The Wreck of the Batavia 1843545810, 9781843545811

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The Wreck of the Batavia

Other books by Simon Leys

The

Life

and Work of Su Rensham,

Madman

Rebel, Painter

and

(Prix Stanislas-Julien, Institut de France)

The Chairman's New

Clothes:

Mao and the

Cultural

Revolution

Chinese Shadows

Broken Images

The Burning

Forest

The Analects of Confucius The Angel and

the

(translation

and commentary)

Octopus

The Death of Napoleon (Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, Sydney; The Independent Best Foreign Fiction Award, London) Illustrations:

The Two Acrobats

(text

by Jeanne Ryckmans)

The Wreck of the

BATAVIA

SIMON LEYS Thunder's Mouth Press

New York

for

Hanfang

The Wreck of the Batavia

An

Published by Thunder's Mouth Press Imprint of Avalon Publishing Group

Inc.

245 West 17th St., 11th Floor New York, 10011

NY

A

Copyright

v

A

L

N

© 2005 by Pierre Ryckmans

Originally published by Black Inc., an imprint of First

Schwartz Publishing Pty Ltd. Thunder's Mouth Press edition January 2006

Internal images: Replica of Batavia

© 2005, Jaap Roskam,

www.bataviaphotos.com; Torrentius, St/7/ Life with a Bridle Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; postcard of Etel courtesy the author; watercolor of the Batavia by Ross Shardlow, courtesy Batavia Yard, Lelystad, Netherlands:

©

www.bataviawerf.nl. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, or

broadcast.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available.

ISBN: 1-56025-821-7

ISBN

13:978-1-56025-821-6

987654321 Book design by Thomas Deverall Printed in the United States of America Distributed by Publishers

Group West

is

Contents

The Wreck of the Batavia

Prosper 61

vii

THE WRECK OF THE BATAVIA

The only thing necessary the triumph of evil

good men

to

is

for for

do nothing.

— Edmund

Burke

'The book that was not'^

Foreword Have you ever had no need

a

on

to rush to get started

that sooner or later, idea,

wonderful idea

someone

since

I

first

began

to

wreck of the Batavia.

else will

It is

dream of I

now

t

have the same

eighteen years

telling the story of the

collected nearly everything that

was published on the subject; then the

you can be sure

for

it,

book? There's

and make perfect use of it. speak from experience.

I

for a

Houtman Abrolhos where

I

went

to stay

on

the disaster took place.

who used it at know anything more

This phrase was borrowed from Victor Segalen, the beginning of Rene Leys:

about

it;

I

will not insist,

fully stepping

backwards

ridiculous or diplomatic

have wished

to

-

I

'I

shall not

take

my

[...]

It is

that

I

leave, going out, respectwith such a confession -

must end these notes which I The book shall not be. (By

turn into a book.

the way, what a beautiful posthumous

title for a

non-existent

book: The Book that was Not.)'

XI

For years,

I

kept pondering the project and jotting

notes, but never actually settled

down

to write the first

page of a book which, amid the increasingly derisive scepticism of

my

From time

aspect.

book had

just

began

family,

to time,

I

to take

on

a mythical

learned that some

my topic

been published on

-

new

invariably

sending me into a cold sweat - and each time, I would rush to get a copy of it. But no - it was always a false alarm;

I

saw quickly, with

relief,

that the author

had

again missed the target, and this only reinforced

my

Once

the

false sense of security.

or twice, though,

I

felt

whirr of a bullet, but disregarded the warning.

Then came Mike Dash. With

his Batavias Grave-

yard, published in 2002, this author hit the bulls eye

and

left

me

nothing more

to say.

Dash managed

to dis-

entangle the various threads of the complex tragedy

and

context.

the

and events

to set personalities

Above

Dutch

study,

I

all,

he did amazing detective work in

archives. After carefully reading his detailed

put away for good

sketches and photographs I

had no further use

ing pages,

in their historical

my

for

all I

the documents and notes,

had gathered over the years;

them. In publishing the follow-

only wish

is

that they

may

lead you to

Dash's work. S.L.

XII

:

:

Course actually followed by the Batavia Course the Batavia should have followed

Outline of the Course of VOC Ships Across the Indian Ocean

Key

to

Symbols

1.

Location of the shipwreck

2.

Traitors Island

3.

Batavia's Graveyard

(Beacon Island) 5.

Seals Island High Island (East Wallabi)

6.

Wiebbe Hayes

4.

Island

(West Wallabi)

O

emerged land shoals

113° 40' long.

E.

"EEr

&

t>

ffi

Morning Reef

N 28° 30'

lat.

S.

Noon Reef 1 I

sea-mile 1

Evening Reef

Houtman Abrolhos Archipelago (Northern Group)

Torrentius (1589-1644)

Still Life

with a Bridle (Allegory

Temperance). Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

OdXaaaa

kXv(el

navra

TCCvOpCOTTCVV KOLKCC

three hundred years - from the end of the

For

fifteenth century to the

end of the eighteenth -

Western navigators explored the world and developed vast

commercial empires. Astonishingly they achieved

these feats with only crude and primitive navigation

technology: today, any sailor going to sea with such scantv information w ould be terrified - and rightlv

Thev

skirted

unknow n and dangerous

so.

shores w ithout

charts or local knowledge, they crossed oceans while virtually blind.

They could never be one

entirely sure of

factor

was always missing: the

ability to ascertain longitude.

Latitude was easy to cal-

their position for

culate

t

(when the sun and the horizon

The

sea washes

away the

evils of

are visible,

one

men'

l

The Wreck of the Batavia

can determine

this readily),

establish longitude

had

but navigators wanting to

to rely

on dangerously vague

estimates. This ignorance was finally dispelled

when

the English invented the marine chronometer, but this

came

basic instrument only

into

end of the eighteenth century.

Throughout

its

common

use at the

1

two hundred

years' existence, the

Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, abridged with

state

trates

its

as

VOC),

a true state within a

colonies, governors, diplomats, magis-

and army, was the most powerful commercial

entity in the world.

on the

spices

Indies.

The

masted

which

The company's its

fleet

ships of the

vessels with

Dutch shipyards

prosperity was built

brought back from the East

VOC were heavy, strong three-

double oaken hulls, which the

built continuously, with a

speed that

could barely meet the relentless demands of the market (the Batavia, a giant in her time, was completed in a

mere

had

six

months). Despite their strength, these ships

a limited life-span:

even those that escaped the

hazards of sea could seldom survive the strain of more

than half a dozen voyages passage to Java

t

On

-

this topic,

fifteen

and back. The

thousand sea-miles, more than

one must read the fascinating book by Dava

Sobel: Longitude, Walker

2

to the East

& Co, New York, 1995.

SIMON LEYS two

worlds circumference - lasted about

thirds of the

eight

months without any major mishap. Slow and

sluggish with their round bellies, the massive ships straggled along at an average speed of

knots

(4.5

kms

per hour).

They

helm and could not change the

a half

hardly answered to the

tack without help from

sails.

Under as

two and

sail,

the fastest route

one must above

areas

all

is

seldom the

avoid zones of calm and seek

where the winds are favourable and

time was

money on

VOC ordered

its

Cape

steady.

As

the Western spice market, the

skippers to follow a specific course per-

fected by experience, one that included

After the

shortest,

of

Good Hope

some

detours.

(the only scheduled

port of call for water and fresh supplies), instead of sailing to the north of

Madagascar and then steering

direct course towards Java, the ships

first

a

went south,

near the edge of the Southern Ocean, in order to take

advantage of the powerful westerlies that blow around the globe from the fortieth parallel

ing

went

east

till

the longitude of the thetical spot, in the

nothing

to

'the roar-

Pushed by wind and current, they then

forties'.

swiftly

down -

they thought they had reached

Sunda

Straits.

From

that hypo-

middle of an empty ocean with

confirm their exact position, they changed

3

The Wreck of the Batavia course and, broad-reaching under the south-easterly trade winds, steered north towards Java,

still

2000 miles

away. If

they changed course too late

- and

errors in

dead

reckoning were frequent, for due to strong winds and currents the ships often covered a

much

greater dis-

tance than their apparently mediocre speed led one to believe

have

- the consequences could be

to face

fatal:

they would

one of the most inhospitable coasts

in the

world, that of Western Australia, where a continuous wall of

cliffs

abuts the Indian

Ocean

for

hundreds of

miles without any break or natural shelter. Carried by a fresh breeze,

any ship that approaches

this coast at

night runs the risk of being driven ashore; and espe-

heavy square-riggers that

cially so in the case of the

were unable the

VOC

to

change tack

swiftly.

For these reasons,

issued strict safety instructions to

pers: 'Terra Australis Incognita'

was

to

all its

skip-

be avoided

at all

costs.

The Dutch, who were

first

European navigators

to discover this forbidding coast,

never tried to get to

know

it,

the

having made the hasty assessment that noth-

ing was to be gained. Not only were the approaches

dangerous, but the resources were

even safely find water.

4

The

nil;

one could not

natives were few,

backward

SIMON LEYS and miserable; no trading post could ever hope

to pros-

per there. Yet, so long as the navigators

were unable

they ran the

late their longitude,

risk

to calcu-

of inadvertently

encountering the Australian continent. In two hundred years, of all the ships that sailed to the East Indies,

one

in fifty never

reached her destination.

On

the

return voyage, one in twenty never saw Holland again.

Most of the

lost ships

disappeared without a trace; one

many foundered on the Australian coast, the exact number cannot be known. Only a

suspects that

although

few of these shipwrecks have been accurately identified,

sometimes hundreds of years

later.

For instance, mystery long surrounded the fate of the Zuytdorp. She had 1712,

bound

centuries

left

for Batavia,

later, in 1927,

the

by

rust,

to the

divers discovered

managed

to

It

until,

in

two

worn by age and eaten up

clearly identifiable: they

crew of the

reefs below.

Good Hope

an Australian stockman found

a clifftop various objects still

of

and then vanished

on

but

Cape

lost ship.

had belonged

Some time

afterwards,

what remained of the wreck

in the

was clear that a group of castaways had

climb the

cliff

and survived

for quite a

while in this barren spot.

Were they perhaps adopted

One

of these tribes shows genetic

by local Aborigines?

5

The Wreck of the Batavia features that

can only be explained,

However, not

all

by con-

the shipwrecks were forgotten. In

the earliest, that of the Batavia, which occurred in

Houtman

1629 on the reefs of the tiny coral islands

some

fifty

fully

who found

nautical miles off the Aus-

documented. The three hundred survivors shelter

on the

islands

of one of them, a psychopath terror.

Abrolhos, a group of

mainland, was the most famous and also the

tralian

most

said,

Dutch blood.

tact with

fact,

it is

fell

who

under the control

instituted a reign of

This criminal, assisted by a few acolytes

he had managed

to

whom

seduce and indoctrinate, led a

methodical massacre of the castaways, sparing neither

women

nor children. Three months

later,

with two

hundred already slaughtered, the bizarre butchery was brought Java.

to

The

an end by the

leader and his

arrival of a rescue ship

from

main accomplices were put

to

death on the spot after being duly examined, tortured

and sentenced according

Dutch criminal

justice.

to the legal

The minutes

requirements of of the

trial

and

the witnesses' statements were carefully recorded; these

documents were supplemented by the of the

VOC

internal reports

and the memoirs written soon

events by two of the principal survivors.

A

after the

book draw-

ing together most of this information was published

6

SIMON LEYS less

than ten years

and was reprinted (and

seller

part of It

immediately became a

later. It

it

best-

pirated) several times;

w as eventually translated into French.

can be said without exaggeration

that, in

7

its

time,

the tragedy of the Batavia had a greater impact on the public imagination than did the wreck of the Titanic in the 20th centurv.

mind

The comparison comes

since in both cases disaster struck,

vovage, a ship that of her age.

naturally to

on her maiden

embodied the pride and the power

?

As centuries passed, the memory of

this

dark epi-

sode faded into oblivion until 1963, when, guided by the remarkable deductions of a local historian, a diver

found the wreck.* After the discovery, thorough underwater explorations

t

were conducted. Parts of the ships structure were

Jan Jansz: Ongeluckige Voyagie varit Schip Batavia (based on

memoirs of G. and M. Thevenet: 1665,

the diary of F. Pelsaert, with the addition of the Bastiaensz),

Amsterdam

1647, 1653,

Relations de divers vovages curieux, vol. ±

In proportion, the Batavia

but paradoxically

On

I,

Paris, 1663.

ended with more victims,

fewer died in the actual shipwreck.

whereas the slaughter of the Batavia's survivors was

senseless

- which makes

it

me

the

more

host

when

all

The fisherman who was mv told

disaster

the Titanic, passengers committed crimes to save their

lives,

*

many

s

that the location of the

terrifying. I

staved in the islands

wreck had been well known

to

The Wreck of the Batavia

from the keel

retrieved (actually the entire stern,

some of her

the upper deck), as well as

to

cargo, includ-

ing the ready-hewn sandstones of an ornamental gate

intended for the citadel of Batavia. These two majestic

- the reconstructed stern of the ship and the re-assembled stone portal - now occupy the main structures

Maritime

hall of the

Museum

Fremantle in West-

in

ern Australia, where one can also see the rich - and

gruesome -

results of the archaeological excavations

that are

conducted

facts,

skulls

still

in the islands: countless arte-

implements, weapons, potsherds; and also bones,

and

massacres. interest

entire skeletons of various victims of the

Once

again the Batavia

became

a topic of

and the subject of many publications:

articles,

learned monographs, historical novels, popular works,

documentary

films,

even an opera. Finally came Mike

Dash's book, which outshines

from which

I

sented here.

have drawn

It

offers

much

what

will

the most reliable survey of this subject.

Of

all its

of the information pre-

almost certainly remain that can be

all

course, one

may

local fishermen since the fifties, but tightly knit

community had

predecessors and

known on

fear that novelists

nobody

in this small

and

talked to anyone outside about

it,

fearing the disturbance and sudden influx of visitors that this revelation

8

would

inevitably bring.

SIMON LEYS and a

script-writers will

drama of which

all

continue to find inspiration in the constituent parts - exotic

setting, adventure, shipwreck, violence, sex, horror,

suspense and rescue at the

last

been devised with Hollywood that their efforts will

fail:

in

moment - seem in

such a

can compete with the bare

tion

mind. But story,

I

to

have

dare say

no imagina-

facts.

Obviously, without the intervention of a criminal of superior

gifts,

the aberrant atrocities that followed the

wreck of the Batavia could never have taken place. This was the decisive

factor,

and

it

could not have been

foreseen. Yet there was another factor

an

essential part,

structure of the

one connected

VOC:

which

also played

to the institutional

the fact that authority was not

placed in the hands of a seaman but rather entrusted

landsman, the supercargo (opperkoopman). This

to a

high

official

commercial

possessed administrative, political and qualifications, but all the responsibilities

concerning the actual handling of the ship - navigation,

seamanship, crew discipline -

fell

nate, the skipper (schipper), himself first

The

helmsman (opperstuurman) and

to his subordi-

seconded by the his

two

assistants.

skipper was therefore not a captain' in the

mod-

ern sense of the word; he was simply an experienced

seaman

(the

VOC would not have entrusted one of 9

its

The Wreck of the Batavia valuable vessels to an apprentice!). Apart from

had

little, if

any, education

knowledge. But the key point

he was not master

after

he

primitive astronomi-

time did not require

cal navigation of the retical

- the

this,

is

much

that,

theo-

on board,

God', but only master after the

supercargo.

The

therefore,

ship,

double command.

The

was under

a

lame

sort of

supercargo gave orders to the

skipper, but his orders lacked the authority that only a

seaman could muster. The tainty

and

conflict.

On

situation

produced uncer-

the Batavia, this was aggra-

vated by an acute animosity between the two men,

who -

to

make

- had clashed previously

matters worse

in different circumstances, well before this voyage.

The Batavias

supercargo was Francisco Pelsaert, a

33-year-old native of Antwerp. His official

Commandeur, five

for in principle

A

gifted

of the Great in India,

Moghul

eventually

10

him

kill

for

company,

Pelsaert

Cape.

had served

VOC representative at the Court in Agra.

he had caught

incapacitated

sail in

after calling at the

and well-educated man,

with distinction as the

was

he was also in charge of

other ships that were supposed to

though the convoy broke up

title

his health

a recurrent fever

weeks

him two

But

at a

time - in

was

which

fact,

it

frail; still

would

years after the shipwreck.

