One of the worlds oldest and most famous shipwrecks that was lost without trace, was the 'Batavia' of the VOC (Dutch East India Company), on her maiden voyage to the Spice Islands (Indonesia) in 1629. This picture was taken as the replica of the Batavia fired broad side as she entered Sydney Harbour during the Bi-Centenary celebrations. The story of the Batavia stands out as one of the great saga's of early maritime history. It all began in October 1628 when the Batavia left the port of Amsterdam in Holland with 316 souls on board including the crew, soldiers and passengers. The ship was 140feet in length had a beam of 40feet, also was 40feet from deck to keel. It also carried 600 tons of cargo and a Kings ransom in silver in 12 iron chests, jewels and gifts for the Mogul of India. The Batavia's Commander was Francisco Palsaert and the skipper was Ariaen Jacobsz, the pharmacist was Jeronimus Cornelisz. During the long voyage across the Indian Ocean, a mutiny was being planned by Cornelisz and Jacobsz and other crew members, their plan was to commandeer the vessel, kill off the passengers and soldiers and take to a life of piracy. In the early hours, just 2 hours before dawn on the 4th June 1629, the Officer on Watch questioned the white line on the ocean and was told by the lookout, that it was just moonlight. Minutes later they drove hard onto Morning Reef in the Abrolhus Islands, 61 miles west of Geraldton. At that time, the inadequate means of navigation at their disposal with regard to Longitude, put them 600 sea miles west of the Abrolhus. It should be pointed out, that the 'Houtman Abrolhus' and their associated groups stretch for 100 kilometres north to south, in a chain of reef's which include the 'Wallabi Group' to the north , the Easter group and the Pelsaert Group to the south. It was surely an almost hidden impenetrable barrier to the sailing ships of that time, only a few feet of coral atoll being seen at high tide. The port of Batavia (Jakarta) lay 1500 miles to the north. 

The port of Batavia now known as Jakarta here depicted around 1620-30 was usually the destination of the VOC ships of that time. A stone portal which was destined to grace the main entrance to the city, went down with the Batavia and is now in the Maritime Museum in Geraldton Western Australia.

When daylight arrived they managed to get 280 of the 316 safely ashore, them Pelsaert realised that what little fresh water they had would not last long and decided he would sail the ships long-boat to Batavia for help. This was to be a huge undertaking but 48 hours later in the early morning dark, he took 47 others with him and set out for Batavia. This of course changed the plans of Cornelisz and the mutineers, who now planned to wipe out all witnesses and opposition and take what ever vessel was sent to rescue them. Cornelisz took over control and systematically slaughtered 125 men. women and children before Weibbe Hayes who was sent to West Wallabi Island to search for water, received the news of the mutineers actions and formed another 47 men into a defence force. This band held off the efforts of Cornelisz and his mutineers which frustrated their efforts to eliminate them, until the miraculous happened and Commander Pelsaert arrived back in the "Sardam" and fortunately was warned about the situation. Pelsaert and his ships company quickly overthrew the rebels, some were hanged on Weibbe Hayes Island (West Wallabi) and the rest were taken to Batavia and punished, all excepting Wooter Loos and Jan Pelgrom who were marooned ashore at Wittecarra Creek a few miles south of Kalbarri at the Murchison River Mouth.   

This cairn and memorial plaque stand at the site where they were put ashore from the Sardam. Both were young but Wouter Loos had a very abrasive nature and was done away with by the aborigines. Pelgrom was said to have been accepted by them because he has red hair, and should have lived a long but very different life with the native population.

Very little was known about the disaster, except by the native people and no doubt that memory would have faded over the years until the wreck was discovered in 1963 under the surf of Morning Reef. Since then the aging timbers of the stern section of the Batavia have been raised, then treated to stop them from disintegration and re-assembled in the Fremantle Maritime Museum. Below are a picture of the stern section on the reef before it was raised.

Many fine examples of silver-ware, clay pottery, utensils, clay pipes have been recovered, as well as a great deal of the fortune onboard ship, also some of the great cannons similar to those below.  Two Astrolabes were also found which give a good idea of their navigation methods .

This picture of the Gun-deck on Batavia's replica indicate the size of the cannon, plus the very cramped conditions under which the gun-crews would have operated. I hope this has given a clear impression of what happened on the fateful day, and some idea of the enormity of the event which goes down in history as Australia's worst and bloodiest massacre.