BATAVIA
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The Batavia
On the 3rd of June 1629 the Batavia, a flagship of the October fleet ran aground off the coast of Western Australia and a horrible massacre followed. Over 125 men, women and children were brutally murdered on a barren group of islands called the Houtman Abrolhos.
On October 28th 1628 a Dutch Indiaman left the port of Texel in the Netherlands. This ship was the Batavia. The ship was headed Fort Batavia in the spice islands of Indonesia to trade silver coins for spices. The ship was also carrying Francesco Pelsart, the ships commodore and soon to be a member of the Council of India. Although the commodore did not actually steer the ship or give orders to the crew they were considered the controllers of the ships, however many of the skippers, the ones who drove and ordered the crew around, did not agree with this. One of these skippers was Adrian Jacobsz. It should be noted that Pelsart and Jacobsz were both enemies from previous voyages. The other major figure on the ship was Jeronimus Cornelius...