Batavia

Public Lecture | Updated 1 decade ago

Peter FitzSimons
An evening with Australia's best-selling non-fiction writer over the last ten years
Presented in association with Boffins Bookshop
6,00pm, Monday 21 March, NWS Shipping Theatre

The shipwreck of the Batavia offers a story of high drama featuring the birth of the world's first corporation, the brutality of colonisation, sea-faring adventure, mutiny, a reign of terror, sexual slavery, survival and rescue, early contact with native peoples and more.

In 1629 the Dutch East India Company sent the Batavia on its maiden voyage en route from Amsterdam to the Dutch East Indies, laden down with civilians and the greatest treasure to leave the Netherlands until that time. A mutinous plot fermenting amongst members of the crew is about to break into the open when the ship strikes an unseen reef in the middle of the night, leaving a large number of survivors on a barren island just off the coast of Western Australia.

While Commandeur Francisco Pelsaert decides to take the long-boat across 3,218 kilometres of open sea for help, his second-in-command Jeronimus Cornelisz takes over, quickly deciding that 250 people on a small island is unwieldy for the small number of supplies they have. Quietly, he puts forward a plan to 40 odd mutineers how they can save themselves by culling survivor numbers and enforcing a new hierarchy that ruthlessly exploits their power over those remaining.

Join Peter for the official launch of the new book as he makes this stunning, bloody and compelling tale come alive.

Peter FitzSimons will be available to sign copies of Batavia (Random House, Sydney, 2011) purchased on the night. Boffins will have copies available for sale at $49.95 each.

COST: $12 per person (pay at the door) - Please join us for refreshments after the lecture

BOOKINGS: Essential on 9431 8455 - RSVP by 5pm, Thursday 17 March

• WA Maritime Museum

  Thu 17 Mar 2011

  6:00pm – 7:30pm