On this day 381 years ago...

I was especially keen to visit the Shipwrecks Museum for they had part of the wreck of Dutch Batavia ship from 1629. It was closed one day a week, today, Wednesday. I returned again on Friday, the 4th of June, coincidentally 381 years to the day that the Batavia ran aground off the Western Australia shore.

Fremantle

I was in awe when I walked into the Batavia Gallery at the Shipwrecks Museum, towering over me was the reconstructed lower stern of this sailing ship. Wrecked in shallow waters upon a reef, some of it had been preserved by shifting sands. The Dutch East India Company returned sometime after the wrecking to salvage some of the gold bullion, but it was not until the 1970s that the wreck was rediscovered.

It's a sorry story. The Batavia, a magnificent ship of the VOC (Dutch East India Company) was on it's maiden voyage to Batavia, present day Jakarta in Java. Things went awry early though, a mutiny was planned. Before the mutiny was carried out, the ship ran aground, coming too close to Australian shores. In the very early 1600s the VOC had adopted a new route to Java, utilizing the Roaring 40s from the bottom of Africa, the ships sailed west until almost the Australian mainland before turning north. Their distance measurements were crude though, establishing longitude was unreliable, so there were many Dutch ships wrecked along the western Australia coast.

When the Batavia ran aground, it broke up quickly. Little water or food could be salvaged, of the 381 on board 40 drowned, the rest making it to close by islands. With little water to be found, the captain took his senior crew in a small boat and made the perilous journey north to Java, to return some three months later with a ship to collect the survivors. What they found though was very much not what they expected. The mutineers had gruesomely massacred the sick, women and children in order to reduce the numbers from 300 plus to a mere 40 people, in order to survive on the limited water and food resources. A small group had escaped to another island, and where able to warn the captain as he approached with the rescue ship.

Trials were held on the island, some six men had their hands amputated and were hung. Two others were given a small dinghy and limited supplies and exiled to the mainland, never to be heard of again. The remaining mutineers were tried and executed in Java upon their return.

A rare genetic condition affecting children, that was common in the Netherlands in the 1600s has been found in the genetic code of some north western Aboriginal people. There are several words and names in the local dialect which sound remarkably similar to dutch words. I saw a documentary a few months ago, they were searching for more clues in the local Aboriginal population's DNA to link them to the Dutch. There were many shipwrecks along the coast. In one, over two hundred survivors are known to have made it to shore. Remains of extensive fires have been found at the scene, perhaps lit to attract the attention of other passing Dutch ships. But no other trace has ever been found of these people.

Back in the museum, the stone portico that was part of the cargo bound for Java has been constructed. Gruesomely, perhaps, there is a skeleton, recovered from a shallow grave from one of the islands. The victim, a man in his mid 30s, is missing his right foot, has a broken collarbone and suffered a severe head injury.



On Wednesday, on my first visit to Freo, I wandered around the port town, looking at the various historical buildings and sites. The reconstructed beach, the modern apartments, the blended new-old buildings. Old port towns are always fascinating don't you think.

There was however, something underlying all these chic apartments and cafes. I had tried to take photos that somehow captured Freo, until I saw this anyway. Poverty. Alcohol and drug abuse. Homelessness.