Batavia

Batavia was a ship of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). It was built in Amsterdam in 1628, and armed with 24 cast-iron cannons and a number of bronze guns. Batavia was shipwrecked on her maiden voyage, and was made famous by the subsequent mutiny and massacre that took place among the survivors. A twentieth-century replica of the ship is also called the Batavia and can be visited in Lelystad, Netherlands.Mutiny on the ''Batavia''Departure and voyageOn 27 October 1628, the newly built Batavia, commissioned by the Dutch East India Company, sailed from Texel for the Dutch East Indies, to obtain spices. It sailed under commandeur and opperkoopman (upper- or senior merchant) Francisco Pelsaert, with Ariaen Jacobsz serving as skipper. These two had previously encountered each other in Surat, India. Some animosity had developed between them in Surat after Jacobsz became drunk and insulted Pelsaert in front of other merchants, leading to a public dressing-down for Jacobsz by Pelsaert. However, it is not known whether Pelsaert even remembered Jacobsz when he boarded Batavia. Also on board was the onderkoopman (under- or junior merchant) Jeronimus Cornelisz, a bankrupt pharmacist (a.k.a. heretic apothecary) from Haarlem who was fleeing the Netherlands, in fear of arrest because of his heretical beliefs associated with the painter Johannes van der Beeck, also known as Torrentius.