Download Batavia's Graveyard: The True Story of the Mad Heretic Who Led History's Bloodiest Mutiny AudioBook Free
It had been the fall of 1628, and the Batavia, the Dutch East India Company's flagship, was packed with a king's ransom in platinum, silver precious metal, and gems on her behalf maiden voyage to Java. The Batavia was the take great pride in of the company's fleet, a tangible sign of the world's richest & most powerful commercial monopoly. She placed sail with great fanfare, but the Batavia and her platinum could not reach Java, for the company had also delivered along a new staff, Jeronimus Corneliszoon, a bankrupt and disgraced man who possessed disarming charisma and dangerously heretical ideas. By using a few disgruntled sailors, Jeronimus soon sparked a mutiny that seemed certain to succeed - but for one unplanned event: At night early morning of June 3, the Batavia smashed by having a coral reef and ran aground on a tiny string of islands near Australia. The commander of the dispatch and the skipper evaded the mutineers by escaping in a little lifeboat and setting a course for Java to summon help. Almost all of the travellers survived the wreck and found themselves trapped on the bleak coral island without normal water, food, or shelter. Leaderless, unarmed, and unaware of Jeronimus' treachery, these were at the mercy of the mutineers.