SIMON LEYS The

skipper, Ariaen Jacobsz,

therefore one of the oldest

teenth centurv, skilful sailor,

men on

seamen did not

forty,

board

the seven-

(in

live long).

A robust and

but a poor navigator, he was wild and

coarse, a drunkard

and

a lecher,

and brute strength. Ten years at India,

and

was over

bursting with health

while calling in

earlier,

he had met Pelsaert and quarrelled with him

during a drunken binge. This had brought a public

reprimand from

his superiors,

bore a grudge against Pelsaert,

and

as a

whom

consequence he

he held responsi-

ble for his humiliation. In accepting his

new

post on

the Batavia, he thus found himself under the

mand

of

someone he

While huge of 165 feet

I

for

com-

hated.

her time, the Batavia, with a length

50 metres^, was not even twice as long as a

modern maxi-yachtV* Yet

for

eight

whole months,

except for one interruption about halfway for a short ashore

call

and

t

at

the Cape, she carried

thirty people

But her height

some

crowded together

is still

impressive.

in

three hundred

unimaginably

The modern

replica of the

Batavia. a masterpiece of naval architecture built in Holland

with the same dimensions and same materials, called

ney

in 2000. In order to reach the inner

container-carriers to wait for

at

Svd-

harbour where large

and other cargo-boats are berthed, she had

an exceptionally low

tide to clear the

Svdnev Har-

bour Bridge, which her masthead nearlv touched.

11

The Wreck of the Batayia close quarters. This ally divided into

teeming population was

tradition-

two unequal groups: the occupants of

the aft castle and the rabble of the foe

sle.

In the aft was

some

the great cabin, shared by the staff and

distin-

guished passengers - a handful of individuals. In the

which was

focsle was the steerage,

gunners and

filled

with

sailors,

soldiers.

Besides the supercargo, the skipper and the helms-

man, the

aristocracy aft included

an

assistant super-

cargo (onderkoopman), Jeronimus Cornelisz, a

about thirty years old with the

VOC. He

who had

man

only recently signed on

was well-educated; he had been an

apothecary but various setbacks had brought him to the verge of bankruptcy. However, in boarding ship for

the East, he was not fleeing his creditors but the the law. ter,

of

closely linked to a scandalous charac-

the painter Torrentius (1589-1644) +

been ity,

He was

arm

arrested, tortured

,

and condemned

Satanism and heresy.

The

who had for

just

immoral-

authorities were search-

ing for any of his associates.

Among the ist

passengers was a churchman, a Calvin-

predikant, Gijsbert Bastiaensz, a decent fellow, pious

but not very bright,

t

His true

who was

name was Johannes van der Beeck. Torrentius name - literally, Brook.

Latinised form of his

12

travelling with his family

is

the

SIMON LEYS -

his wife, seven children

and

a

maid -

hope of

in the

him

finding a parish in the colonies that could feed

and

his

of the It

numerous tribe. There was also a young woman

Amsterdam upper class, Lucretia van der

seems

join her

that,

on

a

Mijlen.

sudden impulse, she had decided

husband who was working

post in the East Indies.

It

was

VOC

in a

uncommon

to

trading

for

Dutch

wives of her social milieu to share their husbands' lives in the insalubrious climes of the East, but Lucretia

was

an orphan; furthermore, her three young children had died in quick succession and her loneliness

hung heav-

upon her. Her beauty - attested to by several witnesses - would have a disastrous effect on the men ily

around her Zwaantie,

in the great cabin.

who had been

moment; she was

a slut,

She had

a

young maid,

hastily recruited at the last

and would bring her mistress

plenty of trouble.

For ard of the main mast, in the squalid quarters of the sailors and soldiers, were about fifteen

women.

Most of them had been smuggled on board by

their

companions and some were suckling babies; two more were

later

born

lived in the

at sea.

The hundred and

eighty

topmen

upper steerage, kept apart from the soldiers

because the two groups did not get on.

The

were confined in the lower steerage,

kind of vast

a

soldiers

l

3

The Wreck of the Batavia pigsty,

dark and

upright.

The

stifling, so

soldiers

low that one could not stand

- mostly German mercenaries

but also including some Frenchmen 1 - had been recruited by the

They were and

a

VOC to reinforce

officered by

its

garrisons in Java.

two adjutants, old

professionals,

dozen cadets, very young and penniless Dutch

aristocrats.

There were

also gunners, for the Batavia

carried a battery to see off pirates, natives

competitors.

And

ised craftsmen,

finally,

and foreign

there was the group of special-

nicknamed 'idlers' by the sailors because

they worked only by day and did not stand watches: the carpenters and sailmakers, the cook and his helpers,

and

of course, the barber-surgeon, the

also,

Comman-

deurs secretary and the book-keeper.

Even

in the best conditions, life at sea (at least

till

the nineteenth century) was considered by landsmen to

be a dreadful ordeal - and rightly

belonged

to a great

Though he

so.

maritime nation, Samuel Johnson

summed up this view: 'No man will be a who has contrivance enough to get himself into

famously sailor

a

t

jail;

for

being in a ship

Two hundred and enlist in that to the

land.

H

fifty

is

being in a

years later, Arthur

same colonial army, though

VOC;

it

was now

it

jail

with the

Rimbaud was

to

no longer belonged

in the service of the

King of Hol-

SIMON LEYS chance of being drowned

...

A man

in a

has more

jail

room, better food, and commonly better company.'

And The list

indeed of

its

it

was

horrors

a life of

is

unthinkable brutality.

endless: the stench; the lack of

comfort and hygiene (on the Batavia, more than three

hundred people shared four

open

swept by spray; only the

air

two of them

latrines,

in

of the great cabin

elite

used a chamberpot service); the promiscuity; the lack of fresh air and space; the perpetual dampness; the heat; the cold; the rats; the vermin; the dirt (to save fresh water the sailors

sometimes had

clothes in urine); the tainted food,

to

wash

mouldy

their

or full of

grubs; the foul water; the coarseness of shipmates; the sadistic discipline; the dreadful

and permanent men-

ace of scurvy that swelled and rotted

its

victims' flesh,

turning them into living corpses before killing them off (on ships

bound

for the Indies,

average of twenty or thirty

f

After seven

men

months

to this disease.

at sea,

fruit.

The remedy was

The last

to

1

").

the Batavia had already lost ten

cause - which was in fact a lack of raw vegetables and

its

to

each voyage

Scurvy was terrifying because nobody

knew began

men

scurvy carried off an

quite simple, but

be applied, only

at

it

was

identified,

and

the end of the eighteenth century.

great English navigators, especially

Cook and

Bligh, at

gave their crews complete immunity by compelling them

drink lime-juice and eat sauerkraut.

15

The Wreck of the Batavia

The voyage

of the Batavia started badly. Leaving

the Texel roadstead at the end of October 1628, on the

second day and not yet out of Dutch waters, she met a

which caused her

violent squall

run aground on the

to

The

dangerous Walcheren sandbanks.

managed

ally

to float her off

skipper eventu-

with the help of the

Fortunately the powerful hull did not suffer any age, but the ship

had nearly been

long journey to the Cape -

lost.

dam-

After that, the

months

six

tide.

- was

at sea

without further mishap but tensions had arisen in the great cabin.

The

supercargo,

Pelsaert,

was an

womaniser. Several times already

this

irrepressible

compulsion had

nearly ruined his career. Once, at the Court of Agra,

he had even seduced the consort of a prince; the

affair

had taken a dangerous turn and almost cost him life.

As

less

keen, though he expressed

for the skipper, Jacobsz, his appetites

manner. The two soon tias favours,

who was

ately

compete

for

Lucre-

but she resisted their advances. Pelsaert,

it

good grace.

badly: to avenge himself against the

he seduced her maid. Zwaantie was immedi-

more welcoming - she had

dated a good

16

were no

in a grosser

a gentleman, accepted this with

Jacobsz took mistress,

started to

them

his

number

already

willingly

accommo-

- and took advantage of

SIMON LEYS this

new intimacy with

and defy her

orders.

the skipper to flout Lucretia

Meanwhile, unbeknown

to all, the

former apothecary, Cornelisz, also had designs on Lucretia, but because of his rather lowly position was careful to hide his growing obsession.

One can

only guess at

how unbearably

tense and

poisonous the atmosphere in the great cabin must have

become. These

up hatreds, trations,

ill-assorted individuals,

ill-suppressed desires

Round

in the tropics.

day

and exacerbated

were bundled up in the heavy black

Dutch sense of propriety

the

with their pent-

for the

the

frus-

suits that

dictated they wear, even

common

table, three

hundred and eighty days

Cape, they could only glare

at

it

times a

took to reach the

each other,

stiff,

red-

faced and oozing sweat.

To some

extent, the brief respite offered

Cape should have prompted the

first

relieved the tension.

outburst.

To

by the

In fact,

it

please Zwaantie, the

skipper borrowed a jolly-boat and, together with the

former apothecary with friendly,

went rowing

to

whom show

he had become very

off his

conquest to the

other ships anchored in Table Bay. By the end of this jaunt, Jacobsz

was thoroughly drunk and he got into a

brawl with some other dal,

sailors.

Infuriated by this scan-

which besmirched the Batavia

in the eyes of the

l

7

The Wreck of the Batavia fleet, Pelsaert

had

to

bear

it

gave

him

a fierce tongue-lashing. Jacobsz

with clenched teeth - and swore to avenge

himself.

The

Batavia sailed on, starting the second and

leg of her voyage.

With

a persuasive

eloquence that

matched

his deviousness, the

trived to

blow on the embers of the skipper s

the table where they

all sat,

former apothecary con-

lectual

some

they were

game, an original way

idle hours.

does not

For

who could

exist, or that

At

to the bizarre theories

Cornelisz had learned from Torrentius. In if

rage.

the hosts of the great cabin

had listened on many occasions

enjoyed them as

last

fact,

they

sort of clever intel-

to while

away

their long

honestly believe that Hell

crimes committed by

God s

elect

are not crimes at all?

Corneliszs private conversations with Jacobsz had taken a more practical turn.

The

skipper was not one

for philosophico-theological speculation,

and instead

Cornelisz planted in Jacobsz s head the idea - quite feasible

rid

- of taking over

the Batavia.

They simply had

to get

of Pelsaert and then Jacobsz would be sole master of

the ship.

men,

it

With the help of

a few trusted

and

resolute

wouldn't be difficult to control a disorganised

and wavering crowd. The ship was carrying huge ures: twelve chests filled to the

18

brim with

treas-

silver ingots

SIMON LEYS and coins

as well as pearls

and other jewels - the muti-

neers would be wealthy for the rest of their

lives.

Instead

of sailing for Java, they simply had to divert the ship to

any settlement of a foreign competitor: the English or the Portuguese would be only too happy to

welcome

them. Jacobsz, taking advantage of his influence on the sailors,

him a

and Cornelisz, relying on the

to insinuate

skills

that enabled

himself everywhere, started to recruit

dozen accomplices. This small group, which reached

into the diverse social strata of the ship,

form the core of Corneliszs

A

later to

followers.

short time after leaving the Cape, Pelsaert suf-

fered another bout of fever that laid

month and almost

killed

spirators

attempted to

it,

for a

his feet the con-

set a snare for

to devise a provocation so

when confronted by

him low

him. Unexpectedly he recov-

he was back on

ered, but as soon as

was

was

him. Their plan

outrageous that Pelsaert,

would be compelled

to

impose

such harsh punishments that these, in turn, would provoke widespread discontent end, they decided to

make

among

the crew.

To

Lucretia their target.

this

The

choice of victim was probably due partly to the spite of the skipper it

may

bizarre

and

to Zwaantie's

resentment, though

well have also reflected the former apothecary's

and perverse obsessions.

19

The Wreck of the Batavia

On

the

empty deck one

night, eight

masked men

from among the mutinous conspirators attacked Lucretia.

They pinioned

her against the planking, tucked up

her dress and petticoat, and smeared her obscenely with tar

and excrement. They carried out

and vanished soon known

The heinous crime was

into the night.

all

their plan quickly

over the ship. Pelsaert,

recovered from his

mad

was

illness,

who had

barely

with rage and led a

sharp inquest. Yet, to the disappointment of the conspirators,

he did not take instant

nor enforce

reprisals

extraordinary measures of discipline, and the routine of

the ship continued unchanged. In fact,

it

seems that

Lucretia had recognised one of her aggressors, a close to the skipper. This information,

man

which she must

have imparted to the Commandeur, gave him food thought:

if

for

Jacobsz himself was behind the foul deed,

the whole affair was even

more

disquieting.

The

wisest

course would be to proceed with great caution and wait until the arrival in Java.

conditions, he

would resume

But during

On

Once

this

uneasy

there, in

more secure

investigations.

lull,

disaster struck.

the night of the 3rd of June, 1629, the Batavia,

carried by a fresh breeze, was running under full

The moon was

bright,

night, the look-out

20

sails.

and on the second watch of the

man

thought he saw a white patch

SIMON LEYS on the water

straight ahead, as if the sea

over shallows.

He warned

the skipper,

were breaking

who was on

quarter-deck, but the skipper, believing that

mere

He

reflection of the

felt

perfectly safe:

it

moon, did not change

on the day

the

was a

course.

before, his latest reck-

oning had put the ship 600 miles from the nearest land! In actual fact, he was only forty-odd miles from

the Australian mainland and right in the middle of a large

group of reefs and coral

which

a

Dutch

navigator,

accident ten years before.

islets,

the Abrolhos group,

Houtman, had discovered by

An

instant later there

was

a

tremendous shock, immediately followed by dreadful creaking.

Due

to her

immense weight and

the impetus

of her speed, the Batavia had just 'impaled herself

1"

on

a coral ridge.

The

usual manoeuvres were rapidly attempted: an

anchor was carried by the longboat and dropped in

deep water. To unballast the

ship, the

guns were pushed

main mast was hacked down the sea - a needless and desperate

overboard, and even the

and thrown

into

sacrifice.

Nothing was of any frantic activity,

t

In

it

use. After several hours of

became

Mike Dash's accurate

clear that the ship

would

description.

21

The Wreck of the Batavia never be floated

off;

she was

now

as rigid

and motion-

the reef that had broken her course, and she

less as

would not budge

until the sea,

which kept pounding

her with blows, eventually broke her to pieces. Until recently, ships plying the high seas didn't

The

carry efficient life-saving equipment.

was even more marked

The

in the seventeenth century.

Batavia, for instance, had only a longboat and a

small yawl, which between fifty

lack of this

men -

them could

barely carry

than one-sixth of the ships comple-

less

ment. In any case, these two boats were not designed for life-saving; they served as tenders for transportation,

hauling, reconnoitring, communication with the shore

and other tasks a ship

was

lost,

do with manoeuvring the

to

everything was lost and

ship.

When

however

sailors,

bold and experienced, could not conceive of a time after the

shipwreck for which special equipment would

be needed. 1

t

More than his

The fifty

inflexible discipline that

years ago,

when Dr Alain Bombard launched

famous experiments of survival

he crossed the Atlantic alone

at sea

(one remembers that

in a small life-raft), his

objective was to challenge this view prevalent

He

relates the case of a

trawler,

had regu-

primary

among seamen.

fisherman who, after the wreck of his

found himself adrift

in a life-boat in sight of the coast

of Brittany: he died within a few hours, with no reason whatever

22

- of simple

despair. (See also p. 86-87, De l°

w

)

SIMON LEYS lated all aspects of the life

melted ity

at

once

it

to disappear

became obvious

trievably lost, chaos reigned.

author-

if all

with the ship

itself.

was

that the Batavia

Mercenaries and

broke into the stores of wine and

crew

activity of the

in the face of the wreck, as

had inevitably

When

and

spirits

sailors

and engaged

was swept away: drunken

a wild orgy. Every taboo

irre-

in

sail-

ors

invaded the hallowed quarter deck, forced their

way

into the great cabin, broke into the chests, took the

plumed ers,

hats,

brocades and golden chains of their lead-

and improvised

a frenzied, grotesque

and desper-

ate carnival.

