Is there a batavia's graveyard chapter summary?

Answer 1

Batavia's Graveyard is a minutely researched history by Mike Dash which describes the maiden voyage of a ship from Amsterdam to Java in 1628-29. The voyage ends in disaster with a shipwreck, after which a psychopathic heretic takes command on a desert island and 120 men, women and children are murdered in a variety of horrific ways. One brave soldier leads resistance to the mutineers and a small group survive long enough to alert the crew of a rescue ship, resulting in the equally brutal punishment of Cornelisz and his men.

Prologue: The Batavia, a Dutch East Indiaman packed with silver bound for a trading post in Java, is wrecked in Houtman's Abrolhos, an unexplored archipelago of coral islands off the coast of Western Australia. The ship breaks up but more than 280 passengers and crew make it ashore. Their island lacks all resources and in a desperate attempt to effect a rescue, the skipper, Ariaen Jacobsz, and senior merchant, Francisco Pelsaert, take the only lifeboats and make for Java, 1800 miles away. The senior man left behind is the Under-Merchant, Jeronimus Cornelisz, who is stranded on what is left of the wreck.

1. The heretic: Cornelisz's background is explored. His is a disgraced pharmacist whose new born son has died of syphilis and whose business has collapsed. He is also a heretic - a believer in the antinomian philosophy which states that those who are favoured by God cannot commit sin. Any apparently sinful idea that enters their head has been put there by God and is in effect an order.

2. Gentleman XVII. The Dutch East India Company, which owns the Batavia, is described, It is a grasping, venal body obsessed only with profit. Since a voyage to the Far East involves a dangerous round trip of up to 3 years in uncomfortable conditions, with a mortality rate in excess of two-thirds, only the scrapings of the waterfront can be recruited to crew its ships and the danger of mutiny is ever present. We are introduced to other members of the Batavia's crew and several passengers, including a working class preacher, Gijsbert Bastiaensz, and his seven children, and a high born beauty, Creesje Jans. Pelsaert's background is sketched in and his rivalry with Jacobsz described. The Batavia sets sail.

3. The Tavern of the Ocean. This chapter describes the horrors of the voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, where Dutch ships call to take on food and water. The Batavia is cramped and there is no privacy. Soldiers on their way to garrison the Indies have to be kept separate from the sailors and are confined to an unventilated, unlit orlop deck in which they cannot even stand for 23 hours a day. The food is appalling, and much of it is infested with insects. Heat is a problem around the Equator and boredom affects everyone. Pelsaert, Cornelisz and Jacobsz compete for the favours of Creesje Jansz. Some further details of Cornelisz's unorthodox religious views are revealed. At the end of the chapter, Jacobsz and Cornelisz discuss the possibility of staging a mutiny and turning pirate in the Indian ocean.

4. Terra Australia Incognita. The Bataviacontinues on into the Roaring Forties. The problems of navigation in this period are described - it is impossible to know longitude and so ships that guess wrong when they turn north will wreck themselves on the unexplored coast of Terra Australis, that is, Australia. The plot between Jacobsz and Cornelisz continues - they beginning recruiting from among the most brutal and violent elements of the crew and plan to increase Pelsaert's unpopularity to encourage more men to join their cause. This is to be achieved by means of a brutal attack on Pelsaert's love interest, Creesje Jans, which the conspirators expect will lead to strong reprisals on board. Creesje is ambushed, smeared with dung and sexually assaulted. But Pelsaert, weakened by illness, bides his time, preferring to wait until he is closer to the authorities in Java before acting. Before he can do so, the Batavia is wrecked.

5. The Tiger. This chapter follows on from the prologue. With Jacobsz and Pelsaert gone, Cornelisz is washed ashore from the wreck and takes charge. It is obvious there are so many survivors the limited supplies of food and drink will soon run out. Cornelisz decides to maximise his own chances of survival by reactivating the mutiny. He splits the survivors into several parties and scatters them among the islands of the archipelago so as to reduce the chance of encountering opposition. All the soldiers, led by Wiebbe Hayes, are sent to a large island where Cornelisz believes they will die of thirst. He then sets about reducing the numbers on his own island, which the survivors have dubbed Batavia's Graveyard. Some are accused of stealing stores and "legally" executed; others are taken on fishing trips with groups of mutineers during which they "accidentally" drown. Cornelisz kills nobody himself but he forces Creesje to become his lover. The chapter ends with the uncovering of the mutiny: Hayes's soldiers discover water and signal to the other survivors to join them. In order to prevent the reunification of the scattered parties, Cornelisz orders the massacre of one group of 25. The cowed survivors are left trapped on Batavia's Graveyard with the mutineers, who control all the weapons. Random violence and executions continue, now more for entertainment than to preserve supplies. The loyal passengers and crew are left waiting for their turn to die.

