Batavia's Graveyard: The True Story of the Mad Heretic Who Led History's Bloodiest Mutiny

It says a lot for a story when it begins with a shipwreck and builds in intensity from there. Batavia's Graveyard, painstakingly researched and written by Mike Dash, starts shortly before the proud, richly laden Dutch merchantman Batavia, on her maiden voyage for the Dutch East India Co. in 1629, shattered its hull on a coral reef near Australia and some 1,500 miles shy of its destination in Java. It could have been a simple story of survival if not for the presence of Jeronimus Cornelisz aboard the doomed vessel. At first glance a simple, mid-ranking official for the company, Cornelisz harbored heretical ideas and an overblown sense of his own importance in the scheme of things -- and he had the intelligence and charisma to bend others to his will. Long before the shipwreck occurred, Cornelisz had plotted mutiny and piracy on the Batavia. But once he found himself stranded with more than 250 survivors and limited resources to keep them alive, the Dutchman decided to take matters into his own hands and decide who should live and die. It might be somewhat hard to believe if this were fiction, but Dash has drawn his story from the logs, court records and testimonials of the day. As history, Batavia's Graveyard is a gripping, deeply disturbing tale. Dash should be commended for his ability to present the story with such perfect balance between sensational drama and stark historical facts. There are enough notes and references to sate even the most passionate researcher, and the narrative never falters in its flow. by Tom Knapp, Rambles.NET editor

Upon finishing "Batavia's Graveyard" I'm still hard pressed to believe that this is actually a true story...Mike Dash's writing and story-telling ability abound in this wonderful book and it truly reads like a novel. Not only is it masterful story-telling, but it's darned good history reading as the reader gets exceptional coverage of early 17th century Danish life. The history of the early East Indies Spice Trade period and it's impact on Dutch civilization is expertly told from it's infancy in the mid 16th century up to and including the mid 1620's when the "Batavia" trade ship completes construction and sets sail for the East Indies (Dash also manages to adroitly describe early 17th century ship-building in technical, but at the same time, very readable prose). The personalities involved in the story (mutineers and non-mutineers alike) are brought to life throughout the book as Dash's character descriptions are very realistic and surprisingly complete, especially given the fact that very little useful information survives from this era. The grisly murders and actions of Cornelisz and his gang on the islands following the ship-wreck and their lack of rationale offset the tropical "feel" of life there...Dash creates an excellent balance between survival tactics (lack of food, water...etc) and total fear for one's life as the mutineers run rampant. On a parallel path, is the rescue effort and it's timing is the highlight of the book. Finally, the judgements handed down for all the killers and an extremely comprehensive Epilouge close out this stimulating book which reads amazingly quickly (80 to 100 pages at a sitting goes very quickly). A great book for the general reader or a history buff, "Batavia's Graveyard" should get serious Pulitzer consideration and I would characterize it as a "must-read".

The Batavia, a huge new merchant ship of the Dutch East India Company, set off on her maiden voyage in 1628, bound for what is now Indonesia. She was shipping cases full of silver and jewels to be traded for Asian spices at incredible profit. She was also shipping a weak-willed skipper, a psychopathic commercial officer named Jeronimus Cornelius, and a gang of disgruntled sailors before the mast. After long months at sea, a mutiny was already brewing when the ship ran aground on deserted islands off Australia. The next few months became an infamous page in naval history as Cornelius embarked on a rampage of torture, murder, and rape of hundreds of shipwrecked crew and passengers. The Batavia Affair that horrified 17th century Amsterdam has lost none of its power. More than a real-life "Lord of the Flies", the saga is a thoroughly-researched piece of Dutch history. Author Mike Dash has poked among the historical boneyards not only on remote coral islands, but among the civic and commercial records of the long-ago United Provinces of the Netherlands. He is a careful scholar, making educated guesses, pointing out which conclusions are supported by the evidence and which are mere speculation. His stories of heretical sects in northern Europe, the awful life aboard a merchant ship, and the operation of the East India Company are certain to be new and fascinating reading. Dash's careful work, gripping prose, and dry wit need no further embellishment. The truth of the Batavia is stranger than fiction.

"Absolutely nothing in this book is invented." Mike Dash starts off his book _Batavia's Graveyard_ (Crown) with this declaration for a good reason. The story is quite literally incredible. Dash's previous book, the excellent _Tulipomania_, wittily described the improbable craze of speculating on tulip bulbs in Holland in the seventeenth century, but the tulip madness is relatively well known. Stories of the fate of the ship _Batavia_ in 1629 in the service of the Dutch East India Company, however, were wildly popular at the time, but have gradually been forgotten. The story was spectacular enough that there were memoirs, eyewitness accounts, pamphlets, books, and court testimony, all of which Dash has dug through with notable thoroughness. The bizarre tale of the _Batavia_ reads like a thriller.The main character in the tale is Jeronimus Cornelisz, who had newly joined the Dutch East India Company to make his fortune. He was probably brought up as a member of the Anabaptists, a small protestant sect with a history of fanaticism and resistance to worldly governments, based largely on the belief that the Second Coming of Christ was just around the corner. He had also joined a social organization which had dangerous philosophies, and he came to antinomianism, the creed that one can exist in a state of perfection and thereby avoid following any moral law. "All I do, God gave the same into my heart," he explained. He planned a mutiny to take over the ship and become a pirate, but about a month before arriving at the destination Java, it crashed into a coral reef off Australia's western coast. Cornelisz, the highest ranking official left on the islands, took charge with real self assurance, eloquence, and charisma, and hell descended. The sailors seemed to have found his talk and his leadership irresistible, and he frequently spoke of the wealth that could be theirs if they were to take over any rescue ship. He began to thin the population by the simple means of murder. He and his loyal henchmen began killing those whom they distrusted, and then those who were unneeded. After that, although there was sufficient drinking water from rainfall and sufficient food from seals and birds, the killing continued because it was entertaining for those in power to continue it. The scenes of murder and mayhem are unpleasant, but not much more so than those of the legal interrogations under torture and the executions which followed the affair. There are few pure heroes described here, and the book shows that while the Company got richer and richer, those on the sea who made it happen had brutal lives and little recompense. That may strike a chord for our own times, as may the picture of a man of God bringing unimaginable destruction for the sake of his own power. Dash has, however, wisely avoided any parallels to the present, and any didacticism. He has told an amazing tale, with extraordinary detail for events of so many years ago, and has brough

I've read many seafaring/adventure/historical non-fiction narratives (as well as novels) and Batavia's Graveyard does them all one better. Like most Americans, I had never heard of the Batavia incident, so I was in suspense during this entire reading experience. The author, Mike Dash, gives a engrossing account of the survivors' ordeal, but, more importantly, he does an excellent job of placing the Batavia's story within the context of the 1600s and the Dutch sea trade. I was fascinated by the description of life in the Netherlands by the history of the Dutch East India Company--a corporation so heartless and corrupt that it makes Enron look warm and fuzzy. Like In the Heart of the Sea, this is a book that places one sensational, disturbing event within a much larger, and richer history. Mike Dash's stylish, compelling writing are to be commended, as well. Even the nearly 100 pages of endnotes themselves (which detail Mr. Dash's outstanding research) add a lot to the appreciation of this book. Take it from a history--and reading--addict: this is one of the best historical narratives to be written in years.