By

that time

became

dawn had come. By

the light of day

it

clear that, in her very misfortune, the Batavia

had been exceptionally

lucky. In the west, the

way she

had come, heavy swell was breaking on the other end of the

reef. If

the Batavia had struck there, the sea

have battered her

to pieces in a

would

few hours and, so

far

from land, nobody would have had the remotest chance of survival. Her current position, however, placed her

near a large area of shallows where,

could wade towards two

islets,

at

tide,

one

one very small, one

somewhat bigger. Furthermore, behind there, long lines of white surf

low

these, here

and

were breaking on low-

lying lands. Pelsaert, the skipper

and the helmsman

23

The Wreck of the Batayia

had kept the longboat and the yawl under Taking the small

their control.

their centre of operations, they

islet as

organised a shuttle service with the two boats to carry

most of the shipwrecked

to the larger islet,

soon

named

'Batavias Graveyard' (Batavias Kerkhof; on todays charts,

it is

called

Beacon

The Graveyard land. dry,

Its soil is

a triangular piece of grey, arid

is

made

Island).

of crushed coral, in which grow

low bushes which gusty winds force

This island

is

to the

ground.

about a quarter of a mile in length, some-

what more than half that in width; one can walk around it

in five minutes.

To leeward,

of the lagoon, there tered

enough

is

a tiny

to provide a

facing the calmer water

beach of white sand,

good landing place

boats. In five or six trips, the longboat

shel-

for small

and the yawl

brought more than a hundred and eighty people there, plus provisions

and

a small quantity of water.

than seventy men, mostly

sailors

and

soldiers

More

bent on

staying drunk, remained on the ship, the powerful

frame of which had so the sea.

Among them

far resisted the

onslaught of

were also a few people whose

fear of the water confined

them

to the false security of

the wreck.

Over the next two

days, the

Commandeur

organ-

ised a quick survey of the archipelago, including a

24

SIMON LEYS cursory inspection of two large islands

some

four miles

north-west of the Graveyard. High Island (now East Wallabi)

-

a

hump

bushy

level,

the only one in the group that has a hillock

is

some

that rises

forty feet

above sea

some

presenting the only landmark visible from

distance at sea.

From

they

this too-hasty inspection,

concluded that the islands had no fresh water. Pelsaert

and Jacobsz knew that there was only one

chance of rescue post in Java

for the survivors: the

would have

to

be reached.

was a mere open boat, some rigged, with lee-boards in the

such a

frail

The

trading

longboat

thirty feet long, sloop-

Dutch

manage

sailing-boat

VOC

Could

fashion.

a voyage of 1800 sea-

miles (just over 3000 kilometres) across dangerous,

uncharted waters? With experienced

sailors,

it

might

succeed. Only Jacobsz was sufficiently qualified to lead

such a venture. Pelsaert, skipper,

would need

to

him, and they decided them. To

tell

who could no

come along

all

with

the others about this plan was out of the

and desperation they

rush the longboat, which could carry only a

very limited

ment of

keep an eye on

to take all the best sailors

question: in their lawlessness

would

to

longer trust his

number

forty-five,

had refused

to

of people.

With

including two

abandon

his

its

actual comple-

women

(for

Jacobsz

Zwaantie) and one baby,

25

.

The Wreck of the Batavia

it

was already dangerously overloaded, and the carpen-

ters

had had

to raise

her freeboard in haste.

Therefore, four days after the shipwreck, the long-

boat hoisted

sail at

night and

left silently,

taking the

yawl in tow. VVTien, from their island, the castaways realised that their leaders

had abandoned them, taking

the only two boats, in their rage and despair they called the neighbouring (

islet,

now

deserted, Traitors' Island

Verraderseiland)

The Dutch The wreck of the ocean

for

shipbuilders were superb craftsmen.

Batavia withstood the battering of the

nine days.

The agony

long drawn-out, but her end

of the ship had been

came

in a flash; she col-

lapsed suddenly and her remains disappeared in a few

moments. Of the seventy -odd men who had stayed on board, only twenty

managed

reach land. For the

to

last

twenty-four hours, the former apothecary, Cornelisz,

had taken refuge on the bowsprit where he clung, frozen in fear and drenched with spray.

The

bowsprit

broke at the very end; Cornelisz could not swim but luckily fell into the sea

amid

a

mass of planks and

broken spars that the wind and the current brought to the shore of the Graveyard.

Batavia a

s

survivors to reach land

wretched

26

state, terrified,

He was

the last of the

- he crawled ashore

exhausted, half-drowned.

in

SIMON LEYS The

other castaways

more

the

welcomed him warmly -

abandonment

so because, in their depths of

and despondency due

all

to the desertion of their leaders,

Cornelisz seemed to be the natural heir to lawful authority.

Among

the survivors he was the highest in

VOC hierarchy; he seemed the only one who could

the

prevent

them from sinking

into lawlessness.

sheep thought that they had Yet their tragic error

is

irresistible

his

eloquence exerted an

power on those

seduce or direct, and in

found a shepherd!

easy to understand. Cornelisz

was a remarkable speaker; almost

at last

These poor

this case

whom

he wanted

he was dealing with a

crowd that was particularly vulnerable. Their ordeal had completely crushed their first

days on the island, ten of

to

spirits.

them had

These deaths were apparently caused by

latest

In their

already died.

thirst

- an odd

explanation since heavy showers had temporarily solved the water problem.

It

seems more

likely that

they died

of sheer despair.

As soon took up his

as

he had somewhat recovered, Cornelisz

new

role with cool self-confidence.

allocated to himself the best tent

and went about

Pelsaerts splendid finery. But at the first initiatives

seemed

same time,

to vindicate the trust his

He in his

com-

panions had placed in him: he succeeded in restoring

27

The Wreck of the Batavia

some

he harnessed

order,

energies, he took stock

all

of the available supplies and organised their distribu-

mob around him began

to

They were only too happy

to

Already the wretched

tion.

new

experience

hope.

entrust their fate to a

endowed with

vision

man who appeared

and authority Thev had no mis-

givings when, a few weeks a

so well-

later,

Cornelisz undertook

complete reorganisation of their small communitv.

There was sions

had

fundamental rule

a

to

be taken by

a

in the

VOC:

all

deci-

committee. Thus, verv soon

after the shipwreck, the survivors

had chosen

five

people - the predikant, the surgeon and three others

who enjoyed authority.

a certain prestige

Soon

after

-

to wield executive

reaching shore, Cornelisz was

naturally invited to chair this committee. After a while,

though, he suddenly decided

members with

nal

to replace the five origi-

individuals

he had previously secured aboard the Batavia

to

whose personal

plotters already recruited

earn out the mutinv he had

planned with the skipper. The

new committee was soldier

The

to arrest

first

decision of this

and sentence

to

death a

charged with stealing wine from the

sentence was carried out immediately.

ness of this

The

stores.

harsh-

punishment may well have stunned the

castawavs, but thev could

28

loyalty

still

reason that extreme

SIMON LEYS circumstances called for extreme measures - and besides,

had not the judgment

been carried out

in

as well as the execution

accordance with the standing rules

oftheVOC? Corneliszs ultimate aim had not changed since plotting with the skipper to stage a

But

via.

mutiny on the Bata-

became

after the shipwreck, his plan

realistic, for its

far less

now hinged on new, highly First, the Commandeur and

success

problematic conditions.

the skipper had to reach Java with the longboat very hypothetical proposition.

send a ship plotters

had

to rescue the castaways.

to gain

if

To

carry

it

the

VOC

And

had

a to

finally,

the

mastery over that ship. This

last

point was crucial, but est risks.

Then

-

was also fraught with the

it

out, Cornelisz

not the active support of

their absolute obedience.

all

would have

great-

to get,

the survivors, at least

When the rescue ship came,

one single dissenter bent on disclosing the plot could ruin everything.

Corneliszs

first

task

network of the original

was therefore

to

expand the

plotters. After a while,

he found

himself at the head of two dozen mutineers and thugs,

most of them very young men, quite

a

few of whom -

cadets and mercenaries

- could handle weapons. He

had

sailors

also recruited

some

and even

a

VOC clerk, 29

The Wreck of the Batavia

who became that

He

ordered

all

the weapons

had been salvaged from the ship - swords,

cutlasses to

his deputy.

and two muskets -

which he had

to

axes,

be gathered in one store

he reserved

sole access. Finally

for

himself exclusive use of the few makeshift boats and rafts that

had been assembled with the timber recuper-

ated from the wreck. crafts

To allow anyone

free use of these

would have given the castaways too much auton-

omy. Carpenters from the ship had started boat that would have been able to lagoon. Cornelisz ordered

time

later,

them

sail

to build a

beyond the

to stop at once.

two of them were accused

Some

(rightly or wrongly)

of having borrowed a small boat without authorisation.

Cornelisz

s

new committee condemned them

and the sentence was carried out on the two new murders, public and

legal,

to death,

spot.

These

were committed

without hesitation, despite the fact that the carpenters

had

skills

that were crucial to the castaways in their

present situation. If,

in the beginning, Cornelisz

some

real

principal

s

initiatives

answered

needs of the shipwrecked community, his

aim was nevertheless

to strengthen his per-

sonal power. This particular objective soon

became

paramount. His actions became increasingly monstrous,

3°

but they were not irrational. In

fact,

they were

SIMON LEYS need

dictated by an implacable logic: the

reinforce his absolute control over this

To

start with, his

neers were total

still

and

kingdom.

little

main problem was

a minority

to retain

that the muti-

- about one-sixth of the

population of the island. To reverse this danger-

ous disproportion, he

came up with

a radical solution:

And from

to eliminate the surplus population.

point on, he applied

all his

cunning

that

to achieve this

objective.

Arguing that the Graveyard lacked space and resources, he organised a transfer of population to

other

two

promising the deported that they would

islets,

enjoy better living conditions there. His real intention, in fact,

was

to

hunger and

abandon them where they would die of

thirst.

A

small group was transported to

Traitors' Island, the desolate rock

near the place where

the Batavia had sunk, and a second group, ous, to Seal Island, a long, sandy

more numer-

and narrow

island fac-

ing the Graveyard on the other side of the deep water

channel which crosses the archipelago.

And

finally,

on the pretext

that

it

would be advan-

tageous to explore the two large islands in the northwest, Cornelisz sent a party of some twenty

They were provide a

to investigate

more

suitable

men there.

whether these islands might

environment

for the

eventual

31

The Wreck of the Batavia resettlement of the castaways (which would indeed

have been a very wise decision, though nelisz

s

true intention).

rid of this

who had own,

was not Cor-

particularly to get

group; they were hardy and loyal soldiers

spontaneously gathered round one of their

a certain

soldier,

He wanted

it

Wiebbe Hayes. Hayes was an ordinary

but during the dramatic events and hardships

they had just experienced he must have shown

uncom-

mon

qualities of natural leadership,

him

the respect and trust of his comrades. Cornelisz

had

this small party

which had earned

dropped on the strand of High

Island without food or weapons, promising that they

would be brought back soon. In the meantime, they were water.

to

send out smoke signals

if

they found fresh

But the former apothecary was convinced that

the island was arid and without any resources; as before, his intention was simply to let

hunger and group of

thirst, for

men

impediment

die of

he had rightly assessed that

this

could eventually present the greatest

to his plans.

Shortly after the departure of his

them

Wiebbe Hayes and

team, Cornelisz managed to liquidate a few more

people without awakening the suspicions of the others.

Pretending that they had been sent to reinforce the explorers of the larger islands, he

32

had them

silently

SIMON LEYS bludgeoned and drowned by

henchmen. But such

his

piecemeal murders were not a satisfactory way of deal-

more

ing with the problem;

drastic steps

had

to

be

taken. It

at

is

this

point that

something unforeseen

occurred, which precipitated a dramatic development.

Twenty days had been

after

Wiebbe Hayes and

on High

left

Island,

smoke

his

companions

signals could

be

seen across the entire archipelago, indicating that they had found water. Cornelisz was appalled: not only

were these potential trouble-makers

still

alive,

but

because they had water on their big island, they might even be prospering there, in impudent autonomy. For the other castaways, their survival

these

smoke

was

at

marooned on

arid islets

the mercy of irregular rainsqualls,

signals brought

sudden hope. This was

especially true for the wretched people Island,

whose

decided

at

situation

once

to

go

on

Traitors'

had become desperate: they

to this

new Promised Land. With

planks and spars retrieved from the wreck, they

aged

to

where

assemble a few

rafts that

man-

they immediately put

to water.

Cornelisz saw this pitiful

flotilla

on

its

way towards

the larger islands. Such spontaneous migration would

not only strengthen Hayes' camp,

it

would

also provide

33

The Wreck of the Batavia a

dangerous example

not be tolerated; his his

it

This could

to the other survivors.

had

to

be stopped

at

once otherwise

own authority might quickly unravel. He ordered henchmen to intercept them with their larger and

faster crafts.

Crowded on

the shore, the population of the Grave-

yard watched the chase and witnessed horror. Cornelisz

s

thugs overtook the

in cold blood slaughtered all those

women and

its

conclusion in

rafts easily

and

on board - men,

children.

Cornelisz had finally shown his true colours - any

ambiguity had vanished.

He had power

of

life

and

death over the entire population of the islands, with the sole exception of Hayes and his team,

now beyond

his reach.

On the Graveyard, a dozen cast-

aways immediately drew their their

own

initiative,

who were

own

conclusions and, on

swore an oath of allegiance

to the

former apothecary. In the days that followed, Cornelisz ordered everyone to follow this example and swear the

same his

oath.

But

this did

not stop

him from

slaughtering

redundant subjects, beginning with the

the lame,

who had been

from time

to time, individual victims

random, under various at all

34

-

for

gathered in one

it is

always

tent.

and

Then,

were selected

pretexts, or without its

sick

at

any reason

very arbitrariness that

is

the

simon LEYS essence

an effective Terror. ('Here there

oi

is

no why'

was the answer given by the Auschwitz guards innocents they led

and

his lieutenants

die.

Nobody was

obedience

at all

safe;

who would

was imperative

it

butchered except

killers

day.

who had

the wretched predikant,

s

live,

to

who would show

total

times - which did not guarantee what

would happen the following

Cornelisz

Only Cornells/

to their deaths.)

deeided

to the

for his eldest

Thus,

for instance,

seen his whole family

daughter (on

whom

deputy had designs), fawned on his family's

with a trembling submissiveness, swallowing his

tears, living

from day

now

Cornelisz had

He and

his

to day, striving for invisibility.

styled himself 'Captain-General'.

crowd were

best tents; they

had

a caste of lords: they

at their disposal

had been spared because of

the

had the

women who

their youth; they strutted

about in fancy uniforms, bedecked with braids and ribbons; they drank the fine wines from the Batavia;

they paraded about the island with swords, axes, cutlasses

had

and maces. Anyone who caught

their attention

instantly to prove his submissiveness

fealty to the

Captain-General. For instance, he might

be shown a victim

whom

brain, strangle or stab. If

was applied

and swear

to

he was ordered

to

drown,

he wavered, the punishment

him.

35

The Wreck of the Batavia

Thus

were eventually implicated in an endless

all

cycle of killing. Ultimately,

who

a victim? Cornelisz

tion

between the two;

confusion.

The

s

who was

aim was

to erase the distinc-

power was

his

murderer and

a

built

on

this very

oath of loyalty that everyone had sworn

(and had to swear again several times) sanctioned their

There were

participation in the slaughter.

who agreed murders.

to play

also those

an active and personal part

Though most

of

them

killed simply

in the

because

they were afraid of being killed themselves, some ended

up developing

a taste for

it.

One

in particular, a

teenager, begged to be allowed to cut task for

which

his masters

he, in his debility,

was

some

puny

throats, a

ill-suited.

Even

were somewhat taken aback by such a

lust

for blood.

A civilised

society

is

not one in which the percent-

age of criminals and perverts

must be about the same is

simply one that gives them

their inclinations.

henchmen would discovered it

in all

-

is

lower (the proportion

human

less

communities);

it

opportunity to indulge

Without Cornelisz,

his

two dozen

probably never have shown - or even

their true natures.

There

is

no doubt

that

was the personality of the former apothecary and the

inspiration he imparted to his followers that

possible to set

36

up and

made

it

sustain over a period of three

SIMON LEYS weird and gruesome kingdom of murder

months

a

amongst

a population of

two hundred and

fifty

decent

individuals.

When

all

is

said

remains an enigma.

and done, Cornelisz himself

The

correct, but

modern psycholpsychopath - is probably

diagnosis of

ogy - which considers him

a

does not explain

it

him any

better than the

charge of heresy brought by his judges. fact detected the

his genius.

The

They had

in

mainspring of what must be called strength, the steadfastness that sus-

tained and motivated

him - and enabled him

to

con-

vince and lead a motley team of devoted disciples

- sprang from ical basis.

his beliefs: his authority

had an ideolog-

For the former apothecary did not otherwise

cut a very impressive figure.

