The Horrors of the Batavia

One hundred and twenty-five people were murdered on a waterless coral island off Western Australia in 1629 - not by the wreck that stranded them, but by one man who seized control once the rules disappeared. For three months, a junior merchant named Jeronimus Cornelisz ruled the survivors of the Batavia with a list of who should die next. What happens to a group of human beings when the rules vanish and one of them has a plan? In this video: • The Batavia wrecks on the Houtman Abrolhos reef in June 1629 • Jeronimus Cornelisz seizes control of the stranded survivors • The killings begin, administrative and methodical, across the islands • Wiebbe Hayes and his soldiers hold out and fortify High Island • Francisco Pelsaert returns, investigates, and extracts confessions • The wreck's rediscovery and the excavation of the island graves Chapters: 0:00 A Mass Murder Introduced 2:37 The Ship and Company 6:29 A Mutiny Plot 7:56 The Wreck 10:36 The Killings Begin 15:00 Resistance on High Island 16:53 Rescue and Trials 28:39 Rediscovery and Legacy Sources: • Francisco Pelsaert's journal, preserved in the Algemeen Rijksarchief in The Hague • Confessions extracted under torture during Pelsaert's judicial investigation on the islands • The VOC's own passenger and crew records of the voyage • Western Australian Museum excavation records from the island graves Disputed: Pelsaert's own summary puts the murder toll at one hundred and twenty-five, but some historians believe the true number was higher, with some researchers suggesting around one hundred and thirty. Still there today: the Batavia's stern, a large section of hull timbers, is now displayed in the Western Australian Maritime Museum in Fremantle, and the bodies remain on Beacon Island. If stories like this stay with you, consider subscribing - we tell the parts of history the plaques leave out. #AustralianHistory #Batavia #Shipwreck #MaritimeHistory #TrueCrimeHistory