Batavia's Graveyard - Mike Dash [202]
VOC hierarchy See the salary scales (for 1645–1700) printed by C. R. Boxer, The Dutch Seaborne Empire 1600–1800 (London: Hutchinson, 1965), pp. 300–2. Following these scales, and taking the lower estimates printed to allow for some inflation between 1629 and 1645, it would appear that relative seniority and the monthly rates of pay for the principals on the Batavia would have been roughly as follows:
NAME RANK MONTHLY PAY
Francisco Pelsaert Upper-merchant 80–100 guilders
Araien Jacobsz Skipper 60 guilders
Jeronimus Cornelisz Under-merchant 36 guilders
Claes Gerritsz Upper-steersman 36 guilders
Frans Jansz Surgeon 36 guilders
? Ship’scarpenter 30 guilders
Jacob Jansz Hollert Under-steersman 24 guilders
Aris Jansz Surgeon’s mate 24 guilders
? Carpenter’s mate 24 guilders
Jan Evertsz High boatswain 22 guilders
Reyndert Hendricxsz Steward 20 guilders
? Constable 20 guilders
? Cook 20 guilders
? Sailmaker 18 guilders
David Zevanck Assistant 16 guilders
Jan Willemsz Selyns Upper-cooper 16 guilders
Pieter Jansz Provost 14 guilders
Harman Nannings Quartermaster 14 guilders
Gabriel Jacobszoon Corporal 14 guilders
Jacop Pietersz Steenhouwer Lance corporal 12 guilders
Rutger Fredricx Locksmith 12 guilders
Coenraat van Huyssen Cadet 10 guilders
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Able seamen were paid about 10 guilders a month, ordinary seamen 7 guilders, private soldiers 9 guilders, and ship’s boys 4 guilders a month. Among the sailors and craftsmen, the relative importance of carpenters—who were vital to the integrity of a retourschip in the course of the long voyage east—is particularly striking.
Councils V. D. Roeper, De Schipbreuk van de Batavia, 1629 (Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 1994), pp. 30–1; Henrietta Drake-Brockman, Voyage to Disaster (Nedlands, WA: University of Western Australia Press, 1995), pp. 11–12.
Supply of water JFP 5 June 1629 [DB 125].
“Begun to coalesce . . .” This is supposition on my part, but based on the typical behavior of survivors after a shipwreck. See, for example, the behavior of the Medusa survivors—members of the crew of a French transport stranded off the coast of Mauritania in 1816—described by Alexander McKee, Death Raft: the Human Drama of the Medusa Shipwreck (London: Souvenir Press, 1975), pp. 117–9.
Suffering caused by lack of water Harderwijk MS [R 22–4]; JFP 16 Sep 1629 [DB 145]; Nathaniel Philibrick, In the Heart of the Sea: The Epic True Story That Inspired Moby Dick (London: HarperCollins, 2000), pp. 127–9.
Deaths from thirst Harderwijk MS [R 22]; anonymous Letter of, 11 Dec 1629, published in Leyds Veer-Schuyts Praetjen, Tuschen een Koopman ende Borger van Leyden, Varende van Haarlem nae Leyden (np [Amsterdam: Willem Jansz], 1630) [R 233]. The author says the dead consisted of nine children and one woman.
“Our own water . . .” LGB.
Wybrecht Claasen She presumably came from Dordrecht, like her employer. A very large proportion of people from the town earned a living from the sea, which may explain how the girl came to swim so well. Harderwijk MS [R 22–3].
The breakup of the wreck “Declaration in short [of] the origin, reason, and towards what intention, Jeronimus Cornilissen, under-merchant, has resolved to murder all the people . . .,” JFP nd [DB251], anonymous letter of 11 December 1629, op. cit. [R 233].
“Taken by surprise” Letter of 11 December, op. cit. refers to people “swimming naked through the surf.”
“. . . the wrecking went on . . .” JFP 17 Sep 1629 [DB 145].
Jeronimus comes ashore JFP 17 Sep 1629; “Declaration in Short,” op. cit. [DB 145, 158, 251].
Southeast wind JFP 12–14 June 1629 [DB 129].
The camp The position of the Batavia survivors’ camp was revealed by test diggings conducted in 1992. Green, Stanbury, and Gaastra, The ANCODS Colloquium, p. 111.
There is little in the ship’s journals to indicate how the survivors organized themselves, but the campsites left by the crew of the Zeewijk, another retourschip lost in the Abrolhos