He

did not have the dash,

the bold bearing with which great adventurers and

conquerors win the blind allegiance of their partisans

and subjugate simple and coarse people. trary,

on

several occasions

came

the con-

he showed himself to be

prisingly timorous. For example,

water that he

On

close to

sur-

he was so scared of

drowning by hanging onto

the wreck until the very last minute.

He

could order in

cold blood the execution of countless atrocities but was

squeamish when himself.

Though

it

came

to

performing the

personally responsible for

killings

more than

37

The Wreck of the Batavia a

hundred and twenty savage and

he attempted

to kill only once,

senseless murders,

without success. Exas-

perated by the wails of an infant, he gave

managed only

to

put

it

into a

it

poison but

coma, and had

an

to ask

underling to finish off the job he had botched.

On

another occasion he organised the collective

rape of the

women whose

lives

had been spared (while

two-thirds were liquidated, the rest were put at the disposal of the mutineers), but displayed an

when

it

came

to gratifying his

women had been

Lucretia,

to

yearnings.

Two

kept from his henchmen: the predi-

kant's eldest daughter,

had forced

own

odd timidity

become

whom

Cornelisz's lieutenant

his 'fiancee',

whom Cornelisz

and the beautiful

reserved for himself, settling

him

her in his tent. Lucretia, however, resisted

for

twelve days. Humiliated by her rebuffs, Cornelisz confessed his frustration to his deputy clerk,

clerk

be a

- the former

now the most ferocious killer of the gang. The wondered how such a simple matter could even problem. He immediately went to see Lucretia by

and reminded her of the only choice before

her: either

she would comply with the Captain-Generals or she

would share the

fate

of the other

demands

women and

strangled or prostituted to a pack of murderers.

same

38

VOC

day, Lucretia

became Cornelisz s

On

be

the

concubine'.

SIMON LEYS Cornelisz s character

is

puzzling: his personality

remain hazy. At times

difficult to define, his features

he was unable

to face events, or to take action in the

face of pressing dangers.

And yet,

as we've

seen (and

we

powers of persuasion were so

shall return to this), his

extraordinary that he trusted in

them

quence did not work

was not the mere

ity

is

in a void;

it

blindly. His eloagil-

of a sophist, but rather drew on the inner resources

of an ideology. His judges were struck by the fact that at

the core of his stubborn resilience was a staunch

belief in a doctrine

which they simply deemed

to

be

heretical but never attempted to clearly describe. For

us today, this doctrine

Only two to

is

clues, equally

even more

difficult to grasp.

vague and ambiguous, remain

guide our conjectures. First, there

claimed

to

painter,

and

be

is

the Torrentius connection. Cornelisz

his disciple;

it is

he had been close

to the

this fact that attracted the attention of

the investigating authorities, forcing

him

to

change

his

career suddenly and escape overseas.

But who was Torrentius, and what were his ideas? His contemporaries portray

some and immoral ately

him

character.

He

as

an

utterly loath-

revelled in deliber-

offending the values and beliefs of decent and

respectable people; sacrilege, lechery, drunkenness

and

39

.

The Wreck of the Batavia

blasphemy were

his favourite pastimes.

Did

his scandal-

ous public statements reflect his actual philosophy, or did he take pleasure in shocking the narrow conventions of a bourgeois society?

Did he believe what he

proclaimed, or were his outrageous paradoxes merelv for

goading the fools? In his time,

thought him an of

Dutch

artist

of genius

art-lovers

- and

in the

painting, local connoisseurs

and

critics

golden age

knew what

thev

were talking about. Torrentius boasted that he painted with the personal help of the Devil, and the super-

human beauh- of his art lends some credit to this An atheist is the exact opposite of a follower of camp

but in what

Satan,

7

did Torrentius place himself For he

also alleged that Hell

was but

He was ultimately arrested before the Batavia set

sail)

a silly superstition

.

.

(some ten months

in 1627-

and charged with the crimes

of heresy and immorality.

belonging

claim.

He was

also suspected of

to the secret society of Rosicrucians.

The

prosecutor asked for the death penalty, but despite having undergone torture, Torrentius remained steadfast

and refused but he was

to confess his guilt.

condemned

King Charles

I

to

To

this

he owed

his

life,

twenty years' imprisonment.

who was

of England,

a

Maecenas and

knowledgeable art-collector perhaps the only English 1

monarch

4°

ever to

show

a true appreciation of art!),

SIMON LEYS interceded personally on his behalf to the Prince of

Orange and obtained

his early release

two years

later.

Torrentius was granted his freedom only under the strict

condition that he leave for England immediately,

never to return to the Netherlands.

dozen years

at

He

spent about a

scandal than satisfaction' and painted very like the

more

the English court where he caused little'.

(Just

luminous Vermeer, of whom he was a kind of

obverse, dark figure, the perfectionism of his pictorial

manner precluded tion.)

the possibility of abundant produc-

During the troubles

that

marked the end of

Charles Is reign (before the King was brought to the scaffold), Torrentius lost his royal pension.

employment, he returned

in secret to

Holland where

he was once again arrested and tortured. 1644, free

-

being able

is

seems - but

would be

It

tius,

it

futile to

Without

He

died in

destitute.

speak of a great painter without

to refer to his works. In the case of

Torren-

one of his paintings miraculously survived, and

truly a masterpiece. Everything

it

he had painted in

the Netherlands was confiscated and burnt by judicial order

when he was condemned. As

he completed in England,

had disappeared

it

for the

few works

was long thought that they

after the sale

collection that followed the

and

dispersal of the royal

fall

of Charles

I.

But

41

in

The Wreck of the Batavia fact

one of them, which was probably brought

to

Hol-

became

the property

of a wholesale grocer in a provincial town.

An art histo-

land in the nineteenth century,

rian discovered

it

by chance in 1913 and identified

the reverse side of the panel

Charles

shop

a Bridle,

now hangs

in the

dam. To what extent can we ideas?

s

it

in their

as a lid to cover a barrel of sultanas.

This painting (beautifully restored),

er

-

bears the seal of

still

At the time, the grocers heirs used

I.

it

means of

Still Life

Rijksmuseum rely

on

it

in

with

Amster-

to trace the paint-

We may

as well try to solve

a riddle.

The

an enigma by

painting occupies a circular

space within an octagonal frame.

Its

composition -

complex though harmonious and serene - presents

a

juxtaposition of symbolic objects: a water jug, a wine pitcher, a glass,

two

and words, and

a bridle.

eerie accuracy

pipes, a sheet of

music with notes

Each element

is

depicted with

which suggests the grain and texture of

the different materials

- glass,

tin, clay,

paper, ceramic,

metal. This arrangement of disparate utensils and

props forms one visual metaphor, whose key eludes us.

The

bridle,

hanging

only the iron

composition.

bits

in the

gleam

Though

it

background shadows where

faintly,

dominates the entire

can barely be seen,

the allegorical subject of the painting:

42

it

sums up

Temperance

(a

SIMON LEYS theme not lacking

in irony considering the artist

flamboyant debauchery).

riously

surface bears

no

and

made

light are

trace of brushstrokes: forms, visible

of a virtuoso execution. unsettling. is

The smooth

through the

The

The background

noto-

s

painted

volumes

invisible

magic

perfection of the whole

is

black, but not opaque;

it

is

rather like a dark mirror of

water at the bottom

still

of a well over which the onlooker leans in vain.

The

painting communicates a sense of plenitude but keeps its

secret sealed.

The other mainspring of Cornelisz s mind out doubt - anabaptism. Anabaptism

long history. violent, in

It

Germany and

was born into sects,

took diverse forms,

is

- with-

a heresy with a

is

some of which were

the Netherlands. Cornelisz

a family that

belonged

to

one of these

and had therefore never been baptised. After

being sentenced to death, he pretended that he wanted baptism, thus hoping to delay the execution indefinitely.

But when he saw that

few hours'

The

respite,

it

he reverted

would bring him only to his heresy.

exact nature of his anabaptism

define. In

a

is

difficult to

some of its branches the doctrine followed

an austere and mystic path, yet

it

also

spawned

vari-

ous sects that cultivated esoteric, violent or orgiastic practices.

One

thinks of the Adamites, for instance:

43

The Wreck of the Batavia nearly a century before the wreck of the Batavia, Hier-

onymus Bosch depicted mysteries in his ist

their suave

Garden of Delights,

revelry hovering

and poisonous

a disquieting

between Heaven and

limbo of improbable innocence

+ .

nud-

Hell, in a

The common feature

of all these sects was their denial of the doctrine of the Fall

and the knowledge of good and

in passing that,

oddly enough,

believe in Hell

who

it is

evil.

We may note

people

who do

not

often create good imitations of

it

here on earth. In about mid-July, Cornelisz sent his executioners to kill

off the population of Seal Island

ple,

mostly

young

women and

by their long

exile

arid

thought that half a dozen

t

In the

dozen adult men. Believing

crowd had been

on an

forty peo-

children (ships' boys and other

servants) but also a

that this wretched

- some

suitably

weakened

and sandy bank, Cornelisz

men would be enough for the

famous and enigmatic triptych which hangs

in the

Prado, the central panel describes these gloomy "delights"

(one could easily believe that the sixteenth century already

knew

of the resorts for erotomaniacs which Michel Houelle-

becq describes so Paradise,

and the

well), while the left panel

right panel

this cryptic painting

shows the Earthly

shows Hell. The ambiguities of

have given

rise to

countless attempts at

most convincing interpretation seems to be that the central panel refers to the ritual orgies of an Adamite sect exegesis; the

of

44

s

Hertogenbosch.

SIMON LEYS However, in the confusion of the

job.

aways managed makeshift

and reached Hayes' island on

to escape,

rafts.

attack, seven cast-

In the following weeks, in groups of

twos and threes, several more inhabitants of the Graveyard deserted Cornelisz

escape route,

hanging on

s

swimming

to planks or

camp and

followed the same

or drifting across the lagoon,

broken

spars.

Thus Hayes ended up with about camp. The new ties

arrivals told

him

all

fifty

men

in his

about the atroci-

organised by Cornelisz and his gang, and he real-

ised that

any agreement with such an enemy was

unthinkable. Cornelisz had sent a messenger in a

sham

diplomatic approach, but clearly he was going to attack

sooner or

later.

This invasion appeared

certain since the balance of

and more all

all

the

more

power was turning more

to Hayes' advantage.

Though

Cornelisz had

the supplies, weapons and equipment salvaged from

the wreck, Hayes and his

men

enjoyed a

much more

favourable natural environment. Their two islands,

where the Commandeur and the skipper should have settled the survivors

only

much

larger,

from the very beginning, were not

but also had unlimited resources:

fresh water wells created by the seepage of rainwater

over hundreds of years; an abundant fauna; small scrub wallabies, tammars, easy to catch,

and whose meat

45

is

The Wreck

of the

Batavia

delicious; thousands of sea-birds nesting

on the ground,

which can be caught by hand w hile they

are sitting

their nests full of eggs. Better still the waters

the islands were teeming with sea

where

else

life,

on the archipelago. Today, I

same meals

ate the

I

can assure you that crayfish paupers

We he was

for four

While

I

was

fishermen, and

for breakfast

is

I

hardlv a

have no information about Haves, except that a soldier

-

- from

a private

We know him

his military ability:

good judgment and courage. ties so rare

9

Yes,

if

a

small town in

only through what he did,

and what he did bears witness and

months

fare).

Groningen.

ter

as the

around

more than any-

every year, they are fished for crayfish. there,

on

to his strength of charac-

he had natural authority, Is

we consider

such a cluster of qualithat out of three

hun-

dred survivors of the Batavia. there was only one Haves.

But once he had stepped out of obscurity, he became a rallying point,

joined him.

a

growing number of volunteers

will,

the discipline and the resource-

and

The

fulness of that group presented a decisive obstacle to

Corneliszs ambition and were eventually to cause his downfall.

Cornelisz had understood straightaway that the very existence of Hayes and his troop was a challenge to his

46

SIMON LEYS and could not be allowed

rule,

to continue.

He

therefore have acted quickly to eliminate this Yet, following the successful escape of the

should

menace.

group of cast-

aways from Seal Island, he wasted two weeks dithering.

He may

well have

been held back by

fear.

Hayes, meanwhile, used the time to organise the

defence of his island.

He

improvised weapons: cudgels,

pikes, planks with long carpenter

s

nails driven

through

them.

On

top of a slope, which the attackers had to

climb

after

landing and crossing the coral shallows, he

used dry stones to build a small

fort

- four low

walls

forming a square, judiciously erected near a fresh water well. 1

Within

this enclosure, his

men

piled

heap of heavy and sharp pieces of rock

up

a large

to hurl at the

attackers should they attempt to storm the fort.

At the beginning of August, Corneliszs troop

two attempts

They had

to land.

made

Both times, they were repelled.

better weapons, but there were fewer of

them; by now the Captain-General had only some twenty seasoned fifty

men. The

killers at his disposal against

latter

Hayes'

group had only makeshift weap-

more importantly, they had the moral advantage the desperate determions, but they were better fed and,

t

This

fort

and the well can

still

be seen today.

47

The Wreck of the Bataria nation that can inspire decent

men when

thev find

themselves cornered by an unjust aggressor and have to fight for their lives.

Cornelisz decided to lead a third attempt himself.

Blinded by

mad belief in the powers of his eloquence,

a

he thought that by directlv addressing Haves' he would be able

sans,

This plan collapsed

and

alive

rest of

sow dissent among them.

to

was taken

in a rout: Cornelisz

had

his three best lieutenants

smashed. As

parti-

a result of this

unexpected

their heads disaster, the

the mutineers fled in panic and returned to the

Graveyard.

W ithout their leader. Cornelisz headless. Certainlv, there were

still

s

gang was.

a

literally,

few crazed

killers

among them but. strangely enough, these were spurned as candidates for the leadership

neers,

who

soldier

who had

instead replaced Cornelisz with a professional

confirmed criminal. Once, |

ordered bv Cornelisz.)

And

voung

competence but was not

in

he had even quietly refused

ship,

by most of the muti-

a

an unprecedented move,

to

perform an execution

indeed, under his leader-

blood ceased to flow on the Graveyard.

But on

i-

September-

Batavia's survivors

a crucial date in the story of

- he launched

a

new

attack

on

Haves' island. This time the campaign took a danger-

4s

SIMON LEYS From

ous turn.

the

start,

the assailants

made

devastat-

ing use of the two muskets that had been salvaged from

The

the ship.

w eapons was limited

efficiency of these

onlv bv their slow rate of

fire,

but bv taking time one

who

from

a distance

an enemy

had absolutelv no means of

retaliation.

Three defend-

could use them

ers

had alreadv

to kill

w ithout being able

fallen

attack when suddenly - and here the

seems

come from

to

to counter-

story's

ending

Hollywood screenwriter -

a

a sail

appeared on the horizon: Pelsaert was back, coming the rescue with a small, fast

The longboat had

VOC

taken a

to

ship!

month

the journey had been dangerous and

to

full

reach Java; of hardships.

The people on board had endured hunger and

thirst

but everyone survived, including the babv. To justify his desertion, Pelsaert

had

to give

some

rather delicate

explanations to the authorities. Not unreasonably, he

managed skipper,

to deflect the ire of his superiors

who was

he would never

swiftly flung into a cell

come

out

alive.

The

onto the

from which

authorities then

ordered Pelsaert to return to the Abrolhos to bring back the survivors, as well as

all

that could be retrieved

from

the Batavias precious cargo. For this he was given the light 'jacht'

Eve and

a

Sardam, with her skipper,

a

crew of twenty-

team of divers.

49

The Wreck of the Batavia Despite contrary winds, the Sardam took only three

weeks ity

to retrace the

longboat

route.

s

Once

in the vicin-

of the Abrolhos, however, the rescue party lost an

entire

month

archipelago.

trying to locate the exact position of the

Not only did they ignore

its

longitude, but

the skipper, after the shipwreck, had miscalculated

The

latitude!

islands are so

low on the water that they

are only visible at close range, to

its

and thus the Sardam had

execute endless zigzags before eventually finding

them.

Among

the mutineers, only a handful of fanatics

tried to carry out Corneliszs original plan of taking

over the Sardam. This attempt, hastily improvised in a

moment

- even Cor-

of panic, was so harebrained

neliszs successor refused to take part in

petered out immediately. Pelsaert,

it

-

who had

Sardam on

managed

capture the whole gang without a

his side but also Hayes'

Without wasting any time, and

his

main accomplices on

to subject the

trial

by legal torture

5°

on the

fight.

spot.

