Read Online Batavia by Peter Fitzsimons - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Peter Fitzsimons
Ads: Link
amount of heavy cargo she is carrying, as well as the expertise of Skipper Ariaen Jacobsz.
In such a ship, and under such captaincy, for many hours it seems probable that the Batavia will be able to weather the ferocity of even this storm without bad damage. This continues to be the case right up until the hour before the storm blows itself out, when, with one last mighty effort, a fiercely focused gale from the west suddenly propels the Batavia onto the Walcheren Banks, the sandbars just off the Dutch Republic’s Walcheren Island, which guards the approaches to the port of Antwerp.
With the ship stuck in the sand, the Batavia ’s heavy load, which has been an asset to their safety, now becomes a major liability. The wind howls and the ocean roars – nearly, but not quite, as loudly as Jacobsz as he continues to yell orders to his sailors and imprecations to the nautical gods in equal measure. And, in the end, it is a close-run thing. A lesser captain would likely have foundered, but in a crisis like this Jacobsz is as good as it gets, and this time he also has fortune on his side. For what aids the skipper and his sailors greatly is that the Batavia has hit the banks near low tide, and when the high tide comes in the added buoyancy lifts them off.
Alas, other ships in the convoy are not so lucky, nor so expertly skippered or crewed, and the Gravenhage is badly damaged. Once the storm has abated, that ship is only just able to limp into the Dutch port of Vlissingen, to be repaired in the VOC shipyard in nearby Middelburg, where she will remain for many months.
November 1628, Atlantic Ocean
With the Batavia at its head, the fleet again sails on, continuing down through the North Sea, then the Kanaal , before heading south down the coast of France, then Portugal, and then down the coast of Africa, which appears to be nearly as green as their water.
After the initial excitement of the departure and the early storm, the sense of adventure starts to dissipate now that the long journey proper has begun. A voyage of some 15,000 miles awaits, no less than two-thirds of the world’s circumference, at an average speed of just five knots – not a whole lot faster than walking pace.
Lucretia, like all those new to sailing on a retourschip , is learning how it all works. While Skipper Jacobsz sleeps in the grandest room on the ship, the Great Cabin, Pelsaert’s quarters lie between the Great Cabin and the Steering Galley, and her own quarters are just above them, high in the aft of the ship, and right there is the first lesson. Broadly, the elite members of the ship’s company can be found in this very area, while the lower classes are well fore of the mainmast, and the lowest of the low – a misbehaving sailor, perhaps, being punished for breaching regulations – can be found in the foremost and lowest compartment of all: ‘the hole’, a small cell in the for’ard part of one of the lower decks that is too small to either stand or lie in.
Also near to Lucretia’s cabin is the Predikant , the esteemed preacher Gijsbert Bastiaensz, with his wife, Maria Schepens, and their family of seven children. Their ages range from their oldest son, Bastiaen, who is 24, through their oldest daughter, Judick, 21, Pieter, 19, Willemyntgien, 14, Johannes, 13, Agnete, 11, and their youngest son, Roelant, who is just eight – and with so many of them they are packed into the cabin as tightly as a school of herring coming up the Zuyder Zee .
And, though so fine a lady as Lucretia would never venture there, whole different worlds of the Batavia lie well beneath her feet. One deck down from the Great Cabin is the gun deck, where, all among the many guns, reside those whose job it is to maintain and fire the cannons and sail the ship. They sleep on their small mattresses of canvas filled with horsehair on the oaken deck beside their sea chests containing their belongings, or on hammocks above the same. All up, there are no fewer than 180
In such a ship, and under such captaincy, for many hours it seems probable that the Batavia will be able to weather the ferocity of even this storm without bad damage. This continues to be the case right up until the hour before the storm blows itself out, when, with one last mighty effort, a fiercely focused gale from the west suddenly propels the Batavia onto the Walcheren Banks, the sandbars just off the Dutch Republic’s Walcheren Island, which guards the approaches to the port of Antwerp.
With the ship stuck in the sand, the Batavia ’s heavy load, which has been an asset to their safety, now becomes a major liability. The wind howls and the ocean roars – nearly, but not quite, as loudly as Jacobsz as he continues to yell orders to his sailors and imprecations to the nautical gods in equal measure. And, in the end, it is a close-run thing. A lesser captain would likely have foundered, but in a crisis like this Jacobsz is as good as it gets, and this time he also has fortune on his side. For what aids the skipper and his sailors greatly is that the Batavia has hit the banks near low tide, and when the high tide comes in the added buoyancy lifts them off.
Alas, other ships in the convoy are not so lucky, nor so expertly skippered or crewed, and the Gravenhage is badly damaged. Once the storm has abated, that ship is only just able to limp into the Dutch port of Vlissingen, to be repaired in the VOC shipyard in nearby Middelburg, where she will remain for many months.
November 1628, Atlantic Ocean
With the Batavia at its head, the fleet again sails on, continuing down through the North Sea, then the Kanaal , before heading south down the coast of France, then Portugal, and then down the coast of Africa, which appears to be nearly as green as their water.
After the initial excitement of the departure and the early storm, the sense of adventure starts to dissipate now that the long journey proper has begun. A voyage of some 15,000 miles awaits, no less than two-thirds of the world’s circumference, at an average speed of just five knots – not a whole lot faster than walking pace.
Lucretia, like all those new to sailing on a retourschip , is learning how it all works. While Skipper Jacobsz sleeps in the grandest room on the ship, the Great Cabin, Pelsaert’s quarters lie between the Great Cabin and the Steering Galley, and her own quarters are just above them, high in the aft of the ship, and right there is the first lesson. Broadly, the elite members of the ship’s company can be found in this very area, while the lower classes are well fore of the mainmast, and the lowest of the low – a misbehaving sailor, perhaps, being punished for breaching regulations – can be found in the foremost and lowest compartment of all: ‘the hole’, a small cell in the for’ard part of one of the lower decks that is too small to either stand or lie in.
Also near to Lucretia’s cabin is the Predikant , the esteemed preacher Gijsbert Bastiaensz, with his wife, Maria Schepens, and their family of seven children. Their ages range from their oldest son, Bastiaen, who is 24, through their oldest daughter, Judick, 21, Pieter, 19, Willemyntgien, 14, Johannes, 13, Agnete, 11, and their youngest son, Roelant, who is just eight – and with so many of them they are packed into the cabin as tightly as a school of herring coming up the Zuyder Zee .
And, though so fine a lady as Lucretia would never venture there, whole different worlds of the Batavia lie well beneath her feet. One deck down from the Great Cabin is the gun deck, where, all among the many guns, reside those whose job it is to maintain and fire the cannons and sail the ship. They sleep on their small mattresses of canvas filled with horsehair on the oaken deck beside their sea chests containing their belongings, or on hammocks above the same. All up, there are no fewer than 180
Similar Books
