VOC Batavia

The Batavia was a Dutch mirror return ship from the 17th century. The wreck is currently in a museum in Fremantle, Australia. The VOC ship the Batavia was built between 1627 and 1628 on the Peperwerf in Amsterdam. In the years 1985-1995, a reconstruction was built which can be seen on the Batavia yard in Lelystad.

The ship departed for the first time on October 29, 1628, under the command of skipper Adriaen Jakobsz with Batavia as the destination. Actually, the leader of the expedition was chief merchant François Pelsaert. The skipper was responsible for the good speed, but he had to accept orders from the chief merchant.

On 14 April 1629, the ship arrived at Cape of Good Hope to forage. After eight days it left again. In the early morning of June 4, 1629, the ship struck a leak on Morning Reef of the Wallabi group off the Australian west coast. Some of the passengers stayed behind on some islands, while another group sailed to Batavia with a sloop to get help. When the rescue arrived, the mutiny had broken out.