Diving the wreck site of the Dutch VOC retourship Batavia A short video from the WA Maritime Museum shot during their field work in 2013. museum.wa.gov.au/explore/videos/month-shipwrecks-batavia-dive-2013 All that remains on the site today are a few anchors and cannons left behind after 4 decades of work and excavations at the wreck site. The Batavia is one of the most infamous and historically significant wrecks on the Australian coastline. Wrecked in 1629 on Morning Reef in the Wallaby group of the Abrolhos Islands off Geraldton. It is the second ever recorded shipwreck in Australian history with a gruesome story of survival, mutiny and massacre among the survivours of the wreck. With the women forced as concubines while the weak, unwilling and sick were murdered. Of the 268 castaways marooned on the surrounding islands, less than 150 remained alive on the 17th September when Captain Fransico Pelseart returned on the ship the Sardam. After being arrested the mutineers were tortured into confessing and eventually, all but two had their hands severed before facing the gallows erected on Long Island. Two young mutineers Jan Pelgrom and Wouter Loos were given mercy and marooned near the mouth of the Murchison River in Kalbarri. The first two Europeans to be left to survive on mainland Australia 140 years before Captain Cook first discovered the east coast of Australia.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 09:41:26 +0000
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