Hugh Edwards was the leader of the team that conducted to first exploration of the Batavia, a Dutch VOC ship enroute to Indonesia in the 1629 that was shipwrecked on a small sand island just off the Western Australian coast .

This book tells firstly of the events surrounding the shipwreck, and the terrible events that followed. Although the story is well-known, it's the best telling of a maritime related disaster that I have read. A small group of the officers, aided by some of the crew, brutally murdered over 100 of the passengers after the commander had sailed off north to get help. Heroics by some of the soldiers who had been tricked to go to one of the other small islands saved more horror. A footnote to this part of the story is that two of those found guilty and left on the mainland to fend for themselves as the survivors and rescuers sailed back to Indonesia may have been the first settlers of Australia.

In the second part, Edwards -a journalist with a passion for diving- tells of the events surrounding the re-discovery of the wreck in the early 1960s. This section is not as gruesome and perhaps not as interesting, but tells of another adventure story, of the excitement in exploration in the wild.

Well worth reading, and should inspire a visit to the Western Australian Maritime Museum where many of these artifacts, including a part of the hull of the Batavia, are now on display. ( )