The story begins in 1629, when the pride of the Dutch East India
Company, the Batavia, is on its maiden voyage en route from Amsterdam to
the Dutch East Indies, laden down with the greatest treasure to leave
Holland. The magnificent ship is already boiling over with a mutinous
plot that is just about to break into the open when, just off the coast
of Western Australia, it strikes an unseen reef in the middle of the
night. While Commandeur Francisco Pelsaert decides to take the long-boat
across 2000 miles of open sea for help, his second-in-command Jeronimus
Cornelisz takes over, quickly deciding that 250 people on a small island
is unwieldy for the small number of supplies they have. Quietly, he puts
forward a plan to 40 odd mutineers how they could save themselves, kill
most of the rest and spare only a half-dozen or so women, including his
personal fancy, Lucretia Jansz - one of the noted beauties of Holland -
to service their sexual needs. A reign of terror begins, countered only
by a previously anonymous soldier Wiebbe Hayes, who begins to gather to
him those are prepared to do what it takes to survive...