To

get

by Dutch law, he

accused to torture.

atrocities of the last three

men,

Pelsaert put Cornelisz

their full confessions, as required

had

it

not only

the crew of to

that

The

criminal

months were thus followed

atrocities. Cornelisz, torn

between

and an impudent determination

to

his fear of

maintain

SIMON LEYS innocence, caused his judges (Pelsaert and

his absolute

the senior staff of the Sardam) fessed

and then recanted, by

In the

much

The

He

con-

turn.

end he was condemned

his accomplices.

trouble.

to

hang with

six

of

court also decided that his two

hands would be amputated before he was hanged. The executions took place on 2 October, on Seal Island,

where erecting

ground was nelisz,

a scaffold

The day

soft.

who had managed

never found out

was easier because the sandy

how -

before the hanging, Cor-

to get

hold of poison -

it

was

tried to kill himself. Either

because the dose was too small or because the poison

had

lost its

power,

and he spent

it

merely induced a dreadful

his last night vomiting,

colic,

and with continu-

ous diarrhoea.

The accomplices had requested that Cornelisz be the first to die. They knew their former chief and feared that, at the last

trick

cut

and evade

off,

moment, he might their

Cornelisz

s

pull off

some new

common fate. With his two hands

death must have been

swift: loss of

blood would have killed him before asphyxiation. others endured their final agony in

In a

modern hanging,

a trap, his

as the

its

The

terrible slowness.

condemned

falls

through

neck vertebrae are dislocated and death

is

instantaneous. But in earlier times death was caused

5i

The Wreck of the Batavia by progressive strangulation; the instinctive and grotesque

movements of the hanged, which slowed

or

hastened the tightening of the hanging knot, turned this type of execution into a

ciated by the

one

If

whose

mob

as well as

to believe the

is

show that was much appreby polite

1

testimony of the predikant -

assistance Cornelisz refused

ecary's last

society.

- the former apoth-

words were 'Revenge! Revenge!'

One may

well appreciate Pelsaert's relief after the execution; a

heavy burden had been taken off his shoulders.

would have dreaded being

at sea for

He

another month

with this diabolical apothecary on board. Even in chains, what

new mischief could he

This matter

now

not have caused?

settled, Pelsaert spent the next six

weeks attending to

his superiors' principal concern: sal-

vaging the Batavia

s

to retrieve

treasure.

nine chests

filled

Not only did he manage

with

silver,

but in his scru-

pulous zeal he went even further: in an attempt to recover a small barrel of vinegar, of

with

five

squall,

t

A

men on

and

little

board was carried away by a sudden

lost forever.

century

later, for

instance, in a letter written to his sister

from Milan, the young Mozart - he was tells

how he had

in the

Duomo

2

fifteen at the

time -

enjoyed watching 'four rascals being hanged

Square' and recalls that, four years before, he

had found the same entertainment

5

value, a boat

in Lyons.

SIMON LEYS

On

15

November

Sardam

1629. the

Islands for good. Pelsaert

On the way,

the Abrolhos

was bringing back

hom

seventv survivors, sixteen of w irons.

left

to Batavia

w ere criminals

in

he dropped tw o of them on the coast

of the Australian mainland.

He had commuted

their

death sentences, but could well have suspected that

YOC

the

encv.

once

worthies would not approve of such clem-

One in

of the tw o w as Cornelisz

pow er, had stopped the

the teenager

who had begged

his tender age

both

seemed

successor who,

s

killings.

to

The

other w as

be allowed

to kill

-

They were

to mitigate his guilt.

on an empty beach. Though they did not land

left

there of their ow n free will, these two murderers can well be considered the very Australia.

Thev

and

wooden

little

European

first

settlers in

received a bag full of baubles, trinkets

Surenbergen

toys called

town where they were made

.

to

from the

them

help

friendly relations with the natives, should they ter any.

Nobody knows what happened

to

establish

encoun-

them: thev

were swallowed by the bush and never seen again.

Once

in Batavia, Pelsaert

handed the remaining

fourteen convicts to the authorities, in

hanging

five

of

who

them and submitting

lost

no time

the others to

torture.

The

onlv hero of this entire

storv,

Wiebbe Haves,

53

The Wreck of the Batavia

was promoted

rank of standard-bearer, with a

to the

significant increase in pay. is

also the last time

nothing

As

known

is

he

is

The news

mentioned

of his subsequent

for Lucretia, she

finally

and then raped and

landed in Batavia,

Still

beautiful,

it

was only

to learn

the Netherlands and

we

later,

be that she died in Amsterdam in

This

woman

which, after

all, is

man the

the couple went back to

lose track of her.

years of age; the identification

Burma.

tropical fever in

seems, she married a military

following year. Five years

sible.

it

had become a widow: her husband had died

two months before from a

just

fate.

become the concubine of a murderous maniac.

When she that she

in the archives;

had been the victim of obscene

aggression, then shipwrecked,

forced to

of this promotion

is

It

could well

1681, at nearly eighty

not certain, but plau-

obviously had a gift for survival

-

another form of heroism. *

In spite of the hardships suffered, island.

Robinson Crusoe shed

One can

fortnight

understand

I

course. Nevertheless,

tears

how he

on the Abrolhos, but

stayed six months.

54

and the deprivation he had

I

on leaving

felt. I

his

spent only a

would gladly have

had not been shipwrecked, of if

the Batavias survivors had

SIMON LEYS organised themselves without Cornelisz and exploited the resources of the two large islands and of the lagoon,

they might have enjoyed not only a peaceful

even something akin to happiness. are quite arid

Though

and windswept, the climate

the islands mild. Rain-

is

squalls often occur in winter, but the breeze

cold and the sun

quick to return. Then,

is

but

life,

never

is

when

the

blues of sky and sea meet, the whole archipelago

transformed: swallowed by light,

it

seems

is

to dissolve

in infinity.

Today the archipelago

is

still

uninhabited, except

during the crayfish season. Around the end of March, fishing boats

The their

from the continent come

to the islands.

fishermen have established ashore what they

call

camps', where they stay each year for three or

four months; these are makeshift huts, semi-permanent

constructions built mainly of corrugated iron sheets

and fibro-concrete boards. They have their boats in the rare spots

deep and possible

sheltered,

and

set

moorings

where the water

to stay as

is

so tiny that the Batavias survivors

company

Some

extracting

fifty

islets

had completely

years ago, a

commercial

guano scraped the rocks

bone and now every square

both

near to these boats as

most of their shacks are crowded on two

neglected them.

for

to the

foot of this lunar surface

55

is

The Wreck of the Batavia covered by the flimsy and haphazard structures of the fishermen's slum. Half a dozen of them, however, have

chosen

on Beacon This

is

away from the crowd and

to live

where

As

camps

notorious 'Batavia's Graveyard'.

stayed.

I

The whole protected.

- the

Island

set their

archipelago

is

a rule, tourists

a nature reserve, strictly

and

not admit-

visitors are

ted unless as a fisherman's guests.

My

Bruce D.,

host,

was a sixty-year-old veteran. Crippled by

arthritis,

and

with failing eyesight (he would not appreciate

my

description because

when he came

to visit in

Sydney

the following year, he was proud to show us his latest girlfriend, a

young and charming hairdressing salon

manager), he was past retirement age, but as he owned his boat, every year

the

new season.

cial reasons.

men

I

don't think he

This

remain

he followed the

had

sort of fishing

free nine

irresistible call

to

do

them

have decided

to take a rest.

a small fortune.

Was

work that brought him back

it

this for finan-

hard work, but the

is

months of the

season brings

of

year,

and each

Bruce could

easily

the comradeship of

to the islands

-

or the

islands themselves? It

was the

full

southern winter, near the end of

June, and the fishing season was

Almost

56

all

coming

to a close.

of the other fishermen had gone back to the

SIMON LEYS

A few

mainland.

who

he was there

said

some

remained on Beacon

repairs to his

Barbara, whose

for a

hut - and

few more days a

behaved

camp was at the other end

like

all

of the island.

for a year,

but they

men

to

be laconic and tough,

displays of emotions are considered a

ful sign of

make

newlyweds. In a society ruled by harsh

conventions compelling

where

to

young couple, Rod and

Rod and Barbara had been married still

Bruce -

Island:

weakness,

it

shame-

was remarkable that Rod was

not afraid to demonstrate his affection for his young wife.

A

good

sailor,

he had a large boat with superb

electronic navigation equipment; at the very

season, he

seemed

to fish for pleasure,

end of the

mostly enjoying

these last days of being alone with Barbara.

Using either Bruces or Rod often went out to set

and

s

boat, the four of us

raise the lobster-pots, or

sailed outside the lagoon, dragging lines with big in the

hope of catching

we

hooks

a shark or a marlin; or

we

explored the larger islands of the archipelago, taking a

dinghy in tow after dinner,

to

land on the strands. In the evenings,

using electricity from a noisy diesel engine,

we watched pleasantly silly movies, can of beer in hand, till

we

fell

wind and

asleep, suddenly exhausted

by a day of sun,

sea.

So time went

by; there

seemed

to

be only one long

57

The Wreck of the Batavia day, white, then blue, as

And

.

me

go back

to

.

an ocean on

crosses

then came the day when

a ship

.

when one

to the mainland. As

1

was time

for

was packing

my

it

He

bag, Bruce said: 'Well, before you leave ../ tated briefly, then continued: 'Never to you,

but you must promise

or Til be in trouble/

he took down

From

mind,

I'll

hesi-

show

it

me you won't tell anyone,

the shelf above the larder

one

a purple plastic ice-cream container,

He put it was a human

of the three-litre kind sold in supermarkets.

on the skull,

table

and removed the

lid.

Inside

yellowed by age. 'Last month, to enlarge the

kitchen,

started to dig the

I

cement, when

I

ground before casting the

discovered two skeletons.

I

only kept

thing and poured the concrete over the

this

They're under our feet now/ he

new cement

kitchens

about

this

- otherwise,

said,

and pointed

floor. 'But, please!

Fll

Not

a

and

a grin

mess up

they'll

at

the

word

have the police coming here

from the mainland, and the archaeologists and rest,

rest.

all

the

my entire kitchen!' Then with

he shut the purple container and put

it

back on

the shelf, between the vinegar and the tomato sauce.

f

I

don't think

I

am

betraying the trust of my host.

place sixteen years ago; is still

alive,

Beacon

58

but

Island.

I

I

hope 'Bruce

doubt very

much

if

My visit took

D.' (not his real

he

still

1

name)

has a 'camp' on

SIMON LEYS It

was time

to leave. Outside, the

weather was

ous.

Here the beautiful winter days have

that

European summers seldom

tance, the

do.

a

mildness

Muffled by

suddenly obvious

start

dis-

monotonous thunder of the breakers explod-

ing on the reef set off the silence. Right then

vivors

glori-

must be

to

told.

me:

this story of the

But how?

only

I

it

was

Batavias

sur-

knew that

it

should

with a verse from Iphigenia in Tauris that had

stuck in

The

my mind

since

sea washes

I

came

away the

to the islands:

evils of

men.

59

PROSPER

By or

all that's is it

wonderful,

youth alone?

it is

Who

the sea,

can

tell?

I

believe, the sea itself -

But you here - you

all

had

something out of life: money, love - whatever one gets on shore

- and,

tell

me, wasn't that the best time, that time when we

were young at sea; young and had nothing, on the sea that gives nothing, except hard knocks to feel

your strength

-

that

- and sometimes only - what you

a chance

all regret?

—Joseph Conrad, Youth

When

I

was a student, during

Europe before

I

nity to join the

left for

Sorting out I

about

this

I

last

last

I

summer

boats working under

some papers

recently,

I

in

had an opportu-

a tuna-fishing boat

had taken then - some

notes

The

the Far East,

crew of

tany - one of the

my

from

Brit-

sail.

came

across the

forty-five years

ago -

experience of my youth.

following narrative

is

based on these notes, but

have not modified their contents,

are dear to

me and

for these

memories

they evoke a world that no longer

exists.

Prosper and Etoile de France leaving Etel on a fishing trip (1958).

train to Auray.

By

only now, as

I

It

seems that true Brittany

leave the railway station

starts

and take

the bus to Etel. It is

Mass

Assumption Day. The Breton

this

morning and

go back

will

Vespers in the afternoon, while their

day in the

cafes.

The bus

is

women went to

of

full

to

church

for

men spend the women in long

black skirts and white lace head-dresses. There are a

few

sailors

like a

wearing their Sunday

woodcutter,

to stop

on the way

is

reading his breviary.

to allow a

the side of the road.

drunken

The women

spiced with rough peasant wit

-

contact with the Breton drunks:

them

best; a priest, built

better later on. But

The bus

sailor to piss

has

on

crack a few jokes -

at his I

expense. First

shall get to

why do the French

know

say 'drunk

67

Prosper

as all Poland' to

when

they have Brittany so

much

closer

hand?

The

road winds through verdant countryside,

offering brief views

whenever

it

reaches the top of a

short, steep rise; but

most of the time, green hedges

and grey walls screen

off the landscape

a

maze

of secret corners.

Now and

and turn

then

I

have not been here before, but

see stone

into vil-

under stunted

lages with their slate roofs sitting tight trees.

I

it

I

feel

almost

at

home. *

In

its

heyday, Etel had a tuna-fishing fleet of nearly

two hundred

sailing boats

- but these were

-

yawls, ketches

progressively replaced by

and

cutters

motor

and now only two yawls remain: Prosper and

sels,

ves-

Etoile

de France. I

had been

Monsieur

told that the owner-skipper of Prosper,

Pessel,

sometimes agreed

on board. He confirmed spring. His letter

He

this to

simply suggested that

Each

68

fishing trip

me

by

letter in

the

was short and rather non-committal. I

come and

summer, between two marees}

t

to take a passenger

is

called a 'maree'.

see

him

in the

SIMON LEYS

When

arrive in Etel, the skipper,

I

only a few days

earlier,

who has returned some

playing boules with

is

Seeing me, he seems annoyed and somewhat

friends.

nonplussed.

It is

promise (and, as

obvious that he has forgotten his vague I

am to discover later on, he has already

granted the same favour to another candidate). Most of

he

all,

is

keen

tating briefly,

board. will

We

to

resume

his

game

he shrugs: All

of boules. After hesi-

right,

drop your bag on

leave the day after tomorrow. This maree

be long, probably a month/ And with

back

to his

that,

he turns

game. *

whom Yd met earlier in the harbour, introduced me to the skipper. Now that have been accepted, he offers to show me the boat. This crewman from

Louis, a

Prosper

I

takes time: our course

is

cunningly plotted

to call in at all the cafes in

to allow us

town. There, with the com-

pulsory glasses of rough red wine, are laid the foundations of a staunch friendship.

Louis has no family. Staying ashore in port,

is

fatal for

he stops drinking only when he sinks into

Since he has been doing this for years, he

drunk -

just

blinking as

permanently soaked in drink.

if

is

him;

sleep.

never truly

He

is

always

the light hurts his eyes. His head shakes.

69

Prosper

One

him

expects

hardly eats: red wine for floats in a state is

him

is

as

milk

to the babe.

of universal benevolence, but in fact he

not fully present. His amiable semi-absence

marked

to the wife

who

half-smile

- but one

left

this business

However, he

is

in

is

contrast to the rowdy boisterousness of his

low crewmen. For instance, when one jokingly

from

He He

any moment.

to fall asleep at

fel-

refers

him, Louis responds with a tolerant feels that

he detached himself

long ago. a fine sailor,

and

in this

he sums up

the contradictions of the crew of Prosper. Very few

fishermen are of fishing

is

still

difficult,

skipper, therefore,

or other

willing to work under

men who

hazardous and

sail

are

This type

less efficient.

can only recruit wrecks

The

like Louis,

can no longer sustain the relentless

rhythm of work on the motor handle

sail.

becoming

boats. Yet

rare,

Prospers crew belongs to a true

and

elite

maintain the traditions of what

is

a

men who

can

in this respect

- the

last

group

to

supreme form of

seamanship.

This pared

year, at the

for the

end of spring, when boats are pre-

tuna season, Louis was almost prevented

from embarking. At the Inscription maritime s compulsorv medical inspection he was found physically unfit

and duly

70

rejected.

This might have forced him into a

SIMON LEYS vicious cycle: he can escape alcoholism only

but because of his alcoholism he sea.

The

is

skipper was in a quandary:

if

he

sails,

forbidden to go to

because find-

first,

ing a replacement would not be easy; and second,

because he was afraid of the consequences

The

for Louis.

solution he finally found was to put Louis

on the crew s

list

down

as passenger'. *

Right now, since Etoile de France is

is still

at sea, Prosper

the only sailing boat in the harbour. At the quay,

among the massive, ungainly pinasses, she alone belongs to

another breed,

like a stag

among

cattle.

