their part
in the mutiny, the fate of some of the survivors, and information attained
by the discovery of Batavia related artifacts. As if the first 99% of the
book wasn’t troubling enough, Dash concludes Batavia’s Graveyard with
results from expert medical examinations of discovered bones to
authenticate eyewitness testimony. Knowing that this story is true is
almost too much to comprehend, and handle. – Denis Sheehan
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