Batavia by Peter FitzSimons, Random House, $49.95.
I would rather sail around Antarctica on the Titanic twice than cruise the coast of West Australia on the Batavia.
Not only did 74 per cent of women survive the sinking of the Titanic, none of them or their husbands and children were murdered, or compelled to kill, they weren’t forced into sexual slavery, marooned or starved.
The same cannot be said of those unfortunate souls on the maiden voyage of the 17th century Dutch merchant ship Batavia. Peter FitzSimons’ expert pen takes us back to 1629 as we set sail on the doomed ship, each nautical mile we travel, taking us further from civilization and closer to shipwreck and anarchy.
Among our shipmates are the delicious passenger Lucretia Jansz, brutish skipper Ariaen Jacobsz, his refined shipping company boss Francisco Pelsaert, and the evil apothecary Jeronimous Cornelisz.
No fictional book could come up with a villain more despicable than Jeronimous, or a hero as courageous as Wiebbe Hayes, the ordinary soldier who fights back.
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