The Unfortunate Voyage of the Batavia - Episode 9: Dividends

What was that crazy story that we just told? How much of it really happened? What does it all mean for our understanding of rebellion and resistance, and for how we perceive the role of defiance in events that have come before us? We explore all of this in the final episode of our series: The Unfortunate Voyage of the Batavia.

The Unfortunate Voyage of the Batavia - Episode 8: Living off the Law of the Land

The VOC is back! Three and a half months after Commander Pelsaert abandoned everybody to a life a brutality and thirst, finally those who have managed to survived may just be rescued. But who of the mutineers and the defenders will be able to tell their story first? How will the VOC react to the utter madness that has taken place on these islands? This episode tackles all this and more.

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The Unfortunate Voyage of the Batavia - Episode 7: Terra Hayesia

In the history of European military aggression in Australia, this is where it all began. Of the people that remain alive following the doomed voyage of the Batavia, not to mention the shipwreck and then the genocide that followed, they now have to face a civil war.

podcasts, Stuff What You Tell Me, Batavia shipwreckIapetusMay 8, 2017Stuff What You Tell Me, SWYTM block 1Comment

The Unfortunate Voyage of the Batavia - Episode 6: Bloody Oath

Upper Merchant Francisco Pelsaert, Captain Arjen Jacobsz and about 40 other people are sailing in a longboat north along the immense coast of Het Zuidland. They're on a rescue mission to the fort at Batavia, 3000kms north of where the ship Batavia has sunk at Houtman's Abrolhos. Unfortunately, they won't be able to rescue as many people as they would like, because Jeronimus Cornelisz is about to go on a rampage of murder, sex slavery, and pretty much every other horrible thing you can think of. Batavia's Graveyard, July 1629, is one of those places in history that you would never, ever want to find yourself.

podcasts, Stuff What You Tell Me, Batavia shipwreckIapetusApril 17, 2017Stuff What You Tell Me, SWYTM block 1Comment

The Unfortunate Voyage of the Batavia - Episode 5: Jewels and Money First

As all hell breaks loose aboard the sinking ship Batavia, saving the lives of crew and passengers aboard may not be the most important priority. In this episode, we look at how authority handles the most unique and unprecedented circumstances, stuck on a craggy island with little hope for rescue and even less hope for a cup of water.

podcasts, Stuff What You Tell Me, Batavia shipwreckIapetusApril 10, 2017SWYTM block 1, Stuff What You Tell MeComment

The Unfortunate Voyage of the Batavia – Episode 4: “Keep Your Eyes Open”

It should be fairly smooth sailing from here on for the Batavia... Were it not for the small matters of a brewing mutiny amidst the crew, divisions and distractions amongst the leaders of the ship and the impending doom that lays ahead, unbeknownst to them all, they may stand a chance... (they don't stand a chance.)

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The Unfortunate Voyage of the Batavia - Episode 3: Rites of Passage

Life on board a ship in the 1600s was no joyous experience. In this episode, we look at what the crew, soldiers and passengers aboard the Batavia went through, as they made their way from the United Provinces to their first scheduled stop at the Cape of Good Hope: the southern tip of Africa.

podcasts, Stuff What You Tell Me, Batavia shipwreckIapetusMarch 27, 2017SWYTM block 1, Stuff What You Tell MeComment

The Unfortunate Voyage of the Batavia – Episode 2: The Price of Spice

In an age when traditional European feudalism was breaking down, the United Provinces of the Netherlands chartered the world's first corporation. The VOC would become a major authority for thousands of people, all around the world. In this episode we explore why and how the company came into existence, and what that meant for those who were (un)lucky enough to have anything to do with it.

podcasts, Stuff What You Tell Me, Batavia shipwreckIapetusMarch 20, 2017SWYTM block 1, Stuff What You Tell MeComment

The Unfortunate Voyage of the Batavia - Episode 1: A "Scents" of the Past

In October, 1628, a merchant ship called Batavia set sail from the Dutch republic bound for an island on the other side of the world called Java. She was the flagship of a fleet of vessels being sent by the richest corporation to ever exist and, along with extremely precious cargo, carried 341 men and women, including captain, sailors, soldiers, passengers, merchants, a minister and his family. Her voyage would end, however, on a jagged reef near a tiny set of islands off the Western Australian coast, and in the weeks that followed 110 men, women and children would be brutally murdered by a gang of bloodthirsty mutineers led by a psychopath who believed he could do no wrong since God himself inspired all his actions. In this first episode we take a look at the situation in the Netherlands and Amsterdam in the 1500s and early 1600s. With a focus on the sensory elements that are so often forgotten in the telling of history, we explore the world in which the rebellion on the Batavia took place; and discover what conditions existed that would foster such an unfathomable story as this one.