The wrecking of the Dutch East India Company ship Batavia in 1629 is perhaps the best-known maritime disaster in Australian history. The subject of books, articles, plays, and even an opera, Batavia was wrecked on a chain of small islands off the coast of Western Australia.
Of Batavia’s 341 crew and passengers, 40 drowned trying to get off the ship, while all others made it to the uninhabited islands nearby. The captain, senior officers, two women and one child left in one of the ship’s boats to get help. But further tragedy followed.
A group of men on the islands who had gathered around the acting commander deliberately drowned, strangled, cut the throats, or brutally hacked to death 125 children, women and men. When the rescue party returned months later, they managed to overpower this death squad and bring the remaining survivors to safety. Together with its many victims and the murderers, Batavia’s wreckage was left in the Houtman Abrolhos archipelago.
The Dutch ship was 45.3 metres long and 600 metric tons in size. It sank on its maiden voyage to Southeast Asia. The shipwreck was found in the 1960s off Morning Reef and was excavated in the 1970s.
