Batavia ( ) was a ship of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). She was built in Amsterdam in 1628 as the flagship of one of the three annual fleets of company ships and sailed that year on her maiden voyage for Batavia, capital of the Dutch East Indies. On 4 June 1629, Batavia was wrecked on the Houtman Abrolhos, a chain of small islands off the western coast of Australia.
The Houtman Abrolhos is a chain of 122 islands and associated coral reefs, in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia, about 80 kilometres (50 mi) west of Geraldton, Western Australia. It is the southernmost true coral reef in the Indian Ocean, and one of the highest latitude reef systems in the world.
Francisco Pelsaert was a Dutch merchant who worked for the Dutch East India Company best known for his role as the commander of the Batavia. The ship ran aground in the Houtman Abrolhos, off the coastal regions of Western Australia in June 1629, which led to a massacre of survivors orchestrated by Jeronimus Cornelisz.
The Zaandam, or Sardam, Saerdam and Saardam, was a 17th-century yacht of the Dutch East India Company. It was a small merchant vessel designed primarily for the inter-island trade in the East Indies.
The Zeewijk was an 18th-century East Indiaman of the Dutch East India Company that was shipwrecked at the Houtman Abrolhos, off the coast of Western Australia, on 9 June 1727. The survivors built a second ship, the Sloepie, enabling 82 out of the initial crew of 208 to reach their initial destination of Batavia on 30 April 1728. Since the 19th century many objects were found near the wreck site, which are now in the Western Australian Museum. The shipwreck itself was found in 1968 by divers.
Over 1400 ships have been wrecked on the coast of Western Australia. This relatively large number of shipwrecks is due to a number of factors, including:
Gun Island is one of the larger islands in the Pelsaert Group of the Houtman Abrolhos, in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia. It is nominally at 28°53′10″S113°51′35″E, about 4 km (2.5 mi) north and east of Half Moon Reef and is a flat limestone outcrop of about 800 by 420 metres in size. The island is part of the Houtman Abrolhos Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International because of its importance for supporting large numbers of breeding seabirds.
Batavia Road is an anchorage, or roadstead, in the Pelsaert Group of the Houtman Abrolhos, off the coast of Western Australia. It is located at 28°58′S113°58′E, on the eastern side of Pelsaert Island, near its southern end. It was discovered and named in April 1840 by John Clements Wickham, captain of HMS Beagle. Wickham's assistant John Lort Stokes later wrote:
"On the south west point of the island the beams of a large vessel were discovered, and as the crew of the Zeewyk, lost in 1728 [sic], reported having seen the wreck of a ship on this part, there is little doubt that the remains were those of the Batavia, Commodore Pelsart, lost in 1627. We in consequence named our temporary anchorage Batavia Road, and the whole group Pelsart Group."
Pigeon Island is a small island located need the middle of the Wallabi Group of the Houtman Abrolhos, an archipelago off the coast of Western Australia. It is almost entirely given over to western rock lobster fishers' camps, and as a result is far more disturbed than most other islands in the archipelago. A nearby island also seasonally populated by fishers is named Little Pigeon Island, hence Pigeon Island is sometimes referred to as "Big Pigeon Island".
Pigeon Island Anchorage is a passage through a reef that runs along the northwest wide of Pigeon Island in the Wallabi Group of the Houtman Abrolhos, an archipelago off the coast of Western Australia. Pigeon Island is seasonally populated by a great many Western Rock Lobster fishers, and Pigeon Island Anchorage represents the only safe approach to the island. It is thus heavily used as both a navigational passage and as an anchorage.
Wiebbe Hayes was a Dutch soldier known for his leading role in the suppression of Jeronimus Cornelisz's massacre of shipwreck survivors in 1629, after the merchant ship Batavia was wrecked in the Houtman Abrolhos, a chain of coral islands off the west coast of Australia.
The Abrolhos tragedy is the only English translation of Isaac Commelin's 1647 Ongeluckige voyagie, van't schip Batavia, which was the first published account of the 1629 shipwreck of Batavia in the Houtman Abrolhos, and the subsequent mutiny and massacre that occurred amongst the survivors.
East Wallabi Island is an island in the Wallabi Group of the Houtman Abrolhos, located in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of mainland Australia.
West Wallabi Island is an island in the Wallabi Group of the Houtman Abrolhos, in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of mainland Australia.
The Australian Netherlands Committee on Old Dutch Shipwrecks (ANCODS) is an organization tasked with maintaining and allocating artefacts from 17th and 18th century Dutch shipwrecks off the coast of Western Australia. It was founded in 1972 by the Agreement between Australia and the Netherlands Concerning Old Dutch Shipwrecks.
Max Cramer OAM was an Australian scuba diver who became famous as the co-discoverer of the wreck of the Batavia on 4 June 1963. He was involved in a number of maritime archaeology projects pertaining to historic shipwrecks in Western Australia.
The Wiebbe Hayes Stone Fort on West Wallabi Island is the oldest surviving European building in Australia and was built in 1629 by survivors of the Batavia shipwreck and massacre. West Wallabi Island is 63 km (39 mi) from the coast of Western Australia.
Pelsaert Island is one of the islands of the Pelsaert Group, which is the southernmost of the three groups of islands that make up the Houtman Abrolhos island chain in Western Australia.
