An interesting story! I haven't read any of the other more famous books about the Batavia, so I can't compare them to this.

I liked the backstory, though I didn't really like how Dash divided the story - I would have preferred it to be more chronological to keep the names straight. I consistently had trouble with the commander, skipper, and heretic's names.

My other main complaint was how much detail Dash went into for the deaths. It seemed excessive and bloodthirsty. I wasn't as concerned with the division between known accounts and filling in the blanks as I would be with Erik Larson (always a good thing).

Other than that though, I liked all of the contextualization of the time. I liked the reminder of how dangerous heretics were, even for beliefs that would seem fairly tame to modern standards.

But holy shit it was so bloody. Horrifying. ( )

In 1628 the Dutch East India Company loaded the Batavia, the flagship of its fleet, with a king’s ransom in gold, silver, and gems for her maiden voyage to Java; the ship itself was a tangible symbol of the world’s richest and most powerful monopoly.

The company also sent along a new employee to guard its treasure. He was Jeronimus Corneliszoon, a disgraced and bankrupt man with great charisma and dangerously heretical ideas. With the help of a few disgruntled sailors, he hatched a plot to seize the ship and her riches. The mutiny might have succeeded, but in the dark morning hours of June 3, 1629, the Batavia smashed through a coral reef and ran aground on a small chain of islands near Australia. The captain and skipper escaped the wreck, and in a tiny lifeboat they set sail for Java—some 1,500 miles north—to summon help. More than 250 frightened survivors waded ashore, thankful to be alive. Unfortunately, Jeronimus and the mutineers had survived too, and the nightmare was only beginning.

Boeiend geschreven. Soms wat saai, maar gortdroge opsommingen ontbreken. Veel noten en andere zaken. Goed om wat te lezen over de Batavia. Geen roman, toch goed te lezen ( )

The story of what happened after the 1629 wreck of the ship "Batavia" in the Houtman Abrolhos off the coast of Australia on a voyage from Amsterdam to Batavia (now Jakarta).

We are definitely in Lord of the Flies territory rather than Swiss Family Robinson with somewhere between 110 and 125 survivors of the wreck being killed by Jeronimus Cornelisz and his followers, who had been plotting a mutiny on the ship.

The sections on the historical background discussing the early days of the VOC and Dutch life at the time were the most interesting. However, the book definitely needed a better editor. I spent a long time wondering whether the island referred to in the text as the High Land to the north of the wreck site was the same as the island on the map called the High Island to the northwest of the wreck site. A list of characters might have been useful as the author would often refer to one person 3 times in 2 sentences once each by their first name, surname, or rank, and there seems to have been a distinct shortage of names in the 17th century Netherlands. A map of the relevant parts of Australia would also have been useful -- too much of they may have landed at place I've never heard of and couldn't tell you where it is or at another place I've never heard of and couldn't tell you where it is. ( )

Ce livre aurait pu passer pour un roman d'aventures bien mené et bien documenté, un peu glauque, certes, mais entraînant et riche. Sauf que d'emblée l'auteur nous met au parfum: "Ce récit ne contient aucun élément purement imaginaire".
Voilà, c'est une histoire vraie, et une histoire vraiment horrible, et vraiment bien écrite aussi.
Bien plus que le récit d'un naufrage et de ses suites pour les survivants, c'est un témoignage sur la société hollandaise du XVIIème siècle, les atrocités commises, en partie par un groupe d'hommes dits hérétiques, mais en partie aussi des atrocités très comparables commises au nom du commerce, de la religion, même de la justice, et tutti quanti.
Alors bon malgré tout, et très franchement, je me serais assez bien passée des scènes de torture et de tuerie: je ne suis pas sûre d'avoir envie de connaître tout ce que sont capables de s'infliger mes congénères les uns aux autres.
Ce n'est donc pas une belle histoire, mais c'est une histoire prenante, qui s'attaque sans fausse manoeuvre aux différents aspects qui rentrent en ligne de compte: la société de l'époque, le contexte historique, la psychologie des personnages, et la documentation est solide! ( )