Lucretia's Batavia Diary
The one Batavia book you must read!!
Lucretia van der Mijlen's account of living through the most astonishing saga of shipwreck, massacre, survival, rescue and retribution in maritime history.
The 1629 wreck of the Batavia on the Houtman Abrolhos Islands of Western Australia has been told many times, but what was it like to actually live through it as a beautiful woman amidst hundreds of men, crowded aboard a sailing ship with a feverish Commander, a pride-wounded skipper, a charismatic psychopath, a dozen chests of silver plus one of fabulous jewels sailing largely uncharted waters?
Disaster does not begin to describe how things unfold.
This historical reconstruction is true to the facts and the setting - unlike some other accounts.
What readers say:
… I’ve read just about everything that has ever been written on the subject of the Batavia and honestly found your book to be the most absorbing of them all. Simon Johnson, Lesmurdie, WA.
… voted the favourite book for the year at our Book Club; … and we had some good books! Helen Hunt, Coorow, WA
I have read it TWICE now and have relished every word. … the most clear and compelling of all the Batavia texts I have read - amazing work. I’m so in awe! Kate Mulvany, Actor, Playwright, Screenwriter
I can’t put it down. It is so horrific but compelling. I knew the story but never in detail. This is just brilliant. Christian Fletcher, Dunsborough.