Francisco Pelsaert

Francisco Pelsaert (first name sometimes reported as "François", surname also spelled "Pelsart") (c. 1595, Antwerp - September, 1630, Batavia, Dutch East Indies) was a Dutch merchant who commanded the "Batavia" and became famous for a mutiny which occurred after the ship had been stranded at Houtman Abrolhos off Western Australia in June 1629.

The wreck of the "Batavia" took place on Morning Reef, a mile to the south of present Beacon Island. Of the 341 crew, forty drowned trying to reach a small island, the rest succeeded in getting ashore. The island held no water or food, therefore the commander decided to try and make for Batavia (now called Jakarta) on Java and get help. He left with the ship's boat together with some officers. In his absence a mutiny evolved under the command of a company official called Jeronimus Cornelisz. Jeronimus believing that there was not enough food and water on the archipelago to ensure the survival of all 208 people left there after the departure of the ship's boat, recruited a band of mutineers from among the crew and began killing the remaining passengers.

Over a hundred people were slaughtered by Jeronimus and his accomplices. A group of soldiers under the command of a soldier named Wiebbe Hayes managed to resist the attack from a neighbouring island. When Pelsaert returned in an Indonesian rescue ship he managed to overcome the mutineers with the help of these soldiers. The mutineers were tried on the Abrolhos islands, where they were sentenced to various forms of execution.

A team of archaeologists recently researched Beacon Island and found several skeletons: victims of Jeronimus Cornelisz. Efforts are being made to identify these remains. The shipwreck and subsequent killings became known in the 17th Century as The unlucky voyage of the ship Batavia. This story was published and distributed keeping the memory of the ship alive.

In the 1970s the wreck of the Batavia and many artefacts were salvaged. Partly they are now on exhibition at the Batavia Gallery in Fremantle, West-Australia.

Further reading

* Pelsaert, Francisco, (1998). "The Batavia journal of Francisco Pelsaert" : Algemeen Rijksarchief [ARA] , The Hague, Netherlands : Document 1630: 1098 QQII, fol.232-316 / Edited and translated by Marit van Huystee. Fremantle, W.A. Dept. of Maritime Archaeology, Western Australian Maritime Museum. Report (Western Australian Maritime Museum. Dept. of Maritime Archaeology) ; no. 136.