Shipwreck Databases Western Australian Museum

Databases of the people aboard the VOC ships Batavia (1629) & Zeewijk (1725) An analysis of the potential for finding the Dutch castaways’ human remains in Australia.

Author/s Arise, C.

Year of publication 2012

Report Number: No. 16

This paper is presented in two sections; the first concerns Batavia and the second focuses on Zeewijk. Each of these sections can be read independently. When Batavia wrecked on Morning Reef on 4 June 1629, its castaways soon spread out

over the islands of the Wallabi Group. Depending on how many of the 200 deceased were buried, the islands may have preserved a significant number of human remains from the Batavia castaways. So far, only ten of these have been discovered and

tentatively identified. This paper provides an estimate of how many graves may be found, where they could be and who they might belong to. In 1727, Zeewijk was wrecked on Half-Moon Reef in the Pelsaert Group. A large number of survivors would eventually build a seagoing vessel and successfully reach Batavia, but many died before the rescue. These castaways have also left their marks in the Houtman Abrolhos with camp sites and burial sites. This part of the project began with the construction of a database of all men who were (meant to be) on board Zeewijk and their fates