Page 37 - Loss of the VOC Retourschip Batavia, Western Australia, 1629

THE ARTEFACTS
Equipment and materials related to use on board the Batavia The armaments and military equipment
The location of the guns on the site
The original disposition of the guns on the site at the
time of discovery, in 1963, is known only from a survey carriedoutbyLieutenantCommanderH.Donohue,R.A.N. A sketch plan of this survey was published by Edwards (1966), (see Fig. 24) and is referred to below as the Edwards Plan. Over a period of years, a number of guns have been raised from the site, and there has been some confusion as to where the guns came from. The Edwards Plan, used in conjunction with information gained from subsequent surveys of the site, has made it possible to re- locate all the guns, and identify those that have been raised. some ofthem conc1usivelyand,others,atleast, tentatively!
'The discrepanc.'( in number·'1I!P.1!ef;IIJIliP.ed:1Ie9m~ toberaise<!:w.as ~cd<!entaIlydropped andnot.recovered. the init,ial.surveymissedtilree$!ll!S' T!)is is,I)Ol, S/IIPrisipg" I~was reJPeVed. by a Museum diving team (G. Kimpton sW:ethelastgUl),to;bediscoY~(No..21)wasfQunG;in. .andC;::P(>weU)in1970andcanbe';i.':li!illlyif\enti/iedas 1!}71,;.(cl!':y~aft,eJ;~~oftheWWA~xca,,~ the<RQl!!7damAdmiraltygul)B~T3MOJ:'{o'.25(onthe work. 0utiI!g,~C;;~a,~1),(1973.~ 197·7,)•.~tl}i!;GIlapd Edwards Plan mistakenly G iron). one~omposite.glJl!;Wel;e~l!:ill.teQ:st;ia~~m,a,ipiI)&QJl.thesil\l.. 'The otl!c;r bronze gun in this'geQ~area (H on the Itiscll;ar:~theiJ;Ii,t4I,$W;Ve~iA~9~~~~~ .E4,w"!;$PIap)I!Mthenote'c;apsize4:',i/ldicatingthatit gunsNos9,11~2\.wb.i!;h\l(1'Ii'l-~'~ ill.tI}e. .ya,.(0.1I!ld,\lpsU».-down.Thisareaofthesiteisno'tedfor
Examination of the Edwards Plan (Fig. 24) and; t)l~
p r e s e n t d a y p l a n ( F i g . 2 5 ) r e x e a I s , f t r s t l y , o b v i o u s d i s l ; ( e p .
ancies in the numlx;r of !!lInS, and, their disposition. Tbe.
EdwardsPIanshowsatolliiIQ~25.guns(AtoX)where;asili.e_
late(pIanshows thepositio,!.of28 guns nto 28),incIuding
theseven.gullSIQIown,to.h/!,ve~!1~ ill.~,!63.. .. sIDe«l/1e<;o<peditionwasin1963.Atthll/.time,t!lelastgun
coral, and; dif(,~ulJ;IQ ~
Although. ~e. g....ns wbkb. we~~ ~ip& (r;QII!. the
initiall'4.warc!s sUJ:Vey, 3CC0WolJP.Jj. for the ll)lll)bcrs, there were still obvious i!IlO{l,lali~.iA ~ disppsition, Q~spme of t h e b r o n z e a n d i r o n g u n s . . b > l ? a r t i q \ l l l . l f : S O I l l . e . irQ!3,~. o n the site were sh.own on th.e Edwl.lfc!s PIa,), l!!l 1;>~~ ~ some bronze guns wel'e reconIW Ol\ the plap ~ iron,. Inspection of the two plans sh.o.wed thaI, ther~m~l ","v.e been a transposition of some of~b(QD,re ap.diJ;<m~ ThusontheEdwardsPIan,b(o~g\lllaI:\ad.~..tnlASc posed with iron gun G (since broozellwasclc,ady ironNo..
THE BRONZE GUNS
The five bronze guns described here are &'I foUows:
the. h~vy sand. a.l;>rasi()l); which can be seen, for example, ongunNo.+4, BA T 3640. The only other abraded gun was BA,T3627 and, therefore, it wouldbereasonable to assume ~ t!I.~two badly-abraded guns came from within the SIlII).~vicinitY,311d that the three relatively unabr.aded guns ~~ ~Qm $~ bow section of the ship. Thus one may ~~on$ly a,I,l/iiibl!te ~AT 3627 as gun No. :?5. Conse- 'l®llHy. tJie~tionof all the bronze guns can be identi- fied.e,,~ep~fo~~os26and 27 orW and X, which w:eeither BA T 3638 Qr BA T 3639. It is helpful,however, to know· lbat the.'( we(e a matched pair.
~ ~@§,.
B A T 3637
Length 3.525 m. Bore 120 mm. Dated 1603(57). Admiralty of Rotterdam. GUI\ foun\le_ C\lD,l:\le\ Mtonisz.Present
location: Western Australian Maritime Museum,Fremantle. B A T 3627
Length 3.20 m. Bore 150 mm. Dated 1616. Admiralty ofRouerdam. Gun founderArel\t van der Put.. Pr~t location: outside Country W omen's Association Building, Geraldton.
B A T 3640
Length 3.20 m. Bore 150 mm. Dated 1616. Admiralty ofRotterdam. Gun founder Ar<;n.t van d.e!:PuI.l'!;ese\\t\ocl\!\OI\: GeraIdton Maritime Museum.
B A T 3638
Length 3.30 m. Bore 150 mm. Dated 1615. AdmiraltyofAmsterdam. Gun founder Hewic\lS M~un..~1\\\Qj;:~op: GeraIdton Civic Centre.
B A T 3639
Length3.30m.Bore 150mm. Dated 1615.AdmiraltyofAmsterdam.GunfounderHellricusMeors.Presentlocation: H.M.A.S. Stirling, Garden Island, Western Australia.
The guns appear on the site plan (Fig. 25) numbered 24, 25, 26, 27 and 28. 25
6) and bronze gun W had been transposed withiron gun V (since bronze Wwas c1earlyiron No. 19). Ifthese co!l'ec- tions were made to theI;dwardsPlan.3fld:the ctispositiqnof the recently discoY.ered'i!on.guns added to it, 'the result made it JlOssible to sketcl),theJ9C3tion~of:the five bronze guns (Nos24,25,26,2'7aJl\l211),oneirpn (No. 23) andpne composite (No. 22)which had,aJI been raised or removed in 1963. This gives the final:p!lmshown in Fig. 25.
IdentifJ.p!!ion of the corr~pon<!in,g site location for each bron>;€( gun was more dift;icult, since no records identifying t/J~.guns were made '!J;t)le. time of theirrecov- e r y i n 1 9 6 3 , ~y d~duction, i t i s p o s s i b l e t o i d e n t i f y sOl!le o f tli,gunsfrom tMnotes on the Edwardj;,Plan. Firs.tlY,ljun No•.:?!! (marl>~W:on th.eEdwards PI1lI!}.isno~:'Bronze
l i ! i l i n g , g u n " . I ! c ~,assl!Illed t o . b e t h e l o n g b w n z e . g u n . J i l A T 3637 (!/le'other ~ourbeingshortef.l!IlP'of ~.sirnilirrsi~e).
~o. ~ (marked Fon the Edwards Plan) has,noted agl!jps~it'dropped in 1964'. The date is clearly.al)lisprint