CLASSIC DIVE BOOKS

    The Dutch Wrecks:
    Batavia, Guilt Dragon, Zeewyk
     

    Please note: The books are listed for interest only, and not offered for sale. 
     

    		 For current books in print on shipwrecks link to:
    Oceans Enterprises - Australian Shipwrecks

    See also Encyclopedia of Australin Shipwrecks website.

    And for a complete list of books on Australian Shipwrecks.

     

    		 HOMEPAGE

    TO MASTER LIST
    ISLANDS OF ANGRY GHOSTS
    Hugh Edwards. 
    Published in 1966 Hodder and Stoughton Ltd, London. 
    There appears to have been an earlier US edition, published by William Morrow & Co, Inc. New York.
    Hardcover, dustjacket, 206 pages, mono prints. 
    Tells the terrible take of the Dutch Esat-Indiaman Batavia, lost in the Abrolhos Islands off Western Autralia in 1969. her wrecking was one thing - the massacre that followed another terrible tragedy, especially for the women and children. The book is in two parts, covering her history and destruction, and subsequent discovery. There have been a few books written on the Batavia, but it demonstrates th skill of this award-winning author that this title is still in print. 
    [ps]

    Dust jackets: Far left, Australiaan edition; left probably the US edition. 
     
     
    See also authors page.
    SAILORMEN'S GHOSTS. 
    Malcolm Uren. 
    The Abrolhos Islands In Three Hundred Years of Romance, History and Adventure.
    Robertson & Mullens, Melbourne. First published November 1940. Went into second and third editions by end of year. Up to 6th edition (possibly more) in August 1945. By then is a thinner book due to a better quality, glossier, paper - otherwise identical. Hardcover, dustjacket, 253 pages, mono prints.
    'Modern Adventure, Ancient Shipwrecks, Mutiny, Piracy and Treasure Trove off the Coast of Western Australia'. Indeed, th story of the Batavia and the other Dutch East Indiamen that went up on th WA reefs in the sixteen and seventeenth century is quite remarkable, beyond the interst of any modern day fiction.

    [ps-3rd,1940,left; 6th,1945,smaller,no dj]
    THE COMPANY
    Arabella Edge.
    Hardcover. 
    Historical novel based on the true story of the wreck of the Batavia on the coast of West Australia in 1629.
    THE GILT DRAGON INCIDENT : (Vergulde Draeck)
    Harry Turner.
    Riobay Publishing London, 2005 
    Re-issue, softcover (pictorial card covers), 8vo - over 7" - 9" tall. Original copyright and puiblished in 1956.
    Although fictionalised, this account of the fate of the 'Gilt Dragon' chronicles a lifetime of research by the author on one of the enduring mysteries of the 'Shipwreck Coast' of Western Australia. 
    THE WICKED AND THE FAIR
    H. Drake-Brockman
    Angus & Robertson, Sydney, London, Melbourne. 1957.
    Hardcover, dustjacket, 379 pagesno index, no images.
    This is what could be described as an historical novel. it is based on what is known of the wreck of the Dutch ship Batavia in 1629 in the Abrolhos Islands. The wrecksite was not discovered till six years after the book was published, but there was sufficient historical documents for Henrietta Drake-Brockman to provide a foundation for her book. In so doing she brought to the attention of the general public the heinous crimes of one Jeronimus Cornelisz and his followers, 'the evil genius', a survivor of the shipwreck who went on a murder rampage on tiny Beacon Island and killed most of the women and children, and those who opposed him. That he was captured and hung is a miracle in itself.  Cornelisz has the vile reputation of being Australia's first mass murderer. A year after the shipwreck was located, Drake-Brockman wrote her acclaimed 'Voyage to Disaster', this time a true historic non-fiction account of the horrors of Beacon Island. Two years later, in 1966, the brilliant Australian award-winning author Hugh Edwards published his highhly accalimed 'Islands of Angry Ghosts'. (See both of these books elsewhere in this listing). [ps]
    THE WRECK ON HALF-MOON REEF:
    The True Story of the Dutch East India Ship Zeewyk
    Hugh Edwards. 
    Published by Scribners, 1970.
    Harcover, dustjacket, 193 pages, photographs.
    The story of the wreck of the Dutch East Indiaman Zeewyk in 1727 off the West Australia coast. The author and others found the wreck in 1963.
    Paperback edition also released. 

    See also author's page.
    VOYAGE TO DISASTER
    The Batavia mutiny. Henriette Drake-Brockman.
    The full title on the title page is:
    Voyage to Disaster. The Life of Francisco Pelsaert. covering his Indian Report to the Dutch East India Company and the wreck of the ship batavia in 1629 off the coast of Western Australia together with the full text of his Journals concerning Rescue Voyages, the mitiny on the Abrolhos Islands and the subsequent trials of the Mutineers. 
    Published by Angus and Robertson, London, Sydney, Melbourne, Wellington, 1964. Published in Great Britain. 
    Hardcover, dust jacket, 38 pages.
    Not the first of the many books on the loss of the Batavia - that honour goes to the publication by Joost hartgers in 1648, titled Ongeluckige Voyagie Van't Ship Batavia. Drake-Brockman's book however covers much of the text of the original Dutch volume, and gives  great insight into the disgraceful e vnts that occured after the wrecking of the Batavia off Beacon Island in the Abrolhos. It was of course written before the wreck of the Batavia was found and no doubt encouraged those at the Western Australin Museum to search for the vessel. It was found, by a crayfisherman, and later subjected to extnsive excavation by the Maritim Archaeology departmnt of the musuem.  This is a vluable and important book.
    My copy includes a signed lteer from the author, dated 1968. [ps]
    DUTCH DISCOVERIES OF AUSTRALIA: SHIPWRECKS, TREASURES AND EARLY VOYAGES OFF THE WEST COAST.
    J.P. Sigmond and L.H. Zuiderbaan.
    First published in Adelaide by ???, in 1979.Hardcover, dustjacket, royal 8vo; 176pp, profusely illustrated. 
    Reprint: Batavian Lion Australia 1995. Stiff Boards - no further details. 

     

    CLASSIC DIVE BOOKS HOME


      This CLASSIC DIVE BOOKS site is sponsored by:
      OCEANS ENTERPRISES
      Publishers and Distributors
      303 Commercial Road, Yarram, Vic 3971, Australia
      Phone (03) 5182 5108   International  61 3 5182 5108
      Fax (03) 5182 5823   Internationl 61 3 5182 5823
      Email: peter@oceans.com.au
      For
      OCEANS ENTERPRISES
      homepage, link on graphic.