Page 9 - Loss of the VOC Retourschip Batavia, Western Australia, 1629

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. Figure 2. Figure 3.
Figure 4. Figure 5.
Figure 6. Figure 7.
Figure 8. Figure 9.
Figure 10. Figure 11.
Figure 12. Figure 13. Figure 14. Figure 15.
Figure 16. Figure 17. Figure 18. Figure 19.
Figure 20.
Figure 21.
Figure 22.
Figure 23. Figure 24.
Figure 25.
Figure 26. Figure 27.
Figure 28. Figure 29.
Figure 30. Figure 31.
Figure 32.
Figure 33. Figure 34.
Figure 35.
Map of Western Australia with an insen showing the Houtman Abrolhos..........................................2 Map of the Wallabi Group of the Houtman Abrolhos showing the BDlav;a wreck site.......................3 Map of the Morning Reef area of the Wanabi Group. showing the Batavia Meek site, the inside
reef area where wreckage has been washed over the reef and Beacon Island, formerly known IS BaJQvia's Graveyard...........................................................................................................•..................4 Beacon Island showing the Western Australian Museum field station in the foreground and various fishermen's houses, in the background is Morning Reef and the wreck site...........................5 Plan of lheBatavia wreck site showing the cannon and anchors existing on the site in 1971.............6 A lifting sheerlegs on Beacon Island being used to lift the composite cannon off the portable trolley. ...................................................................................................................................................7
The Department of Maririme Archaeology work boat Henrietta. ........................................................ 8 A pair of photographs showing the effect of a very large and unexpected Indian Ocean swell breaking over theHenri.etla...................................................................................................................9 Thewavehasbrokenoverthevessel, theA-framecanjwtbeseenprotrudingfromthewave.This incident took place nearly 100 m further out to sea than normal while the crew was observing the
swell behaviour. The vessel was not at anchor and was able to head towards the breaking wave
and thus avoid an &lrnost certain disaster..............................................................................................9
A diver inspecting the exposed hull timbers below cannon No. 5. ..................................................... 10
An airlift being used to remove sand overburden on the wreck site,. note the lifting tray (left) and
the hull timbers (right)......................................................................................................................... 11
Removing a frame from the wreck site, prior 10 r~~g onto the workboal ............................... ....... 12
Cutting the tiInbers with a pneumatic chain saw.:..~:........................................................................... 13
The lifting Iray filled with coral rubble about to be removed from the site........................................ 14
Placing a small explosive charge on the cannon ball ooncretion. The diver is placing an electrical
detonator in the cordtex train. which will set off the two small charges on the rubber mat............... 15
Breaking up concretion using a geological hammer and a short-handled sledge harruner. ................ 16
Tagging the hull timbers prior to photography and raising.................................................................17
Timbers in the lifting tray on board the workbo:lt en-route to the field station at Beaoon Island........ 18
A scaled photograph of the sheathing or verdubbling from the stempost. Note the waterline
markings and the shea1hing nail pattern. ............................................................................................. 19
Recording the stempostsheathing on transparent drawing rUm, note this is done at the same time
as the photography..............................................................................................................................20
Photographing the transom of the BOlavia. during the progress of the dismantling of the hull
structure. ..............................................................................................................................................21 ~. Composite photomosaic of the hull timbers at the north end of the site. Note tha.t the grid frames
have been cropped out of most of the photographs in order to make the mosaic clearer................... 23
Breaking open a Carulon ball concretion at the base camp..................................................................24
Plan of the wreck site made in 1963, showing the disposition of lhe guns recorded.during the initial
exploration of the site, published in Edwards (1966) and known as the Edwards Plan. Guns .
marked A 10 Y, five bronze, two 'copper' or composite and eighteen iron. Compare with Figure
2S opposite, which shows the actual disposition o f the guns, the guns that an:mi.ssing md lhe guns
that have been transposed. ................................................................................................................... 26
Plan of the wreck site showing the position of the guns that were surveyed on the site after the
initial survey, together with Ihe hypothetical positions of the guns that were removed during the
1963 expedition, taken from the plan opposite. There was a total of twenty-eight guns on the site
when it was discovered, five bronze. two oomposite Illld twenty-one iron. ........................................27
Wear marks on BAT 3627 caused by sand abrasion on the wreck site. .............................................36
A series of photographs of the gun from the Little Bahama Bank site (black and white copies of
colour prints kindly supplied by Mr 1.P. Puype of the Nederlands Scheepvaan Museum). ............... 43
S a w i n g t h e c o m p o s i t e c a n n o n w i t h a n I l l l g l e g r i n d e r m o u n t e d o n a n a d j u s t a b l e c u t t i n g s t a n d . . . . . . . . . . 44-
Gun No. 8 sh.owing the poor stale of preservation of the surface after de-concretion. the hole is thoughttobetheresultofthecascablebuttonofgWlNo.9resting againstitandcausingsomefann
of electrolytic action. ........................................................................................................................... 44
A bllT chart of the length in mettes and the approximate weight of the various guns mentioned in
the tahle above.....................................................................................................................................46
lllustra1ion ofvariousjirulbanker or iron guns from different countries, from a Danishmanuscript
from S~t~jhusbogen dated cvca 1770. I am grateful to Mr I.P. Puype of the Nederlands
Scheepvaart Museum, Amslerdarn. for drawing my auention 10 this docwnent................................53
The contents of an iron gun No. 2 laid out in order of recovery from the barrel, showing the tampion, wedding, sho~ powder bag and, unusually, another piece of wadding (scale 1:4). ............. 54 Histogram of the iron shot diameteJ3 for alllhe shot recovered from the Balavia.............................55 GraphofthetherelBtioruhipbetweenthedensityofironshotinponr/duimlandtheweightofthe
shot in Amsterdam po", given by Witsen (1671), van Dk (1697) and the Batavia tally-stick........... 56 A 17th century engraving from Galschut (c.1692) showing a gumer about to discharge a rue
arrow from a matchlock.. ..................................................................................................................... 69
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