Low on

the

main-mast

water, with her long, slender hull, her tall

surging out of an ordered mess of stays, shrouds and halyards, she cuts

would

an impressive

trace her to the

figure.

An

expert's eye

Camaret boatyard, where she

was born twenty years ago. The

line

and slimness of

make

her stern-post clearly signal her origins and despite her size sive to the

and weight,

helm

clear to allow

a boat as fast

as a yacht.

room

for

and

The deck

is

her,

as respon-

completely

manoeuvring, and there are

only two hatchways: one before the mast, providing access to the fish and

sail

holds,

and one

the helm, leading to the quarters.

just for'ard of

Prosper

Once on

board,

we hear

a great deal of noise inter-

spersed with sonorous swearing from the quarters.

down

to

meet Robert - but the acquaintanceship

now he seems even how to put on a

go

I

is

not

mutual: right

incapable of knowing any-

thing,

pair of trousers. This

dishevelled giant day, but in his

is

change

clothes.

because he

celebrating his thirty-second birth-

drunken euphoria he absent-mindedly

pissed in his pants to

jolly,

and has had This

is

to

made

tries to get into his

come back on board

all

the

more

difficult

clean trousers by putting

both legs in one trouser-leg. In his underpants, he hops

on one falls

on

swear,

foot,

bumps

his

head against the low

ceiling,

his backside, all the while furiously trying to

for,

even when sober, he

While Louis goes clear his head,

I

stutters.

for ard to get a litre of red

look around the quarters.

and dark room. One descends using

wine

It is

a

low

a steep ladder, the

only light provided by the opening of the hatchway. table

is

fixed to the

to

A

bulkhead and a bench runs around

the three other sides, which gape with four dark openings.

These

sleep. In

only

sit

where the

men

each of these hutches, which allow one to

or lie

mattress.

7

are the nutches or cribs',

down, there

is

Only the skipper and

room

for a large straw

old Felix have a crib to

themselves; the others sleep two by two, and even

72

SIMON LEYS manage

to

squeeze their baskets between the bulkhead

and the mattress -

in these baskets are individual food

stores that contain

each man's provision of butter, dry

sausage and cheese.

The quarters are the heart of the boat. This is where we sleep, eat, spin yarns and live together. Even in port, when the boat is deserted, there are reminders everywhere of the crews living presence: the heavy sea clothes, woollens, oilskins, sou westers

the benches; sea boots and corner; each man's

hook.

On

an empty

lies

LAlmanach du marin

some tobacco and

place smells of stale wine,

damp

clogs piled

up

in a

enamel coffee-mug hanging on

the table bottle,

wooden

thrown on

fish,

a knife.

a

breton,

The whole

rubber clothes and

straw.

Having managed

to

put on his trousers, Robert

wants us to go out with him decided to be good;

on board, he

this

for a drink.

But Louis has

evening he will stay with

me

will not

go round the cafes again. Robert

The

tread of his footsteps grows faint.

climbs on deck.

Miraculously, he finds the quay ladder.

Louis opens a tin of bully-beef and fetches another litre

of wine from the barrel.

Under the

light of a kero-

sene lamp, with a piece of bread in one hand and a knife in the other,

we

dig

in.

73

.

Prosper

After the meal, Louis finishes the wine, and launches

monologue which

into a long

rather taciturn by nature, but after the last

day he oozes a marvels of thing: his

we

sort of diffuse bliss

home,

his family, his refuge.

are not savages.

You

me

call

and

Louis,

On

board,

call

I

you

it is

the

shits,"

and

because of the not savages.

I

job:

We

him

tell

Pierre.

we have

to.

have the good

On

this

the

same things over and over

is

the

every-

see, Pierre, life.

Of course, we to

tell

me, "you give

off,"

but that

is

Because here we are

life,

the family

theme, he can talk forever; even

if

it

life

.

/

.

he repeats

again, the topic

haustible, he will always think about

He

Tou

"bugger

to

me

relates to

is

of the

a sort of family

each other off sometimes. Robert says

me

litre

on board. For him, the boat

life

He

will hear often.

I

is

inex-

with wonder.

right.

is

Imagine

six

men living together in a cramped space,

never alone, each knowing everything about his companions,

down

to those

humbling

truths which, ashore,

even one s closest friends might never become aware

who

is

who

is

lazy,

who

boastful,

is

a coward,

who

They exchange

ful.

The

fact

is,

the

is

greedy,

who

clumsy, whose wife

same

jokes, the

is

same

snores,

unfaithtales

.

.

they share the same experiences, they've

had the same

74

is

who

of:

life:

the sea since the age of thirteen, the

SIMON LEYS mean

sea that begrudges

them

its

fish,

the weather so

seldom kind, and chance always so stingy with

-

hasn't this

been

their

Most have had another relative lost,

someone

most

will

common

a brother,

"lost at sea".

will

lot

7

an uncle, a cousin or

And

every time a boat

remember having

have had old friends

among

sailed

sea

cast

once and

for all.

Their

They cannot escape

community, even ashore. Their

heavy stone houses,

iust

dumped

ton coast, faces the sea, lives with

up on the

hill,

on

little

in a it.

is

her;

crew Never-

the

theless, they are fatalistic, thev sail again.

been

smiles

its

lot

has

it.

this

town with

its

bay on the Brelives for

it.

High

the rumble of the fish factory seems to

echo the sounds of the harbour down below. the factory spews

its

And when

boiling water along the gutters,

the whole town reeks offish. In the pass those

main

who

street,

those

who

prepare to go out.

return from the sea

The former

steer a

zigzag course from cafe to cafe, recounting at evenstop the story of their trip.

loaded with

under

jars

The

latter carrv their baskets

of butter and dry cakes, or stagger

a mattress of fresh

straw

The women, without ever having gone its

language.

winds and

They know about

tides,

to sea,

know

the boats, and about

they can read the signs of the weather;

"5

.

Prosper

their thoughts closely follow those

church porch ners, there

is

who

on

after mass, in the shops, less talk

about what happens

than about news from the

built.

France'

'in

is

missing

is

they have

.

.

now been

have probably gone too

Do

return wind.

They

Etoile de France

.

is

say that

not back

out for thirty-five days. far

home, they

and were forced

you remember? LEspoir des Families

said they hadn't

this

of

all

morning with

know

Some

that

the ferry

-

and can

talk

ships

.

.

Douce-

hundred

in the last five

Ah well, this boat is pechant,

.

.

- the skipper of the

are the custodians of a

tug, the master of

still

higher tradition,

about their youthful adventures sailing

square-riggers, three-masted barques

from Nantes that went round the Horn

Chilean

76

.

.'

elders

on the big

finally

for ten days

thirteen

them were caught

days: they are always lucky. all

had bread

open their biscuit supplies

to

Amelie came back tuna! Nearly

They

south and can't catch a

had the same mishap some years ago; when they

we

it

'Have you heard? Belle-Monique has collided

the skipper

got

more

upon which

with a cargo-boat in St George Channel.

yet;

street cor-

sea, the sea that

present in this town than the hard rock is

On the

are out.

nitrates

.

.

and

to fetch

SIMON LEYS

On are

board Prosper, the

made. Ice

is

taken aboard as well as fresh food sup-

plies,

bread and wine.

dawn

tide.

To

preparations for departure

last

We

leave later

is

leave

tomorrow with the

unthinkable: the crew must

not have time to get drunk before embarking. exactly the

same

in Ostend,

when

I

sailed

(It

was

on the

Ice-

land trawlers.)

That

night,

around one

half-asleep,

o'clock,

I

vaguely hear footsteps on deck and some voices. But

what wakes

me up

he

down

falls off

good

make such

Robert: 'Don't sleeping

for

there!'

And

the ladder and

a

is

a

powerful shout from

bloody noise! Pierre

is

then, missing the

first step,

my

crib with

rolls

down

to

the clattering tumult of a mountain avalanche. Louis,

more somnolent than rung, but he doesn't health, but

it

ever, follows,

fall.

(Drink

stumbling

may have

has not impaired his

sailor's

at

every

ruined his balance.

I

have seen him climbing the mast or manoeuvring on the jib-boom in heavy weather with a kind of haggard precision, while to

walk

on land he would not have been able

straight.)

With them

are

two mates from

another boat, here to drink to the impending departure.

This

Louis goes for'ard to fetch some is

his official job

litres

of wine.

- every day he must fill the

crew's

individual bottles by siphoning wine from the barrel in

77

Prosper

the hold with a long rubber tube, which he sucks on

with more energy than

is

strictly

required by the laws

of physics.

They

extract

me

obstinacy of drunks

from

my

hutch with the peculiar

who must

eliminate

traces of

all

sobriety in their vicinity. Robert wants to start a speech.

His efforts to overcome his stuttering

and

his veins bulge:

going

make

his eyes roll

one doesn't know whether he

to tell a joke or start a row.

eyes stare into emptiness.

One

Louis

is

silent; his

of the visitors

is

dim

tells

an

endless tale of smuggling and shipwreck, to which

nobody - not even he himself - pays any the end, the visitors leave.

Only Louis remains. He

takes the last bottle by the neck, empties

gulp, collapses

-

attention. In

it

in

one long

on the nearest mattress - the skippers

like a stricken

ox in a slaughterhouse, and begins to

snore.

When

I

open

my eyes,

through the hatch. footsteps above

wooden boat

The

my

a square of grey

day

quarters are empty,

is

and

visible I

hear

head. Oh, the sounds of a good

getting ready to

sail!

Clogs and sea-boots

hurrying on deck revive forgotten echoes in a hull that has been silent for days, motionless in port.

The whole crew

is

there, fresh

and

fit,

including

Robert and Louis: the sea awaits them, they are new

78

SIMON LEYS men. Seven

pairs of

hands - from the skipper s

boy s - haul out the boat

still

on her mooring

to the

lines, to

bring her head into the wind in order to hoist the

The

mainsail.

mainsail

alone weighs as

much

is

as a

huge and heavy -

young

tree;

gaff

its

hence, the only

concession to mechanisation on these sail-fishing crafts

motor windlass. But, because none among

a

is

the crew

is

frequent,

able to look after these motors, mishaps are

and the

story

even goes that on one of the

first

boats equipped with such a windlass, the engine

that

had been

started in port to hoist the mainsail ran

continuously for a whole day lack of fuel, because

turn

it

till it

eventually died from

nobody on board knew how

to

off.

For the moment, though, on Prosper, the question is

not how to stop

with

all

it,

but how to

it.

Louis

matters pertaining to the engine.

Perhaps because he

and the

start

barrel

is

is

entrusted

Why Louis?

in charge of getting the wine,

and the engine are

in the

same hold?

Louis disappears into the darkness of the forard hold,

and

a few

moments

later the

engine

starts

vigorous bangs, but also disheartening hiccups.

time the mainsail halyard the engine lows,

stalls, like

is

with

Each

engaged on the windlass,

a shirking mule.

and everyone volunteers

Swearing

his opinion.

The

fol-

spark-

79

Prosper

plug?

The

fuel intake?

From time

to time, Louis'

head

appears at the hatch, just to give a soothing forecast

and announce another

been

Of

try.

course,

would have

it

once or twice

sensible to test the engine

advance, or to ask a competent technician to check

But we are on

a sailing boat;

such a contraption in the

to install

to take care of

it

now

under

any

sail,

having

first

is

stingy!)

case, the skipper,

really

is

who

is

beyond the

a superb

seaman resents

hear Robert or Louis showing off their pho-

to

he begrudges

it

it

did cost

him

I

suspect he

a packet)

and

the professional care that could have

good health.

in

A new

attempt by Louis results in a desolate string

of half-hearted, hollow bursts.

enough,

To have

knows nothing about engines, and he

hates that engine (though

it

a lot to ask

place.

ney mechanical expertise. Deep down,

kept

it.

(and to have to pay for such main-

tenance, for the skipper limit. In

was already

it

in

all

the

and on the tug

more

skipper has had

so because onlookers

on the

pier

are giving exasperating advice. 'Drop

the whole thing. We'll hoist

There

The

it

bv hand.'

are eight of us now, straining

on the two

halyards that hoist both ends of the gaff (peak and mast).

Each of our

halyard.

80

The

efforts gains barely ten inches of

wail of a block at the

masthead answers

SIMON LEYS our breathing, while, with infinite slowness, the mainmajestically rises

sail

Fully spread at

and then,

and unfurls.

last,

it

Now

hangs nearly motionless.

a waft of the faint breeze of

dawn, further

deflected by the quay, causes the weatherbeaten red

and

cloth to shiver

The

flap

been exhausting. The skipper

effort has

up the

to the boy, 'Bring

brief hesitation (for for those

receives

who two

daily ration,

prefer

litres

with a sudden noise.

he

is

it/ It

calls

bottle of red/ and, after a

close-fisted),

must be

and

also white,

said that every

man

of red wine a day. Apart from this

which everyone

is

free to drink

when he

some circumstances call for a collective, ceremonial drink - for instance, any heavy manoeuvre chooses,

that requires everyone's participation. If the effort has

been

particularly

marked by

demanding, the special occasion

a choice

The boy

between red and white.

brings the bottles and the glass because,

while everyone has his

wine

ritual

glass.

The boy

is

who

is

fills

for ordinary use, this

the glass to the brim and presents

whose

emptied

fills it

own mug

performed with the boat s one and only

to the skipper,

glass

is

in

privilege

it is

to

drink

one gulp and given back

for old Felix. After Felix, there

first.

it

The

to the boy,

is

no

estab-

lished order.

81

Prosper

The

jib

swiftly hoisted

is

passes us a tow; past, there

we

cast off our

was no tug, and the

and out of port without

in

The

tug

lines. In

the

by two men.

mooring

sailing boats

is

partly obstructed by a dangerous bar

sandbank on which the sea breaks even

The Tree tly,

tug casts us off after

at sea

splash of the

wave and

starts

is

trailed

crossed the bar.

on her way. The rhythmic

is

the privilege of travelling

is

triumphant. She has

set the staysail, the topsail

with her

tide.

on her her sails up -

In fine weather, with a steady breeze

beam, Prosper

we have

high

wave under her bows only deepens the

wonderful silence that sail.

we have

at

- a moving

by the grace of the wind/ Prosper heels gen-

sniffs the

under

risk precise

tacking through a narrow pass which, more-

fast

over,

to get

But the skipper

assistance.

does not have enough trust in his crew to

and

had

lee-rail close to

all

and the

jigger

- and

the water, her long, slim stern

by a turbulent and foaming wake. Poised on

the shoulder of a regular, long swell, she points her

bowsprit towards the pale blue horizon.

The boy

starts to

prepare a meal.

coal stove secured in the ern,

sail

He

cooks on a

hold. In this dark cav-

where powerful smells mix -

tar,

hemp, engine

fumes, old cabbage soup, coal smoke - he gets the stove red-hot right next to the sails, the coils of rope

82

SIMON LEYS and the is

petrol jerry-can for the windlass.

heavy, the stove

is

When the sea

- the boy would not be

not used

able to hold the pot securely without getting burnt, nor to

bring

it

up while the deck

being swept by waves.

is

In such circumstances, he cooks in the corner of the

on

quarters

beyond

a small gas stove.

But when the boat heels

a certain angle, the flame, instead of heating

the cooking pot, licks the bulkhead, which starts to

burn -

And

if

water

till

a

someone

notices

'Oh

shit! Its

thrown gumboot does not stop

will, releasing a

The boy him, the

is

men

are

This

when he

a pot of cold

his first fishing trip. is

to

them: a power of

can be placated only by patience is

therefore shifty, lazy

and

is

peels the daily heap of potatoes,

someone

always gets out his knife and does half of the job rather, its the

To

how he survives in a tough world. men are mean to him - for instance,

this

not that the

is

what the sea

and shrewdness. The boy scrounging -

it,

burning!'

cloud of steam.

thirteen.

vast indifference that

It's

it.

way things

are, a

one, and nobody thinks to ease

- but

law that binds everyit

for

him because

of

his tender years.

