The History

Throughout the sixteenth century the spice trade in the East Indies built excessive wealth in Portugal. Like most commercial advantages of the time, this was achieved by control of sea routes, particularly the domination of the route to the East Indies via the Cape of Good Hope. After one hundred years of Portuguese monopoly, the Dutch responded by taking control of the spice trade at its source and, for over twenty-one years, they dominated trade and navigation to the Indies including the routes east of the Cape of Good Hope and to the west via the Straits of Magellan. In 1602 Dutch merchants trading in the East Indies joined together to form the VOC - the Dutch East Indies Company. It soon became the most powerful of Holland's trading houses and later became the world's largest company, in existence for over two hundred years. It built over 1600 ships called East Indiaman.

the Batavia Sails !

• October 1628: A VOC fleet with the flagship Batavia, the newest and largest East Indiaman, set sail for a 9 months journey from Amsterdam to the city of Batavia on Java.
• 4 June 1629: The commander's ship is sadly wrecked on a small island
  near the West Coast of Hollandia Novae, the only partly discovered continent of Australia.
• 4 June 1963: Batavia’s wreck is explored for the first time,
  on a reef near the Houtman Abrolhos Islands, West Australia.
• 4 October 1985: In Holland the keel is laid for the reconstruction of the new Batavia.

Since the Batavia was built according to Willem Vos his puritan rules of staying 100% identical to the original (1628) Batavia design the reconstruction has no Engine on board, the Cannons are fully functional and the choice of used materials is the same as those of 400 years ago. Steering the ship takes place with a whipp-staff, the helmsman can not see where he steers the ship but has to follow orders from 'above'.
In 1995 the Batavia was entrusted to her elements, baptised by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands in the same year and soon after she was the proud centerpiece of the 5 yearly event "Sail Amsterdam".
Since 1997 intensive negotiations where hold if and how the Batavia could visit Sydney in 2000. During that fantastic Olympic year the Batavia came and was the pearl of Sydney Harbour for almost 22 months. The trip from Holland to Australia in a huge transport ship was an adventure on its own, the re-rigging of the whole ship in only 8 days after arrival a masterpiece of Dutch organisation and energy by iron men and women.

• November 1999: The magnificent reconstructed Batavia arrives in Australia to celebrate the year 2000,the Sydney Olympics and to sail for the first time ever! But . . .

....the last sailor with any sailing experience on ships like those, died over 300 years ago.…

• 4 - 15 October 2000:
  A rare experiment in present sailing history takes place near Sydney on the Pacific Ocean; a proud East Indiaman gets successfully under sail. Thanks to the great spirit of many, the Batavia sailed: She performed fantastic! How could it have been otherwise: Willem Vos, Batavia’s master shipwright, knew what he was building. The sailors were eager to learn how to sail her ! One visitor named the Batavia: “the Starship Enterprise of the 17 th century”. This ‘starship’ was the pride of Sydney Harbor for more than a year. The Batavia returned to Holland to be moored again as a fantastic museum ship.

Before the shipping authorities in Sydney and from the Netherlands would give official permission to sail the ship with passengers many 'obstacles' had to be taken. But once the majestic ship sailed on the Ocean all those formalities where soon set overboard and nothing but shear joy prevailed. The happy faces of crew and passengers told their own story: This was as good as it could get for all of them!

Great memories

But they will fade. . . . .

. . . . if not the Dutch born Photographer Jaap Roskam had followed the Batavia during those voyages and before. With his long standing, international experience as professional photographer he made photographic history when capturing the movements of this intriguing ship. His photo essay is the only one available in professional quality about the sailing of the Batavia. In 't Veld editions in Australia now publishes this unique handcrafted book with over 250 of his 'Batavia' images.

Read here the preface in the book by Willem Vos, the master shipwright.

As the owner of this book you will become part of Batavia's history

This unique book is a tribute to all the men and women who made this sailing event possible.
Never again a ship of this type had sailed since the 17th and 18th century. The last sailor with the required experience died 300 years ago. Setting the sails on the Batavia was a new experience for the sailors, being used to more modern tall-ships. Since the ship was reconstructed to the most puritan rules , as set in the 1970's by master shipwright Willem Vos, there is no engine on board, the guns are fully functional and the construction materials in use are exactly as they were 400 years ago. The steering is done with a whippstaf and the helmsman can not see where the ship goes but follows orders.

The Book

About the titel

Number of pages: 148, full color, photographic art print quality.
Outer dimensions of case with book: 220 x 290 x 30 mm ( 9 x 11 3/8 x 1 3/16 inch).
The photography was done on several film formats, mostly 6 x 6 cm on a Rollei 6008 system with Schneider lenses for the highest image quality. FUJI Provia 100 is the transparency film used and sponsored by Fuji-Hanimex Australia. The Film scanning was performed on professional film scanners for the best colour reproduction and image details. The Photo Realistic Print Quality is achieved with a Xerox 850 solid ink printer. The special character of the ink used in this print process gives the book a true, hand made appearance. Although a very slow print process, one book takes about one hour to print, this highly sophisticated system proofed to be the best choice for the chosen paper and gave us the most rewarding image and text quality.

