Relics from the Batavia

In the 1600s the Dutch-owned, Batavia, was shipwrecked off what eventually became known as Western Australia.
More than 100 people died in the grounding but the carnage didn’t end there.
What befell the survivors was sheer horror – anarchy, tyranny, madness, murder and rape, in a reign of terror where people were picked off one-by-one.
In the end, only about a third of the 340 passengers and crew would live.
And the waters off Western Australia were cast as the harsh and unforgiving end of the earth.
The skeleton in the pic was retrieved after a 2014 expedition to Beacon Island. The male was 35-39; 1.8m tall; right foot missing; right shoulder broken; cutting edge wound on the top of the skull.
The kedge anchor was not discovered until 1971 some distance out to sea from the Batavia wreck. This anchor would have been used in a desperate attempt to winch off a reef.Read more