His main job special rots,

skill, it is

is

to cook.

enough

This does not require any

to toss potatoes, onions, car-

turnips and a piece of beef or pigs trotters into the

83

Prosper

huge cooking pot and appetite calls for

it.

let

The

all

it

simmer

till

the

mens

is

that,

once

only variation

The

skipper

first fish is

caught.

fishing begins, tuna will replace meat.

buys

just

enough meat

From then or

to last

till

the

on, for the next month, tuna

raw with vinegar -

-

boiled, fried

be the basis of all noon and

will

evening meals. It is

also the

forts of life

boy s duty

on board: the morning

coffee, the evening

supposed

to find,

and bring

to

whomever

marlinspike and twine, or tobacco and

he

He

is

calls for

it,

the (relative) cleanliness of the quarters.

tea,

able,

is

he helps in

told twice. In fact,

keep

his eyes

For the

him any

he

open and

first

told

As

far as

nothing

at all:

he must

guess.

few days, he

attention,

lighter.

manoeuvres, without being

all is

com-

to attend to the small

is

seasick.

Nobody

no matter how green he

pays

turns, so

long as he does his work. Grinding his teeth, he keeps

an eye on the cooking pot time

to time,

he comes up

in the smelly hold.

to

vomit leeward, then goes

down

again. His seasickness will disappear

hood

too.

He

will

-

his child-

return a small thirteen-year-old

grown-up, without dreams or games.

84

From

SIMON LEYS the wind has abated completely;

By

late afternoon,

are

becalmed abeam of Groix. The

sails

sea

we

sluggish, the

is

hang; Prosper rocks slowly on an invisible and lazy

swell.

Old on the

Felix tiller,

the boat

isn't

is

on watch. He

which

is

sits

comfortably, leaning

useless for the time being, as

moving. Crouching, compact, weather-

beaten, he seems asleep, but his sharp

eyes are

little

fully alive, scrutinising the horizon, inspecting the rig-

ging, checking the compass.

- he

is

even in Tes,

A man

of his experience

- knows

sixty-two, with fifty years at sea fair

my

that

weather one never relaxes one s vigilance.

boy,

am

I

remarks begin

an old cunt

just

this way,

.

.

/

Most of

but what he says

And when

is

his

respect-

the weather turns

fully listened to

by

foul, the skipper

himself always asks for his opinion. In

all.

the handling of the boat, he others, but effect; it,

he uses

may be

slower than the

his strength sparingly, to

maximum

and when the wind, the sea and the boat demand

he forgets

his age

and wholeheartedly throws him-

self into action.

Ten gave

years ago he

him

had throat cancer. The doctors

three weeks to

nevertheless. Six

live,

months

but they operated on

later

he was

still

getting bored, decided to go back to sea.

him

alive and,

He

has a big

85

Prosper

and

scar

This

practically

frustrates

he wants

vre,

no

voice: just a hoarse whisper.

him when, during abuse

to shout

can manage only a

sort of

at a

clumsy crewman and

mute howl.

But in the evening, in the quarters his litre of wine,

he

manoeu-

a difficult

talks.

after finishing

Since he can only use his

voice sparingly, he has worked out a peculiar form of

pungent and pithy maxim that endows even personal reminiscences with a sort of universal quality. There for instance, the story of his cancer,

knows, having heard it is

it

many times

which everyone already.

always listened to with pleasure, because

a stylish performance.

hatreds.

sion of

He 7 ;

Even it is

Another favourite topic

is

so,

such

his pet

pursues four kinds of villains with the pas-

one waging

Bombard 4.

so

is,

3.

a religious war:

scientists

who send

1.

doctors;

2.

rockets to the

Alain

moon;

the crews of cargo-boats.

Doctors, because they sentenced

him

to

death ten

years ago.

Bombard seamen

for

excites the collective hostility of

complex reasons.

Firstly,

many

because no skilled

professional will ever accept that an amateur can teach

him something t

On

86

essential about his craft.

the subject of Bombard, see page 22.

How

can a

SIMON LEYS landlubber enlighten sailors on the basics of survival sea? Secondly,

Bombard

many

upsets too

at

ingrained

when shipwrecked - and promotes new (and expensive) regulations - such as carryhabits

- such

as to die

Most

ing life-saving equipment that actually works.

fishing vessels carry 'life-boats' that could never be

used in case of a shipwreck. Prosper, only a ridiculous

little

dinghy, completely rotten, which

could take no more than a third of the crew sink

when put to

water.

As

far as the

did not

fulfil

an admin-

requirement of the Authorities; and to provide

istrative

convenient place to

dump and

store gear

coal, rope-coils, sail-cloth, baskets rafts that

Bombard wants

ever, cost

money and can

purpose.

The

fully packed.

t

if it

fishermen are con-

cerned, a life-boat has only two uses: to

a

has

for instance,

rest

to

and

-

crates.

sacks of

The

life-

make compulsory, how-

only be used for their original

of the time, they must be kept care-

1

situation in 1958. Meanwhile the reforms advoDr Bombard have been so universally adopted that

Such was the cated by

nowadays most seamen are not even aware they were nally still

due

valid:

to

Bombard

is

effected his daring survival experiment in

the tropical regions of the Atlantic

done

origi-

him. Only one criticism voiced by fishermen

in colder waters.

-

(Hypothermia

it

could not have been

kills

more quickly than

drowning.)

87

Prosper

who send

Scientists

rockets to the

moon are

respon-

bad weather and rotten summers which harm

sible for

fishing.

The ity

crews of cargo-boats attract a mixture of hostil-

and contempt from the fishermen,

those

especially

from

Contempt because

their

comfortable, and because they no longer

know

who work under

lives are

what seamanship

some

paint there

is:

.

.

.

sail.

they chip some rust here, daub Hostility,

because each year

colli-

sions occur: fishing boats hove-to for the night are run

down by

cargo-boats because the

men on

watch,

ing their electronic equipment, have forgotten

use their eyes.

trust-

how

to

+

*

The wind

has

slumbering of breeze.

come up during

drift,

the night.

Prosper wakes up with the

On my

pallet, half-asleep,

I

whisper of the water running along the

From first

whiff

hear the eerie hull.

Towards dawn, the breeze freshens, the sea rougher.

We

her

are close-hauled, with reduced

sail.

gets

Pros-

per makes lively attempts to head into the wind; she

runs over the

f

In the

worse.

88

crests,

confronts the waves with a deep

meantime, technical progress has only made matters

.

SIMON LEYS shuddering of

all

her

ribs,

while the spray

both sides of her bows, in two geysers which a hissing sound,

control

and

on deck. The helmsman

new

direct this

up on

jets

fall,

with

strains to

strength, like a rider rein-

ing in a fiery and clever horse. But Prosper seems to

know by

instinct

nearly head-on.

how to meet the waves that attack her The wind combs the tall crests into

wisps of spray, but the boat avoids the heavier seas, easing sideways.

While on top of a wave, we can

see before

us for a brief instant a wide expanse of sea-hills in long

up and

parallel lines, swelling

dive into a

new trough while

under our stern

flees

.

collapsing,

the wave

we

and then we just

climbed

.

Down below one hears another tune!

Every wooden

limb of the framework moans and creaks in the dark,

and heavy, dull blows resonate through

this

hollow

shell.

With such wind, we this,

we should reach

are

moving

fast. If it stays like

the fishing grounds by tomorrow

or the day after.

We are about to enter one of the

most crowded and

dangerous sea-lanes of the world, and we must cross diagonally. Ships

it

coming down from the Channel and

the North Sea towards the Atlantic, the Mediterranean

and the

East, as well as all the return traffic,

must

89

Prosper

squeeze through

this passage.

By the afternoon we can

already see several silhouettes on the horizon.

evening, more ships appear, of

from small tramps

to large tankers,

and passenger boats of day, Prosper

all

shapes and

presence

at

sizes,

with merchantmen

nationalities.

quite visible with her

is

to signal her

all

By

tall

During the red

sail,

but

night she has only one tiny

oil-burning storm-lamp hoisted at masthead. Such a pathetic

little light is

not likely to

make much

of an

impression on the big ships that speed through the night without changing course by even one degree.

When one of them gets too close, we must take evasive action.

Although the laws of the sea give absolute

of way to

all

however

vessels,

sters to take

we cannot expect

large,

all

motor

these

mon-

notice of us, especially at night; they would

and go on

sink us

however small, over

sailing craft,

right

their

way without even

realising

they'd had a collision.

Tonight the skipper stays

will not get

much

sleep.

on deck, near the helmsman, and old

joined

them

too.

Down

one eye open, ready

The fresh,

starless

but

still

sive blackness,

90

to

night

Felix has

below the others sleep with

jump on deck is

He

at first call.

dark and cold.

The

breeze

is

manageable. Sea and sky form one mas-

punctuated by the navigation

lights of

SIMON LEYS Some

ships.

of these are going away, their distant lights

twinkling and disappearing; some grow dangerously close.

A big liner,

brightly

lit,

lengths ahead;

we had

to

her way. 'Ow!

They

passes us one or two cable-

change course

are guzzling

to get out of

champagne but can-

not see what's in front of them!' grumbles Etienne,

who

has the helm and puts Prosper back on course.

Our wooden mere cork

boat,

in the

which one long wave can

ple laugh, play, feet

of

men

steel plates.

does she carry?

dream, eat and sleep

.

.

.

Up

The

till

then

it is

over,

How

while we, a few lights,

dawn.

next morning

whose course

a

there, peo-

above the water, surrounded by dancing

keep watch

is

wake of that ship, which crushes three

dozen such waves under her uncaring

many hundreds

carry,

is

we

see one or two

more

ships

west of the main shipping lane, and

we

are through the dangerous passage

and we find ourselves alone on the empty sea -

at

home.

On

deck, only the

helmsman

Down below, we chat. Oh, the ters!

First, there are

news

in

of last

La

Liberie

month s

various

is

needed on watch.

endless talk in the quar-

comments on

the local

du Morhihan, of which we carry

issues.

all

When these literary sources have

91

.

Prosper

run

dry,

we

fall

back on oral

of incidents, anecdotes and jokes serviceable.

can

last as

One

our collection

traditions:

draws from

is

well-worn, but

good

sparingly: a

it

long as a pair of clogs.

And some

still

story

topics are

inexhaustible: for instance, whether someone's wife unfaithful, or was, or shall be

.

is

.

Occasionally the skipper recounts some of the experiences of his youth. travelled.

man

is

not uneducated, he has

At twenty, he gave up fishing

Navy, where he had a sailors'

He

full career.

Having

to join the

visited a

few

dens in the Far East, he enjoys the prestige of a

of the world, and his exotic tales

still

beguile his

listeners.

When

pensioned off

as

chief petty officer,

he

returned with his wife and two grown-up children to the

little

harbour where he was born.

He

could have

lived there quite comfortably: besides his pension, his

wife

he

is

well-off

and he has two or three houses which

lets to vacationers.

But he became bored and so

bought Prosper and went back

to sea.

He

does not need

the income and, anyhow, the boat does not earn

much

once one has considered the cost of running and maintaining

it.

Every year, therefore, he says that

his last season, but

when

this will

be

the season ends he postpones

the date of his retirement and prepares Prosper for

92

SIMON LEYS another run. his age.

On shore,

he

wilts

and

feels the

weight of

At the helm of his boat, he reclaims the strength

of his youth.

On

such a sailing boat, the skipper

his crew.

They

as they do,

hand

call

him Maurice, and he works

keeping watch

in all the

at

the

a result, the

Besides, he theoretical late

is

as

hard

helm and lending

a

heavy manoeuvres; whereas, on the

pinasses, the skipper merely supervises

As

very close to

is

from the bridge.

crew respects Maurice

the only one on board

all

who

the more.

understands

and astronomical navigation and can calcu-

the boats position, though he practically never uses

the sextant: his navigation by dead-reckoning ingly accurate.

His power ity for

it.

and only

is

When

absolute,

amaz-

full responsibil-

helm

can be heard; the others are

silent

his orders

He may have

and he takes

things are difficult, he takes the

his voice

and carry out

is

f

without question.

cast off his

uniform

to

wear once more

the old beret and clogs of a Breton fisherman, but he

has kept the discipline and customs of the Navy.

He still

follows practices that recall the dignity of his former

t

Needless

to say all the electronic

even modest yachts, did not

no

equipment which today is on and Prosper had

exist at the time,

electricity, batteries or generator.

93

Prosper

rank - for instance, he addresses everyone as Vous ,f while

had

just

- he

the others use

all

'I

have not said

to carry the

-

heavy swell - and as soon

it

as

it

was time

to bring the

the

all

was not

for

soup/

it

The

way back

easy, there

he had done

,

boy

day, just as the

huge heavy pot

the stove in the forard hold a

Or one

.

brought up the midday meal -

said coldly:

boy had

'tu

this,

to

was the

skipper said: Tell Francois to bring the soup.'

Maurice

is

cold and hard.

always smiling, but deep

He

him

psychology of leadership that

great authority over his

incident with Robert as port.

With the splendid

wanted

some

to

rice took the ria at

I

remember an the fish in

prodigality of a drunk, Robert

hailed

just

out of the hold, to

him from

the quay.

Mau-

tuna from Robert s hands. Robert s eupho-

once became black

not catch to

who had

men.

we were unloading

throw a big tuna,

tourists

is

has remarkable self-control, and an

intuitive grasp of the

gives

down he

them

all

rage:

by yourself!

'Nom de Dieul You

And

if

I

want to give one

somebody?' And he continued with a long

a mixture of insults

did

diatribe,

and old grudges. Suddenly he

stopped. Maurice had not moved, just stared at Robert

t

In conversation, of course.

As

for all the nautical

as a rule, they are always expressed in the

singular.

94

commands,

second person

SIMON LEYS with icy calm.

A

long silence followed.

Then

the skip-

per said in a neutral tone, without raising his voice: 'Go

away/

And Robert went

away, sheepishly, like a school-

and came back only when

boy,

sober.

The

incident was

and was not mentioned again.

over,

In any case, to lose Robert,

Maurice would have been very annoyed

who

is

the youngest and the strongest of

the crew, and, after Felix, the best

would have been even more relled with the skipper

again with Prosper. offers

- and

sailor.

distressed

And Robert

had he quar-

and thus not been able

He had

to sail

already declined several

better-paid ones, too

- from

skippers of

pinasses because he wants to keep sailing with his

uncle Felix,

whom

he loves and worships. In handling

the boat, whenever a special effort

manages

to stand

to ease the old

Robert as

brawn.

is

to drive

needle

is

is

needed, he always

near Felix and uses his great strength

man's work.

built like a gorilla, but has as

One

pleasure that he cannot

Gabi mad. Gabi

at leisure.

resist,

stutters,

foes

who have

ton;

he barely speaks French (he uses

a quick tongue.

however,

he cannot attack

But Gabi it

is

a true Bre-

mostly in songs,

but there, curiously, his traditional repertoire wide) and therefore he

is

heart

the only victim he can

is

Since Robert

much

is

quite

always slow to respond. In

95

f a

Prosper

% some ways, Gabi farmer ily

who

has

mocked. He

is

the butt of everyone; he looks like a

become is

not really clumsy, but he

and cannot perform

and

a sailor by mistake,

is

fool!

eas-

a bit slow

a task without Robert hurling

abuse: 'Sailor-like-my-sister! Battlement lobster!

armed

is

Country pharmacist!' These

One-

insults leave

Gabi unmoved. Incapable of participating

in the con-

versations in the quarters, he leads a rather

withdrawn

life.

Well-settled in his bunk, he sips his wine with

keen enjoyment, or cuts himself a

from the

fully selected

when he

night

is

at

little

slice of sausage care-

collection in his basket. At

the helm, he sings long, old ballads

to himself, first

with a low voice, because he doesn't

want the others

to laugh.

But once they are asleep,

his

voice gains in strength: I

have two big oxen

Two

big white oxen

my shed.

in f .

.

.

*

t

The song must be sentimentale, part

old.

II,

Flaubert alludes to

chapter VI,

when

there

LEducation

it

in

is

a small party at

Dussardier s to celebrate the liberation of Senecal. Then, the

pharmacist

starts to sing

it

while preparing the punch. Gabi

version included a sentiment along the lines

my wife perish exact words.

96

instead of my oxen/ but

I

of,

Td

s

rather see

do not remember the

SIMON LEYS

We

are nearing the fishing grounds.

The

pares the fishing hooks himself, putting

some

yellow.

The men

booms. Once the hooks are are lowered to

on each

tied

on the

lines,

booms

the

above the water, one on each side of

sit

is tall,

they spread like

The

the two scraggy wings of a gigantic bird. on, fishing has begun.

The

boom

whose

seven

lines,

principle

is

boat

sails

simple: each

parallel threads are near

the surface. These fourteen lines their light network.

