Batavia's Graveyard - Mike Dash [208]
Murder of Van den Ende and Drayer Interrogation of Jan Hendricxsz, JFP 19 Sep–28 Sep 1629 [DB 179–81]; verdict on Lucas Gellisz, JFP 12 Nov 1629 [DB 233].
“He, together with David Zevanck . . .” Interrogation of Jan Hendricxsz, JFP 19 Sep 1629 [DB 180].
“Have murdered or destroyed” Verdict on Jeronimus Cornelisz, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 172–3].
Diet of the Batavia survivors Pelsaert’s journals scarcely concern themselves with the survivors’ diet. If the people from the Batavia were typical of Dutch sailors of the era, however, it would appear that, given the choice, they would eat their familiar preserved meats first, then sea lion and finally birds or fish. Clear distinctions seem to have existed between the diets of officers (for which, in the case of the Batavia, read “mutineers”) and those of the common people in the case of shipwreck. The diet of the Zeewijk survivors—as reconstructed by Boranga (op. cit., pp. 97, 103), who believed she was able to positively identify 76 percent of the animal bones recovered from the several camp sites on Pelsaert Island—indicates that the food consumption of the various groups stranded on the island after the retourschip went aground there in 1727 was as follows:
% CASK BEEF CASK PORK SEA LION BIRDS FISH
Officers 60 17 22 1 -
Petty officers 12 12 72 3 1
Soldiers 24 17 49 9 1
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This analysis no doubt understates the importance of fish in the diet of all three groups—their bones are less likely to be detected in an excavation—and a preference for familiar fare over fresh meat is apparent, but the general pattern is clear enough. The campsites of the common hands were not identified, and Boranga theorizes that they were probably split into small groups and kept some distance from the main camp, in an area subsequently destroyed by guano mining. The archaeologists’ discoveries contradict assertions in journals kept by two of the Zeewijk’s surviving officers that food was distributed equally to all parties on the island. However, these same journals mention that ordinary sailors—the “common hands,” who were equivalent to the VOC loyalists on Batavia’s Graveyard—were the first to catch and eat birds, which certainly suggests that their rations were the most meager of all.
Freedom of movement All Pelsaert’s notes concerning the men permitted to crew the makeshift rafts and yawls refer to men who had signed oaths of allegiance to Cornelisz.
Morning stars The remains of a weapon of this description were found early in 2001, during a metal detector search of Seals’ Island conducted on behalf of a Perth-based TV production company called Prospero Productions. The nails and the rope were both long gone, but the deadly purpose of the carefully worked lump of lead could not be doubted. Interview with Ed Punchard of Prospero Productions, 7 May 2001.
Case of jewels “List of cash and goods retrieved from the wreck,” ARA VOC 1098 fol. 529r–529v [R 218–9]. In various places in a single long letter written over several weeks, Antonio van Diemen valued the contents of the case at between 20,000 and 60,000 guilders, which has led to speculation that the jewel-studded golden frame was looted at some point. However, the estimates rise, rather than fall, in the course of the letter, so this theory looks untenable. The highest of the estimates appears the most reliable. Van Diemen to Pieter Carpentier, 30 Nov–10 Dec 1629 [DB 42, 49, 51]
The Great Cameo The Gentlemen XVII had to be content with sight of a sketch of the piece. For profit, see VOC contract with Boudaen, 18 Dec 1628 [DB 88]. The specified commission was 28 percent of the sale price. See also A. N. Zadoks-Josephus Jitta, “De lotgevallen van den grooten camee in het Koninklijk Penningkabinet,” Oud-Holland 66 (1951): 191–211; Drake-Brockman, op. cit., pp. 84–93. Drake-Brockman also suggests that a valuable agate vase, the property of Peter Paul Rubens (and now in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore) was among Pelsaert’s trade goods. Her interpretation of the rather obscure