232r Sad daily notes on the loss of our ship Batavia, being mis-sailed on the Abrolhos 1 1 or Cliffs of Frederick Hout-man, situated in the latitude of 28 /3 degrees, 9 miles from Southland on the — Fourth of June, being Monday morning, on the 2 day of Whitsuntide, with a bright clear full moonlight2 about 2 hours before daybreak In the watch of the skipper, lay I yet in my bunk being sickly, I felt the ship’s rudder strike with a hard terrible motion, whereupon the ship immediately halted her course against the rocks, so that I fell out of my berth. Thereupon I walked upstairs and found all the sails aloft, the wind south west, the course at north east by north that night, and lay in the middle of a thick spume. But near the ship there was little breaching, but shortly after the sea was heard breaking hard round and about. I said, skipper, how have you wrought this that you through reckless inattention have hung us by our necks. He answered, what better could I do? I did not sleep, but did look out, for when I saw the far off foam I asked Hans the gunner3, what can that be? Whereupon he said, skipper it is the glint of the moon, upon which I have relied. I asked him what advice now, whereabouts he thought we were. He said, God knows that, this is a shoal that must be lying a long way from land unknown, and I reckon we are grounded at the tail. We must try and bring out an anchor from the rear, perhaps it is low tide, so that we might still wind it off from it. I asked him how deep that it was there. He answered that he did not know. I sent to get the lead, which was in the steersmen’s cabin, and I found that astern there was only l7 to l8 feet of water, but at the ship’s bow much less. At that time, I did not know otherwise than, as the skipper said, it was an unknown shoal. Therefore we began to throw the guns overboard in order to make the ship lighter, and the schuyt4 with the longboat were put out, and I had it sounded all around, and found at a pijlschoot [ARROW'S SHOT]5 1 The mile which Pelsaert uses is the so called Hollandse mijl, also known as Duitse mijl, of which there were 15 to a degree. Measuring the actual meridian length of one degree, the Dutch scholars and mathematicians Snellius and Metius determined in 1615 this to be 28,500 Rhineland rods and this would be used for many decades to come by surveyors, in map scales and for navigation. The Rhineland rod consisted of 12 Rhineland feet and each such foot being 31.4 centimetres, it can be worked out that the Hollandse mijl, as per Snellius and Metius, was 28,500/15x12x0.314metres=7,159.2 metres. The distance from the Batavia wreck site to the mainland coast of Western Australia is close to 63 km, so Pelsaert was not far off with his estimated 9 mijlen. 2 Continental countries were using the Gregorian (Stilo Nova) Calendar. In early June, sunrise at Geraldton, Western Australia, is at 7.10 a.m. approximately. Allowing 55 minutes for nautical twilight, one can assume that the Batavia struck about 4 am. The precise moment of Full Moon (Greenwich Mean Time) on 6th June 1629 has been estimated as 11 pm, which, allowing for the eight-hour delay between Amsterdam and Geraldton, is approximately two days after the actual time of wrecking. Thus Pelsaert was referring to a condition of bright moonlight, not to a full moon. 3 Bosschieter : a ship's gunner, sometimes carrying a musket. A term still used in the Dutch navy. 4 Schuijt, in modern Dutch schuit (pl. schuiten): The schuijt was the second auxiliary boat from the Batavia. Schuijt is a rather generic term mostly used for a variety of flat-bottomed boats and barges which have a moderately sharp bow in common and often a straight stem post at considerable rake. A schuijt can be a double ender, or have a square or round and peaked stern. Robert Juet, steersman for Henry Hudson on the yacht Half Moon in 1609, mentions in his journal the ‘scute’, his phonetic transcript of schuijt for which he did not know the English word. Pelsaert uses the word schuijt for the smaller of the two boats carried by the Batavia and refers to the larger as the boot (i.e., boat) by which he means the ship’s longboat. The schuijt would be only a little smaller than the longboat, but because of being sharper and lighter built it would move better under oars than the heavy, larger and bluff-bowed longboat. 5 The range of an arrow depends on several factors such as the weight of the arrow, the strength of the draw and angle of launch. According to Robert Hardy in his book LONGBOW (1998 ed., p. 231) a range of 200-300 yards can be expected with a typical English longbow. 232v from the back of the ship 7 fathoms of water. But forwards very shallow, we made a kedge anchor ready, to bring out at the stern. Meanwhile it began to blow harder with showers, and the longboat was flung from board by a breaking wave, so that it drifted much away and we had to send the schuijt to help it row back up. Then before it could get alongside it had become day and then found ourselves surrounded by cliffs and shoals, and very suddenly because of the fall of the water (for we had sailed on there with full tide) seas began to break and breach around the ship, so that one could no longer stand or walk due to the pounding of the ship. Therefore we decided to carry the main mast overboard, in order that it would not presently strike at the ground. But when it was cut off we found that it caused us much harm, because due to the great breaches, we could not rid it from board, to be able to moor the longboat alongside. I also saw no land that I thought would remain dry at high water except for an island that on estimate lay a good 3 miles from the ship, therefore I sent the skipper to 2 small islets or cliffs not so very far from the ship to see if the people could be saved there and some goods salvaged. At about 9 o’clock the skipper returned because it was not really possible to get there on account of the rocks and the cliffs, for at one spot one could not go over with the schuijt, whilst at another it would be several fathoms deep. He reported that on inspection by eye the islands would did not overflow. Therefore, because of the great wailing that was in the ship, by women, children, sick, and anxious people, we consented to put most of the people on land first and meanwhile to get ready on deck the money and the most precious goods, for which I did my utmost. But God the Lord scourged us with many rods, for in spite of all the effort we made to careen or make the vessel fall to leeward, it fell quite contrary 233r because of the uneven rocks on which it sat, which so caused it that the people could only come out of the ship very slowly. Secondly, the ship had already burst at l0 o’clock and was one to try with utmost swiftness to get some broot [BREAD]6 out of the breadroom. Of water we had hope to get enough but our goodwill and diligence were impeded by the godless unruly troops, so soldiers, as sailors, with their consorts whom I could not keep away from liquor or wine in the hold, so that one could not get at it in the meantime and went the entire hold adrift, so that hardly l ½ leggers [LEAGUERS]7 were filled with kitten [SCUTTLES] and buckets and were ready above on the ship. So that the day went by and had the longboat done only three trips with people, with which we had put on land .l80. souls, 20 casks of bread and some small barrels of water. About sunset the skipper came aboard with the sloep [SLOOP]8, who had brought ashore a Jewel Casket and some people, and said to me, it won't help that we salvage water and bread, because there on land everyone drinks his fill, and to forbid has no power unless you impose a different order. Whereupon I fell into the schuijt because of our water which I saw little more was to be obtained for a time, moreover there was such a great number of people that it had to be better used; on intention to return immediately in accordance with our resolution to get the money from the ship with the next boat, but for God's betterment, I was scarcely from board then it began to blow so hard that it was outside human power to reach the ship with the boat. Yes, we could hardly prevent it from drifting away. In the morning before daylight being the 5th, we put some folks with some bread and water on the largest islet, for we had been separated in the night into 2 parties, and I sailed from there in the sloop and the skipper in the longboat, to go aboard, where I arrived at last about noon after much rowing, and the longboat could 6 Broot, in modern Dutch brood, which means bread, however here it means a hard bread like ship's biscuit, kept in casks.