Dreams do come true!

14 August 2013

Written by Jaap Roskam:
“After I had completed my book “Sailing the Last East Indiaman – Batavia”, about the Batavia reconstruction sailing near Sydney in the year 2000, I asked its crew for a powerful slogan to be included in the book. They told me that sailing the Batavia was their dream coming true and to: “Never ever stop dreaming…! “. My dream was to sail on a tall-ship myself … I also dreamed to visit the final resting place of the original 1629 Batavia in Western Australia. Could both these dreams be realised …? Well, how magnificent can life be: on the 3rd of August 2013 we set sail on the tall-ship ‘Oosterschelde’ from Fremantle — accompanied by the equally glorious classic sailing ships ‘Europa’ and ‘Tecla’ — on our way to Batavia’s shipwreck, I was invited to show photos and talk about the Batavia and its history. Many months before, all three tall-ships had set sail from the Netherlands for a journey around the globe. On their way to Sydney and beyond, they made a special two week detour to Batavia’s graveyard at the Abrolhos island group off the Australian West coast. We left Fremantle cheered on by a huge crowd; South Mole head was jam-packed with enthusiastic people waving us goodbye. All three tall-ships left port under full-sail. Unfortunately, a strong headwind forced us to motor sail the next few days, but the crew was great and the wonderful mix of passengers, enjoying to be on a classic sailing ship, were well-cared for; We were treated with tasteful creations emerging from the well-equipped kitchen and had plenty to learn about the ship and its various sails and ropes. We had to learn how to sail the Oosterschelde ! After some detailed instructions the crew considered us capable enough to share their 4-hour watches sailing the ship. We reached the Abrolhos Islands in good weather and the first visit was to North Wallaby island for a nice walk on this, at first sight, barren island. At closer inspection, it was teaming with wildlife: Wallabies, harmless Python snakes, small Lizards and a great variety of Birds. I spent time photographing the islands from the top of the Schooner mast. “The most perfect high !” Next day we had some rain, actually very appropriate weather for visiting South Wallaby or Wiebe Hayes island; a grim place to remember the atrocities the 1629 Batavia soldiers had to endure here. Further to Beacon island, ‘Batavia’s graveyard’ — it was here that about 120 people sailing on the Batavia died, mostly murdered by Jeronimus Cornelius and his gang. A simple monument of coral and a bronze plaque reminding us about the tragedy. For me, the circle was complete: having witnessed the reconstruction of the Batavia, my photography of the replica in the Netherlands during the 1990’s … followed by capturing its sailing near Sydney in 2000 and creating the Batavia photo-book, one could say that the Batavia got ‘under my skin’. And actually being on that tiny uninhabitable coral island, barely 3 football fields in size, enforced the feeling of sadness about the tragic faith those poor souls had to endure following the shipwreck and mutiny. For everyone of us it was a different yet just as impressive an experience. The view of the classic tall-ship silhouettes of Oosterschelde and Europa, moored at some distance away from those fatal islands, added to a strong historic sense of being back in time. Unluckily, the next day we could not complete our intended visit to Geraldton and its famous Batavia museum; as the port is small and more often than not inaccessible for larger vessels, it was closed due to a large Ocean swell. The captain made good with some tremendous sailing, actually going nowhere in real travel distance — like on a pleasure yacht, sailing for … well, sheer pleasure! Add to that the sighting of quite a few whales, a genuine Indonesian rice table for dinner, and our day was just superb all over. But we had a ‘timetable’ to meet and it was back to Freo — would the wind be in our favour now? It certainly was; overnight we made 10 knots with the ship listing about 20 degrees thanks to a strong wind from the right direction, allowing us to arrive in Fremantle half a day ahead of schedule. The heavy rain on the morning of arrival did not worry us as we could look forward to an entertaining evening on board in the cosy saloon — with, as we knew by now, another tasteful creation by our cook and crew. Topped off by a video / photo presentation showing the highlights of the journey by yours truly, we could all look back at an unforgettable experience. The three tall ships would continue their journey crossing the Great Australian Bight to Adelaide, notorious for its stormy weather, then on to Melbourne, Hobart, Sydney and eventually Antarctica ! With mixed feelings we waved Oosterschelde goodbye; happy to have had such a beautiful and save journey, sad to see her go. “I long to stand on her deck, I shall never forget her, I adore her” – Jacob the Photographer”