Batavia's Graveyard - Mike Dash [219]
The crew of the mutineers’ boat JFP 19 Sep 1629 [DB 146] lists the 11 members of the crew as Stone-Cutter Pietersz, Jan Hendricxsz, Rutger Fredricx, Hans Jacob Heijlweck, Lucas Gellisz, Hans Frederick, Jan Willensz Selyns, Hendrick Jaspersz Cloet, Hans Hardens, Jacques Pilman, and Gerrit Haas. It is interesting to note that the last four were very minor figures, who had committed no specific crimes and who were in fact never actually punished for their involvement in the mutiny. Probably at this point all those who had signed Jeronimus’s oaths expected nothing but death as a result.
The “boat race” Philippe Godard, The First and Last Voyage of the Batavia (Perth: Abrolhos Publishing, nd, c. 1993), p. 174n. It should be pointed out that neither party seems to have been aware that the “race” was going on; both were simply trying to reach Pelsaert and the jacht as rapidly as possible.
Crew of the Sardam Drake-Brockman, Voyage to Disaster, p. 153n.
Encounter with Wiebbe Hayes JFP 17–28 Sep 1629 [DB 142–3, 152].
Swivel guns These were small cannons, on pivots, which were generally loaded with grapeshot, nails, or other antipersonnel devices and mounted on the poop rail to deter boarders. When Pelsaert, in JFP 17 Sep 1629 [DB 143] says that he and his men “made all preparations to capture the scoundrels,” he surely meant that he had these pieces loaded and prepared to fire; at least, the anonymous Defender implies as much when he writes that the commandeur “pointed his guns” at the men in the boat. Letter of 11 Dec 1629, Leyds Veer-Schuyts Praetjen, Tuschen een Koopman ende Borger van Leyden, Varende van Haarlem nae Leyden (np [Amsterdam: Willem Jansz], 1630), pp. 15–18 [R 321].
The arrival and arrest of the mutineers JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 152].
“They answered me . . .” JFP 17 Sep 1629 [DB 143].
“We learned from their own confessions . . .” JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 152].
“I looked at him with great sorrow . . .” JFP 17 Sep 1629 [DB 144].
“Where the rest of the scoundrels were . . .” JFP 18 Sep 1629 [DB 144–5].
“These have all been found . . .” Ibid. [DB 145].
“We found that the ship was lying in many pieces . . .” Ibid.
Pelsaert legally obliged to administer justice swiftly Roeper, De Schipbreuk van de Batavia, 1629, pp. 30–2.
Jan Willemsz Visch Drake-Brockman, in Voyage to Disaster, p. 157n, speculates that he was a sailor, but on no good evidence. My identification of him as the Sardam’s provost, or—given the small size of the crew—simply the man deputed to fill that role is also guesswork, but it fits the typical composition of a shipboard raad rather better. He was certainly illiterate, signing the various interrogations only with a mark.
Dutch law on confessions and evidence Roeper, op. cit., pp. 31–2.
Water torture Ibid., p. 32; Drake-Brockman, op. cit., pp. 101–2; Giles Milton, Nathaniel’s Nutmeg: How One Man’s Courage Changed the Course of History (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1999), pp. 328–9.
“Forcing all his inward parts . . .” Cited by John Keay, The Honourable Company: A History of the English East India Company (London: Harper Collins, 1993), p. 49.
Cornelisz’s testimony Interrogation of Jeronimus Cornelisz, JFP 19 Sep 1629 [DB 160–70].
“Saying they are lying . . .” Interrogation of Jeronimus Cornelisz, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 170].
“On account of his unsteady and variable confessions . . .” Ibid.
“In order to speak again to his wife . . .” Ibid.
“Something was in it . . .” Ibid. Janssen and Hendricxsz indignantly denied the suggestion of their captain-general, calling out “as one Man that they would die on it, on the salvation of their souls, not to have lied in the least in the things heretofore confessed.”
“Mocked the Council . . .” Ibid.
“Confesses at last . . . He well knows . . .” Ibid.
Hendricxsz put to the torture Interrogation of Jan Hendricxsz, JFP 17 Sep 1629 [DB 177].
Torture of Andries Jonas Interrogation of Andries Jonas, JFP 24 Sep 1629 [DB 201].
Cornelisz betrays his followers Interrogation of Rutger Fredricx, JFP 20 Sep 1629 [DB 205–6]; interrogation of Lenert van Os, JFP 23