Batavia's Graveyard - Mike Dash [225]
“Nine chests with realen, with one chest No. 33 with nine bags of ducatons and 41 bags of double and single stuivers. Some of the stuivers have fallen out of the chest, and are missing.
One chest, retrieved broken, without lid, the money being stuck together by rust, in total 5,400 rijksdaalders in 27 bags, 400 rijksdaalders in two small bags, found on the island and taken from the crew.
One small case of jewellery, with four small boxes belonging to the VOC, worth 58,671 guilders 15 stuivers, from which is missing one small necklace worth 70 guilders nine stuivers. In total 58,601 guilders and six stuivers.
In the same case is a jewel belonging to Caspar Boudaen, which the VOC allowed him to sell in India.
One small case containing 75 silver marcken, consisting of four Moorish fruit dishes, two small eating dishes, one Moorish wash-basin, and some broken silver plate. In this case there is also some silver and gold braid, but most of it is spoiled.
Three small casks with cochenille, of which one has been very wet, each cask weighing 52 Brabant pounds.
Two cases with various sorts of linen, many spoilt.
One chest with various kinds of linen, most of them spoilt.
One small case with some linen.
Various rijksdaalders retrieved by the Gujerati divers.
Two small cases with thin copper, each case containing some smaller ones, but most of it having gone black.
Two pieces of artillery, that is, one weighing 3310 pounds and one iron one weighing 3300 pounds.
Some ironwork.
Two small casks of Spanish wine.
One filled with oil.
One filled with vinegar.
Two casks of beer.
One pack of old linen.”
Torrentius A. Bredius, Johannes Torrentius (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1909), pp. 54–69; A. J. Rehorst, Torrentius (Rotterdam: WL & J Brusse NV, 1939), pp. 65–6; Govert Snoek, De Rosenkruizers in Nederland, Voornamelijk in de Eerste Helft van de 17de Eeuw. Een Inventarisatie (Ph.D. thesis, University of Utrecht, 1997), pp. 75–6.
The surviving painting It was identified by being matched to the description of a piece acquired for Charles in 1628, and by the discovery of the King’s mark on the reverse. Rehorst, op. cit., pp. 73–8. It is the work described by Zbigniew Herbert in his Still Life With a Bridle: Essays and Apocryphas (London: Jonathan Cape, 1993).
Specx’s later career and death Stapel, De Gouverneurs-Generaal, p. 19; M. A. van Rhede van der Kloot, De Gouverneurs-Generaal en Commissarissen-Generaal van Nederlandsch-Indiï, 1610–1888 (The Hague: Van Stockum, 1891), pp. 41; W. Ph. Coolhaas, “Aanvullingen en Verbeteringen op Van Rhede van der Kloot’s De Gouveneurs-Generall en Commissarissen-Generaal van Nederlandsch-Indiï (1610-1888),” De Nederlandsche Leeuw 73 (1956): 341; J. R. Bruijn et al., Dutch-Asiatic Shipping in the 17th and 18th Centuries (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1987), I, p. 88.
The fate of Sara Specx On the aftermath of the Specx affair, see C. Gerretson, Coen’s Eerherstel (Amsterdam: Van Kampen, 1944), pp. 58–70; Coolhaas, op. cit., p. 342; Van Rhede van der Kloot, op. cit., p. 41.
Escape of the minor mutineers The fate of Nannings, Gerritsz, and Jan Jansz Purmer is conjecture on my part. Although ne’er-do-wells at best, and most likely active mutineers, their names do not appear on the lists of Jeronimus’s band found in the captain-general’s tent after Pelsaert’s return. It is certainly possible that one or more of them drowned on board the Batavia or died of thirst on Batavia’s Graveyard before the mutiny began; but all three were experienced sailors and I think it much more likely they were with Ariaen Jacobsz in the longboat.
Ryckert Woutersz’s fate is nowhere mentioned in the journals, but the likelihood is that he was dead by 12 July, when his name was conspicuously absent from the first list of those swearing loyalty to Jeronimus. It was Hugh Edwards who first suggested that he was murdered by