The Abrolhos tragedy

The Abrolhos tragedy

"The Abrolhos tragedy" is the only English translation of Isaac Commelin's 1647 "Ongeluckige voyagie, van't schip Batavia", which was the first published account of the 1629 shipwreck of the "Batavia" in the Houtman Abrolhos, and the subsequent mutiny and massacre that occurred amongst the survivors.

The translation came about after Florance Broadhurst, who was managing a guano mining operation in the Houtman Abrolhos, acquired a first edition of "Ongeluckige voyagie", and commissioned Willem Siebenhaar to translate it. The translations was eventually published in the 1897 "Christmas Edition" (24 December) of Western Australia's "The Western Mail".

"The Abrolhos tragedy" is credited with having greatly increased interest in the "Batavia" incident in Australia. Specifically, Henrietta Drake-Brockman credits 'it with having fed her fascination with the incident—a fascination that ultimately resulted in her undertaking and publishing research that was key to the discovery of the wreck in 1970.

References

*cite book | first = Henrietta | last = Drake-Brockman | year = 1995 | title = Voyage to disaster (2nd edition) | location = Nedlands | publisher = University of Western Australia Press | isbn = 1-902694-72-2
*cite news | title = The Abrolhos tragedy | work = The Western Mail | date = 24 December 1897 | pages = 3–10


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