I Read Books: Islands of Angry Ghosts

This book comes in two parts. First the wreck and mutiny of the Dutch East India Company ship Batavia on the Abrolhos islands off Western Australia on her maiden voyage from Texel to, er, Batavia. Secondly comes the expedition led by the author, Hugh Edwards, to find and then dive onto the wreck.

The first part is quite exciting in a slightly overwrought way, taking at face value the contemporary Dutch idea that the mutiny was inspired by the heretical ideas of Torrentius. (An alternative explanation would be that the heretics were fleeing persecution, and so decided to seize the ship to finance a new life. Not that it matters, it’s still a terrible crime no matter the reason for it.) The plan, to overthrow the Commandeur when they sighted Australia (the navigational landmark that indicated they should turn north to Java) seemed to go well as the convoy was scattered in a storm, but went wrong when they ran aground.

After the most reliable men set sail in a boat to get help from Java, the mutineers send the soldiers to another island where they claim there is water though they didn’t find any. They then get to massacring anyone who isn’t on their side. However it turns out there is water on one of the northern islands, and one of the victims escapes and tells the soldiers what’s going on. Despite not having their weapons they hold out until finally a ship arrives. They warn them of the danger and the mutiny is put down.

The location of the wreck is then lost, and in the 19th century Captain Stokes misidentifies the wreck of the Zeewijk on the southern group of islands for that of the Batavia. Not until a local author Henrietta Drake-Brockman gets a copy of the logs and documents from the Netherlands, has them translated and starts a controversy does anyone think to look on the Northern group.

Hugh Edwards, diver and journalist, is interested, tries to get an expedition together, fails to find anything, goes off on some other dives, gets married, comes home to Western Australia, then some of fishermen on the islands find artefacts and he succeeds in putting a dive expedition together.

Unlike the first half with rape, murder, cannibalism etc this part is a bit more family friendly. Of course they find skeletons and the gallows, they are put in danger by sharks and weather, and their attempts to lift cannon from the bottom have mixed success, including breaking the mast that holds the winch on the borrowed naval diving boat, which puts them behind while it’s replaced with steel.

However they get a good haul of artefacts, are able to confirm some details, map the sites, and Edwards gets some good articles and this book out of it, which wins the Sir Thomas White Memorial Prize for the best work published by an Australian in 1966. So that’s nice.

Read This: For an interesting and informative book about the shipwreck, mutiny and dive archaeology.
Don’t Read This: If gruesome events aren’t your thing.

(Replica of the Batavia photo "By Malis - My own photo taken by my own camera, Public Domain, Link ")