The Batavia, the pride of the Dutch East India Company, is on its maiden voyage from Amsterdam to the Dutch East Indies when it wrecks off just off the coast of western Australia. But the tragedy of the Batavia stems not from the forces of nature, but from the evil in men’s hearts.
I’ve listened to a lot of podcasts about this story in the last couple years, and was so curious about this strange, dark story, part survival story and part true crime, that I decided to commit to a deep dive into the subject with this book.
FitzSimons has a complicated story to tell, set as it is against the broader influences of geopolitics and colonialism, and containing so many players, but he does a good job of breaking down what happened, and why it happened and how as well. The story is a gripping one, indeed an adult version of Lord of the Flies as I’ve seen it described elsewhere. Occasionally FitzSimons leavens the darkness with very black humor.
I did find myself stumbling a little bit in places just because the list of people involved in the incident is so long, and so many people have the same names, but FitzSimons did a decent job of differentiating them and reminding you of who was who. I would have been interested to learn more about the consequences of the wreck of the Batavia on the OEC at large, specifically if it ended up changing any policies in managing their ships and their personnel.
I listened to the audiobook, which is narrated by Richard Aspel. I thought he did a good job of conveying both the darkness of the story as well as FitzSimons’ often arch tone. I can’t speak to the accuracy of his Dutch pronunciation, but it seemed alright.