The titel 'Sailing the Last East Indiaman - Batavia' was chosen to honour the shipwright's vision to reconstruct a real East Indiaman. No concession was made to any detail of the once used building methods. The materials in use, the traditionally shaped beams, wood-carved sculptures and the hemp rigging and hand forged fastening methods, the entire design reflects the ship as it would have been in 1627. From the keel to the Poop deck one will feel, smell and know: This Is The Last East Indiaman ! Full Stop !

The Book's design

No effort has been saved in the design of the book. Every page is a little artwork on its own. Many photos have been compiled with artful graphic designs and nautical illustrations to form one pleasing image. It was the aim of the designer to bring you as close as possible in touch with that very characteristic Batavia feeling. You might almost hear the rigging whisper and smell the timbers. We have selected an online preview of some pages Click here to have a look

An Unique book in many ways

Handmade

Like the Batavia, the book is hand made. The latest print technology allowed us to use a classic crafted paper with a real ’old-world’ feeling and still preserve the highest photographic quality, revealing the finest details. The book's cover is hand made in a traditional book- binders cloth, the pages are hand bound with the use of a bronze closed-loop binding to ensure absolute flat lying of the pages.

Unique replica of a silver ‘Batavia’ coin

The opening page of the book shows a detail of a rare map of the West Coast of Australia, on which you will discover ’Batavia’s Kerckhof’, the wrecksite of the Batavia in 1629. Mounted in the map is a certified replica of one of the best silver coins found in Batavia’s wreck during the first diving expedition in 1963. It is a ’Daalder’ (or Rix Dollar) issued by the Dutch province of Zeeland. This fine pewter coin is specially reproduced for this book. We included for you an authorized certificate of the coin's origin. Authorized by one of the 1963 expedition divers.

Historic research

The author has been delving through many historic books and manuscripts, to compile a comprehensive introduction; the Batavia’s 17th century history, the discovery of her wreck and the ‘silver bounty’, her reconstruction in Holland, her maiden trip, and the journey to Sydney. He lets many crew members explain about their specialism. Many, many beautiful little insights reflect their feelings about this unique sailing event, often quite poetically. The Photo Essay is the main focus of the book, showing you the beauty of the Batavia and her voyages under sail, in over 250 fine photographs.

Before the official publication of the book the Batavia crew and others named it the most beautiful book of the Batavia ever made.

Read here what many others said after they received their copy.

To photograph the Batavia was shear joy. To be part of the unique sailing journeys a honour full privilege, to be able to publish a book reason to be thankful. I am certain that you will share those feelings once you own a personal copy produced to the highest standards to last for ever.

Jaap Roskam - the Photographer and producer.

Numbered and personalised

In the book we include your name on the beautiful designed owners page. This page displays also the serial number of the book and the date when it was handcrafted in our atelier. Before the official release of the book it was already regarded as the most beautiful book of the Batavia ever. Click here to read what others said about this book: For us nice to hear, but honestly, it was not very hard to achieve. The Batavia never sailed before and the sailing conditions near Sydney were the best and most picturesque available. To capture that unique event was a pure pleasure and we are sure that you will find that reflected in this unique book.

More Details

The paper chosen is a recycled, 118 gsm museum quality paper: Raleigh Oxford Cream. It's creamy appearance and traditional structure gives the book a true historic, maritime appearance. The same paper was used for several facsimile books by the Australian National Maritime Museum. We choose these font sets : Book Antigua , for the official and historic texts - Balmoral , for the Photo captions and Headings - Photographer's handwriting , for the photographer's comments.

The Cover is designed as a classic cover, with gold embossed text on the spine and on the front cover a black leather label also gold embossed. We choose a traditional book binders cloth in the bright red color from the Batavia Lion for the cover and hard wearing black buckram black for the protective, slip-case. The cover and case are made in a traditional bookbinders workshop, with use of well proven artisanal workmanship, using some tools dating back to 1887, henceforth you can be assured of an old fashioned quality but with a modern approach; For the actual page binding we choose for a bronze, double loop, spiral.

This combination of a traditional cover with a modern binding gives you the best of two worlds: A beautiful book on your book shelf and a pleasant book to browse; With all the photo pages laying perfectly flat for the best view.

Have a inside look in the book here

Without any hesitation we can state
that we made a book
the magnificent Batavia worthy !

About us

I am a live-time historic-ships-enthousiast , born nearly 50 years ago in the Netherlands, the proud grandson of a tall-ship sailor and live now in the sub tropics of Australia, 180 kilometres south of Brisbane. As professional photographer I followed the Batavia reconstruction in the Netherlands and years later I had the honour to be the only photographer to capture the first sailing voyages near Australia. As a result of the Batavia photography I decided to publish this high quality book about the ship and the first sailing journey on the Tasman Sea. As a result of this I now have a Publishing and Book Selling Company: "In 't Veld Editions".

Buy the book now