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Batavia

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Batavia

By: Peter FitzSimons
Narrated by: Richard Aspel
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About this listen

The story begins in 1629, when the pride of the Dutch East India Company, the Batavia, is on its maiden voyage en route from Amsterdam to the Dutch East Indies, laden down with the greatest treasure to leave Holland. The magnificent ship is already boiling over with a mutinous plot that is just about to break into the open when, just off the coast of Western Australia, it strikes an unseen reef in the middle of the night.

While Commandeur Francisco Pelsaert decides to take the long-boat across 2000 miles of open sea for help, his second-in-command Jeronimus Cornelisz takes over, quickly deciding that 250 people on a small island is unwieldy for the small number of supplies they have. Quietly, he puts forward a plan to 40 odd mutineers how they could save themselves, kill most of the rest and spare only a half-dozen or so women, including his personal fancy, Lucretia Jansz - one of the noted beauties of Holland - to service their sexual needs. A reign of terror begins, countered only by a previously anonymous soldier Wiebbe Hayes, who begins to gather to him those are prepared to do what it takes to survive...

©2011 Peter FitzSimons (P)2011 Bolinda Publishing Armed Forces Engineering Expeditions & Discoveries Historical Military Naval Forces World Transportation Netherlands

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All stars
Most relevant  
I had not heard of the Batavia, and was fascinated by the tale of mutiny, shipwrecks, murder, even war between surviors follows by rescue and justice. This story has something for you all. fThe story is read very well with good pronunciations.

An unknown but fascinating story

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Historical perspective of Dutch power and early Australian history interwoven with a story of human greed, envy, corruption, mutiny in absence of leadership.

Dutch trade and early Australian history

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Incredible story. Really well told. Amazing insight into just how depraved man can be. Slow to start, but stick with it; middle and end is brilliant.

Unbelievable story

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Just great all round. Well read, well written, and a fantastic story. One of the best audiobooks I’ve bought.

A wild story

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Grim true story. All news to me, enjoyed it. Surprised by the ending. A Good read.

Good story

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A dramatised retelling of the harrowing story of the Batavia. I felt his additional parts to help flesh out the story were mostly welcome additions, and helped add some depth to people we knew very little about like Cornelis the Fat Trumpeter.

History with a bit of fictional flavour

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Rarely have I experienced a fabulous story quite brilliantly narrated. The narrator brings this fascinating research to real life, living every moment throughout. For me, this is the best of the best.

Brilliant !!!! A must read.

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Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

It was an enjoyable listen overall, and I don't regret having purchased this audiobook. It's a great story which is worth getting to know

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The best aspect is the historical nature of the story - it transports you back to a time of exploration when life was a lot harder and there were new lands to be discovered but it's also very gritty. The style of retelling a historical even as a novel is always (well maybe not always, but mostly) enjoyable. The least interesting is that it doesn't go quite far enough in the novel-isation of the story - it's a bit of a half-way house, not quite history, not quite story.

What three words best describe Richard Aspel’s performance?

OK,

If this book were a film would you go see it?

Yes

Any additional comments?

The insistence of throwing in Dutch words when not necessary is a little annoying - it doesn't really add anything.

Overall a great story but the retelling (both by the author and reader) are good but not great.

Good read (listen) but could be better

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One of the best creative non-fiction stories I've listened to on Audible. The writing could be a little better, but the story becomes so utterly compelling, that any criticism I have would ultimately feel unfair as I am very grateful and thankful to the author for bringing to life these incredible and haunting historical events. I found it a little slow until the shipwreck, but it turned out all the context given in those early chapters was absolutely necessary to understand the context of what happened next. Imagine 350 people marooned in the early 1600's on a reef off an unexplored Western Australia, with no water, natural shelter or expectation that anyone would ever know that they were there. With very limited supplies recovered from the wreck and only a small yawl not designed for ocean going conditions that was able only to hold a seventh of their number, they were some 2000 km from the nearest friendly port which lay due north across treacherous seas. If things weren't bad enough, one of their leaders turned out to be a hedonistic and heretical psychopath. What happened in the ensuing months will shock you to your core, the story is absolutely gripping and takes many unexpected turns. I was completely enthralled. I finished the book last week and still feel deeply moved and affected by what happened all those years ago, I've just learned they are still turning up secrets that have lay hidden in the coral sands of that remote archipelago for some four hundred years. If this story was fiction, you probably wouldn't believe it.HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. (If you are beguiled by shipwreck stories as I am, check out the audio book Endurance by Alfred Lansing, narrated by the incredible Simon Prebble).

Fantastic listen

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The history of this wreck is so very interesting. I would live to see it in a tv series. The narrator does a good job of this book, but it is a slow start.

Great concept not a great delivery

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