6. Longboat. The scene switches to Pelsaert's lifeboat. This chapter traces the dangerous voyage north, which Jacobsz, by an incredible feat of seamanship, manages to complete without losing a single one of the 48 people in the boat. But the lifeboat is too crowded for him to deal with Pelsaert, who slowly begins to piece together what has happened and realises that Cornelisz and Jacobsz were plotting mutiny. When the boat reaches Java, he has Jacobsz arrested and is ordered to take a rescue ship and return to the Abrolhos - to save the silver first, and any survivors if possible. The voyage takes more than a month, as the exact location of the islands is not known.

7. Who wants to be stabbed to death? Meanwhile, in the Abrolhos, the murders continue. Preacher Bastianesz is forced to marry his eldest daughter to a mutineer and his wife and six other children are all killed in an orgy of bloodletting. A pregnant woman has her throat cut and Cornelisz orders one man who seeks to join the ranks of the mutineers to prove his loyalty by strangling a baby whose crying had disturbed his sleep. But the mutineers cannot deal with Hayes and his soldiers. Cornelisz 's aim now is to surprise the crew of any rescue ship, kill them and take it over, but to do this he has to eliminate the possibility that Hayes will warn them of the mutiny. Three successive attacked are launched on Hayes's island, but the loyalists fight desperately using home made weapons and beat them back. Pelsaert returns just as the final assault reaches a climax. When his rescue ship finally appears, the two sides race to be the first to reach it - Hayes to issue a warning and the mutineers to surprise and murder the crew. Hayes wins the race and the mutineers are captured.

8. Condemned. Pelsaert salvages the treasure and interrogates and tries the mutineers. The full story of the mutiny emerges. The survivors, including Creesje Jansz and Wiebbe Hayes, are reunited with friends and family.

9. To be broken on the wheel. Fearing that the mutineers, nearly 40 strong, are too dangerous to be taken back to Java - and especially being wary of Jeronimus Cornelisz's facile tongue - Pelsaert decides to execute the ringleaders. Cornelisz has both hands lopped off with hammer and chisel and is then hanged. His final words on the scaffold are "Revenge! Revenge!" A few less important mutineers are taken back to Java for the Dutch authorities to vent their anger on. Cornelisz's second in command, "Stonecutter" Pietersz, is tortured to death by being broken on the wheel. Pelsaert is disgraced when the full extent of the mutiny is revealed to the Dutch governor, and Jacobsz dies in prison.

Epilogue. Dash tells what is known of the survivors' stories. Hayes is promoted and rewarded. Creesje discovers her husband, who she had been travelling to join, has died of fever. She remarries in Java and returns to the Netherlands. Two minor mutineers who Pelsaert decided not to hang are marooned on the unexplored coast of Australia and Dash discusses evidence that suggests they may have survived and intermarried with local Aborigines. In the 1960s, the wreck of the Batavia is finally discovered and archaeologists excavate several of Cornelisz`s mass graves. One child's skeleton is discovered with its teeth worn severely down. A forensic anthropologist diagnoses that the problem was caused by tooth-grinding caused by extraordinary stress.

Summary: an extraordinary story, brilliantly researched and excitingly told. The excitable sub-title, "The true story of the mad heretic who led history's bloodiest mutiny," is revealed to be if anything an understatement.

Answer 2

Yes, "Batavia's Graveyard" by Mike Dash is a non-fiction book that chronicles the tragic journey of the Dutch ship Batavia in the 17th century. The ship was wrecked off the coast of Australia, leading to mutinies, murders, and a brutal struggle for survival among the survivors. The book explores themes of power, violence, and human nature in extreme circumstances.