The Wreck of the Batavia

In 1629, the ship Batavia, pride of the Dutch East India Company, was wrecked on the edge of a coral archipelago, some fifty miles from the Australian continent. Most of the people on board survived the wreck, only to become victims of a visionary psychopath who, with the help of a dozen mutineers, organised a methodical massacre of the hapless community awaiting rescue. The tragedy of the Batavia seized the European imagination even more than the sinking of the Titanic would do in the twentieth century. In this riveting account, Simon Leys travels to the site of the disaster to expolre the bloody fate which befell the ship's survivors.Also included here is Ley's elegiac essay, 'Prosper'. A deeply personal piece, it recalls a summer when Leys joined the crew of a tuna-fishing boat from Brittany, one of the last boats still working under sail. This experience was Leys' first taste of the oldest and finest form of seamanship and its traditions, hardships and dangers. This remarkable narrative preserves Leys' memories of his sailing companions and pays tribute to their vanished world. £12.99