Francisco Pelsaert

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Francisco Pelsaert (also known as "Pelsaert") (c1595-September, 1630) was a Dutch merchant who commanded the Batavia and became famous for a mutiny which occurred after ship was stranded at Houtman Abrolhos off Western Australia in June 1629.

The wreck of the Batavia took place on Morning Reef, a mile to the south of present Beacon Island. Of the 341 crew, forty drowned trying to reach a small island, the rest succeeded in getting ashore. The island held no water or food, therefore the commander decided to try and make for Batavia (now called Jakarta) on Java and get help. He left with the ship's boat together with some officers. In his absence a mutiny evolved under the command of a company official called Jeronimus Cornelisz. This Jeronimus, believing that there was not enough food and water on the archipelago to ensure the survival of all 208 people left there after the departure of the ship's boat, recruited a band of mutineers from among the crew and began killing the remaining passengers.

Over a hundred people were slaughtered by Jeronimus and his accomplices. A group of soldiers under the command of a soldier named Wiebbe Hayes managed to resist attack a neighbouring island. When Pelsaert returned in an Indonesian rescaue ship he managed to overcome the mutineers with the help of these soldiers. All were tried and most were hanged, some were dropped from the rescue ship's mast or were keelhauled. Two young mutineers were marooned on Australia, and scientists believe that they had children with the Aboriginals, as when the British came some of the Aboriginals had blonde hair.

A team of archaeologists recently researched Beacon Island and found several skeletons: victims of Jeronimus Cornelisz. Efforts are being made to identify these remains. The shipwreck and subsequent killings became known in the 17th Century as The unlucky voyage of the ship Batavia. This story was published and distributed keeping the memory of the ship alive.

In the 1970s the wreck of the Batavia and many artefacts were salvaged. Partly they are now on exhibition at the Batavia Gallery in Fremantle, West-Australia.