Book description
Batavia is the greatest story in Australia s history. The Shipwreck of
the Batavia combines in just the one tale the birth of the world's first
corporation, the brutality of colonisation, the battle of good vs evil,
the derring-do of sea-faring adventure, mutiny, ship-wreck, love, lust,
blood-lust, petty fascist dictatorship, criminality, a reign of terror,
murders most foul, sexual slavery, natural nobility, survival,
retribution, rescue, first contact with native peoples and so much more.
Described by author Peter FitzSimons as "a true Adults Only version
of Lord of the Flies, meeting Nightmare on Elm Street," the story
is set in 1629, when the pride of the Dutch East India Company, the
Batavia, is on its maiden voyage en route from Amsterdam to the Dutch
East Indies, laden down with the greatest treasure to leave Holland. The
magnificent ship is already boiling over with a mutinous plot that is
just about to break into the open when, just off the coast of Western
Australia, it strikes an unseen reef in the middle of the night. While
Commandeur Francisco Pelsaert decides to take the long-boat across 2000
miles of open sea for help, his second-in-command Jeronimus Cornelisz
takes over, quickly deciding that 250 people on a small island is
unwieldy for the small number of supplies they have. Quietly, he puts
forward a plan to 40 odd mutineers how they could save themselves, kill
most of the rest and spare only a half-dozen or so women, including his
personal fancy, Lucretia Jansz - one of the noted beauties of Holland -
to service their sexual needs. A reign of terror begins, countered only
by a previously anonymous soldier Wiebbe Hayes, who begins to gather to
him those are prepared to do what it takes to survive . . . hoping
against hope that the Commandeur will soon be coming back to them with
the rescue yacht. It all happened, long ago, and it is for a very good
reason that Peter FitzSimons has long maintained that this is "far
and away the greatest story in Australia's history, if not the
world's." FitzSimons unique writing style has made him the
country's best-selling non-fiction writer over the last ten years, and
he is perfect man to make this bloody, chilling, stunning tale come
alive. Peter FitzSimons is a journalist with Th Sydney Morning Herald
and Sun-Herald. He is also a regular TV commentator, a former radio
presenter (very successfully, with Mike Carlton on Radio 2UE) and is
also a former national representative rugby union player. Peter is the
author of over 20 books - including Tobruk, Kokoda and Mawson and
biographies of Nancy Wake Kim Beazley Nick Farr-Jones Les Darcy,
Steve Waugh and John Eales, and is Australia's biggest-selling
non-fiction author of the last ten years. Peter was named a Member of
the Order of Australia for service to literature as a biographer, sports
journalist and commentator, and to the community through contributions
to conservation, disability care, social welfare and sporting
organisations. He lives with his wife, Lisa Wilkinson, and their three
children in Sydney.
