I recently found the audiobook of Peter FitzSimons' "Batavia" which is seventeen hours of listening pleasure. Reading the 512-page doorstopper of a book probably takes just as long but occasionally I take a break from it by watching these amazing video clips - and so might you, I thought. Amazing history!
Described by author Peter FitzSimons as "a true Adults Only version of Lord of the Flies, meeting Nightmare on Elm Street," the story is set 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.
It all happened long ago, and it is for a very good reason that Peter FitzSimons has long maintained that this is "far and away the greatest story in Australia's history, if not the world's." FitzSimons' unique writing style makes this bloody, chilling, stunning tale come alive.
And the channel "Defragged History" has plenty more - click here.