Now all we

the tuna decide to

bite.

stant watch.

some

the lines on the two

rig

the boat. Longer than the mast

trails

a lure

horsehair - some red,

made from a tuft of coloured white,

skipper pre-

comb

need

to

the sea with

do

The helmsman

is

wait until

keeps a con-

The layman sees only fourteen lines equally

stretched by the speed

and the water drag, but

as

soon

tuna swallows a hook the tautening of the line

as a

obvious to any fisherman as

it is

invisible to

is

as

me.

[2005 postscript] After the original publication of this book, received various letters from readers

communicated the complete

text to

who knew

me. 'Les Boeufs' was

ten by the proletarian poet Pierre Dupont, and 1851 edition of his collected

was graced with

a Preface

Chants

et

La

ma femme,

voir mourir,

que

voir

writ-

figures in the

chansons. (This volume

by Charles Baudelaire.)

ory did not deceive me: the refrain of the song

Jaime Jeanne

it

I

the song and

is

My mem-

indeed:

eh hienl j'aimerais mieux

mourir mes boeufs.

97

Prosper

One

can wait

Boats can take a

for days

month

to

without catching anything.

bring back a paltry catch.

On

the other hand, sometimes five or six lucky days are

enough

to

fill

the fish hold. Sometimes the tuna are

caught by the dozen; non-stop, they stupidly rush

after

the lures which, because of their speed in the water,

seem

alive.

But sometimes the

be because the boat are too old, or too

imponderables

is

may be

do not work.

too slow, or too

new - not

like the

to

fast,

mention

...

In the

It

all

the other

same

state of

spot,

one

catching endlessly while another drags her

hooks without success. The most experienced

men

may

or the lines

time of the day, weather,

the sea, water temperature

boat

lures

fisher-

have not yet finished exploring the mysteries of

tuna fishing.

The

old tricks of the trade are closer to

superstitious rituals than rational

asks

why do

'It is

more pechanf

boat

is

ment

answer

('better-fishing').

is

if

one

always the same:

Sometimes

a

whole

given such a description, and this final judg-

(or

enough

this or that, the

methods; and

its

opposite)

to bring

when pronounced by an

confidence - or to

call

down

expert

is

a curse.

In the days before the use of ice, fishing was even

more

at the

mercy of chance. Catching the

enough; one had

to preserve

Tuna were heaped on

98

»

it

until

fish

home was

was not

reached.

deck, under tarpaulins, but a

SIMON LEYS sudden change to strike

in the

weather was enough

and cause the whole catch

bad luck

for

A few

to rot at once.

days from port, one had then to throw away the results

month

of a

work.

s

Because tuna are reputed

and suspicious, tuna fishing traditions.

For a long time,

sailing boats. hulls,

to

be temperamental

many strict

is

governed by

it

was done exclusively in

The fishermen were convinced

that iron

engine noise and the water turbulence created

by the screws would scare the

away. Eventually

fish

some modern ship-owners looking for new profits

risked

the construction of motor boats for tuna fishing. Experience soon

showed

that the

new

pinasses, despite the

cost of fuel, brought better returns.

engines, they could

move

faster

Thanks

and, above

to their all,

once

the fishing was completed, they did not have to depend

on the wind

s

vagaries to return

home and

sell their

catch.

Therefore, sailing boats vanished.

They have now

completely disappeared. (In 1958, out of the vast that the to St

were

French sent

to fish for tuna,

fleet

from Concarneau

Jean de Luz, no more than half a dozen boats still

working under

sail.)

99

Prosper

Third

line

on

port!' yells the

Louis jump on deck.

helmsman. Etienne and

The first catch

of this mareel Louis

hauls on the bracing wire and starts to wind up the line.

Bent over the

Etienne waits

rail,

for the

the catch will be alongside the boat.

moment when He grasps the

bazh-kroch (boat-hook) 1 a long gaff at the end of which ,

is

an iron hook;

used

it is

to

lift

the fish out of the water.

Etienne eases the line that might otherwise snap under the weight of the catch.

At

last,

we

end of the

see at the

line a white

writhing in the water. Etienne hooks kroch and brings on board a superb

it

with the bazh-

fish, its tail slap-

ping noisily on the planking. Ah, the swine! Yes,

it is

a blue shark. Etienne secures

it

under

pulls out the hook; with a slash of his knife,

decapitates the shark,

form

which shudders

A

blue!'

his boot,

he nearly

in frenzy,

then he throws the creature overboard.

A

and

bloodstain

remains, evidence of an unwanted guest.

By the end of the

day, five or six

tuna have

bitten.

After being brought on board with the bazh-kroch, they still

t

struggle fiercely

They

always called

nal edition of croque'. 'stick',

lOO

A

my

and must be

it

by

its

book,

I

killed with a stab to a

Breton name, which, in the

reader from Brittany corrected

and kroch,

'hook').

origi-

misspelled phonetically as 'basse-

me

(bazh means

SIMON LEYS on the head. They are cleaned, rinsed and

precise spot

placed in the ice of the hold, except one, which the boy

hangs by the

tail

on the jigger-mast to be eaten

meals. Every day slices will be cut from

at future

as

it,

from a

huge loaf of bread. Fishing days.

The sea wipes away time.

In the week,

only two reference points remain, Sundays and Thursdays, because

on these

days, in addition to the wine,

the skipper orders bottles of aperitif to be opened.

Luck

uneven. Sometimes the hours sink in the

is

void, but

sometimes one ends the day with

a

broken

back from stretching the bazh-kroch over the

hook one tuna to,

and the

down

At night, the boat

after another.

man on

rail to is

hove-

watch can spend most of the time

below; he only needs to thrust his head out

and then

to

check that the masthead

light

is

now

burning

bright, while Prosper, left to herself, drifts slowly.

One had

a

afternoon, the wind begins to freshen. We've

few squalls before, but

this

is

more

troughs deepen, the crests grow white.

hauled down the replace the

down

jib

staysail

and the

with a storm

jib

serious.

The

We have already

jigger.

Now we

must

and bring the mainsail

The lines have already been booms secured. For these manoeu-

to the third reef.

brought

in,

and the

vres, the skipper takes the

helm. All the

men

are at the

101

Prosper

and stumbling

halyards, hurrying

The wet

slippery deck.

ropes jam, the canvas stiffened

by the wind cannot be smothered, green seas

deck and the

men

at

work are drenched with

Suddenly the whole boat shudders and

helmsman

lets

come

her

on the

in their boots

into the

wind

hit the

icy spray.

rolls as

the

men

can

so the

tauten the halyards.

Once below.

the storm

sails

Under reduced

are set, the

sail,

men

go

down

Prosper has found her

new

balance despite the fury of wind and sea, but the helms-

man

has had to rig a block and line on the

strains

on

it

The sun

to

tiller,

and

keep control of the boat.

sets

with a yellow gleam under dark, low

clouds and soon night comes, blotting out everything. In the middle of the night

we hear

a

tremendous

The men on watch call out, while the boat rolls wildly. The crew is on deck immediately, half-clothed and barely awake. The mainsail is torn; crash in the rigging.

wisps of canvas flap in the wind, while the peak, not restrained by the

savage

jolts,

sail,

swings high on the mast with

causing the boat to lurch alarmingly.

In the black night,

remains of the

sail

we have

haul

down what

and, most importantly, to restrain

and secure the peak, which

is

one

is

side to the other.

102

to

This

sweeping everything from a difficult

and dangerous

SIMON LEYS manoeuvre. Afterwards there

nothing more

is

do

to

except fasten everything on deck and rig a small mizzen sail.

Thus, and with the helm lashed, Prosper can cork on the Atlantic swell, offering

like a

ance

to the rush of

The wind

is

grey

dawn

stronger

drift

little resist-

wind and waves.

same

finds us in the

and whistles

The

situation.

in the rigging; the

mast

stands oddly bare under a dull sky.

With

of canvas for ard and another

Prosper, left to her

own

aft,

just a tiny bit

devices, maintains a consistent course four or five

points off the wind.

The sisting

mainsail gone, the fishing interrupted, the per-

heavy weather - none of this dents the fatalism

of the crew.

When

swore a good deal Afterwards,

among

the accident at first,

woke them

up, they

but that was the end of

themselves they do not even

it.

dis-

cuss what has happened. In such a situation there

wait

down

is

below, crowded in a

nothing

damp

to

do except

space that reeks

We spend two days like this, sleepdry food and smoking. On the third

of fish and tobacco. ing,

munching

day the weather eases and we are able to hoist a spare mainsail and resume fishing.

103

*

Prosper

One morning,

Felix, sitting aft

The

gets a nose-bleed. first,

later,

but as he

is still

and cleaning

a tuna,

others don't pay attention at

bleeding a quarter of an hour

they begin to worry, especially his nephew,

Robert.

They

give

him

a towel for a handkerchief. After

a while, Robert has to rinse

in a bucket of sea water

it

and the water turns brown and cloudy. This has repeated several times, the old to his face,

Robert

and

lie

on

finally

his

consumed with

it

out.

down below

persuades Felix to go

bunk. 'But

I

am

sick!'

he

protests.

He

He

towel, by

now

leaves

a rag, or to

him only

du marin

him

He

in

wash the

of day, the

L Almanack

has taken off his beret and put on

down on

his bald skull

glasses with iron frames.

I

from above, and

suddenly that he too

I

the

tea.

last light

up the medical chapter

breton.

to

make him some

Under the hatch, using the skipper looks

is

stays near his uncle, trying

second-guess his wishes in order to spare

effort of speaking.

By

has not stopped. Robert

still

anxiety.

not

be

holding the towel

then rinsing and wringing

evening, the bleeding

to

man

to

realise

look

is

an old

man.

L

Almanack du marin

diagnose or cure

104

breton doesn't help us to

Felix's condition.

Someone

puts

SIMON LEYS cottonwool in his

nostrils;

densed milk and feeds

The

skipper

is

we should

don

fishing, waste days

him with

it

home

s

problem

is

seri-

right away. Yet to aban-

going back to Etel

.

.

.

and how

be before we can leave port and

are silent. Robert

mad

is

'Haul in the lines and ready to bear

gybe on

a rather steep sea

Meanwhile night has

France.

con-

a spoon.

with worry and

go back immediately. Finally the skipper

to

We

tin of

again?

The men wants

set sail for

days will

start fishing

to

in a bind. If Felix

ous,

many more

it

Robert opens a

breeze, Prosper has nearly

fallen.

all

says:

off.'

and head back

to

Despite the strong

her canvas up and

is

broad-running, powerfully shouldered by a long swell.

She

tears

wake

through the water, leaving behind her a white

that

foams and shines

in the dark.

man

Robert watches over the old

Whenever fuls of

Felix

wakes up, he gives him

condensed milk. Restless

calms down; by dawn he

The

next evening

is

we

the light of Belle-Ile,

to

the port a few miles ahead of us. is

few spoon-

at first, Felix finally

we glimpse

see the coast of Etel

landing, the anchor

a

exhausted and very weak.

and around midnight we heave sunrise,

the whole night.

athwart of Groix. By

and the entrance of

The men

prepare for

stowed and the chain

is

put in

105

Prosper

the hawse-hole. Then, filling their coffee water, they all shave.

the

jib

Once

mugs with

they are clean and shaved,

sheeted to leeward and Prosper heads for

is

shore.

But then the wind drops. The sun climbs sky,

announcing

ing

all

her

sails

a glorious

A

on

basket

is

a sea that

is

is

asks:

smooth

'What do

is

as a tell

required.

getting restless again.

Anxiously he

as

is

hoisted to the masthead to

the signal-station that a tug Felix

day. Despite hav-

up, including the topsail, Prosper

practically motionless

mill-pond.

summer

in a blue

I

He

wants a mirror.

look like now?

How

is

my face?' *

Once

Prosper

is

alongside the quay, news of the mishap

spreads quickly. Robert and Etienne carry Felix to a taxi.

His old wife

and calm -

all

Some time uncle

s

is

there, clad in black, her face hard

her anguish later,

is

in her eyes.

Robert comes back to fetch his

belongings.

Louis and

I

help

him because

cels: boots, a kit-bag, oilskins

now black

with age.

On

its

and

lid are

there are several par-

a curious

wooden box

carved a compass, an

anchor and other nautical symbols. Robert

106

is

already

.

SIMON LEYS Only he

half-drunk. else

should touch

tells

me

is

allowed to carry the box, nobody

he

it,

and obscure

a long

tale

on eventually

it

remain shrouded to

in mystery:

do with the horn of an ox

become

nations

very

from which

box

that Roberts father gave the tions to pass

and crying, he

says. Stuttering

it

emerges

with instruc-

to Felix

to Robert. Its contents

it

(?),

seems

it

has something

but here Robert s expla-

muddled indeed. Under the

pre-

tence of fetching a cart on the other side of town for Felix

s

cafes. After

each one, we

something -

a

- and we have on

gumboot, to

we have

to all the

forgotten

glass,

and move

the luggage

all

becomes even more of a problem. At long

to

thank us

box

a pack, even the precious

where keeping

arrive at Felix's place,

poured

realise

go back, drink another

to the next station,

together

we

me

belongings, Robert and Louis drag

last,

where drinks are immediately

for taking the trouble

.

.

*

Felix's

condition

is

thinks that the nose-bleed a stroke.

The

skipper does

time ashore. To

one called

fill

Felix

Job. Job

Prosper will

sail

The doctor might have saved him from not want to waste too much

serious,

is

s

but

place,

stable.

he has signed on some-

a former cargo-boat

mechanic.

tomorrow morning with the

first tide.

107

Prosper

I

cannot

with her, because

sail

my

next month:

I

must be

passage to the Far East

booked on the Messageries Maritimes go with the tug

I

in Marseilles

to see off

goodbyes when the towline

is

already

is

liner.

my friends. We shout our cast off.

The

skipper

is

at

the helm. Forard, Robert and Gabi are hoisting the staysail,

and despite the distance one can hear

'One-armed

iar voice:

fresh breeze

red

sail

and

is is

7

Country pharmacist!

fool!

blowing. Prosper gracefully

soon

a famil-

her

tilts

A

tall

lost to sight. *

Three months

later,

I

was

in another world, living in a

crowded dormitory and immersed of a Chinese university.

life

to find

me,

after

have

much

day

I

brimming

was astonished

table a long letter that brought

delay, the epilogue of the narrative

you

just read.

As on

on our communal

One

in the

I

have mentioned,

Prosper.

vented

he had

lost

him from

champing

was not the only passenger

There was another,

silent in a friendly way, a

a child,

I

my

age, rather

Breton in love with the

sea.

As

the use of one eye, and this pre-

entering the Ecole navale.

at the bit,

working

high school in Lorient, and,

108

a lad of

He was

as a junior master in a like

me, could only

sail

.

SIMON LEYS The maree we had experienced

during the holidays. together had

made

us close. After Felix's accident, he

sailed again with Prosper. Before leaving

him about

written to ask

was delayed

in the post,

nary mail to

my new

When

received

I

this

second

Europe,

I

had

His answer

trip.

and then forwarded by

ordi-

Chinese address. it,

I

was already so

from the

far

Prosper experience that the impact of this sudden evocation was for

me

My second trip But at

You

-

so

all times

will recall

much

Monsieur

we did

dead calm

stiff breeze

so that the skipper hesitated about sailing

more because

it

week,

her,

and both

on

was a head wind. But

Pessel does not like to waste time first

to

well.

we saw a

sail

was a tuna-fishing boat from Groix.

up with sail in

Prosper behaved

it is:

the one

first,

our departure. There was a

At the end of the It

more powerful. Here

was as varied as the

that day, all the

zon.

the

We had all kinds of weather, from

together.

storm.

all

skippers chatted.

.

.

on the

We

hori-

caught

They decided

company, but the weather upset these plans.

night of stormy weather drove us apart,

to

One

and we did not

see the Groisillon again that maree.

Over fair,

the next fortnight the weather

was sometimes

sometimes heavy. Only during the

last

week did

109

.

.

Prosper

become

the conditions

300 tuna

and

(big

didnt do much

We

brought back

bonitos.

The pinasses

maree was mediocre.

catch much: the

But we didnt

ideal for fishing.

half )

and 50

better, in fact

- and

for

them

this

was a

disaster.

Upon our were

fish

return, there

was a

Robert could not be found.

sold,

The dax

tragedy.

the afternoon that his mother discovered

hare gone on

in his

was onlx

It

him

in

in the loft:

What

he had hanged himself and was quite dead.

the

could

head? Poor Robert! But he had been

drunk from the moment we landed.

The crew was

to lose yet

who drowned during you must hare seen

another member: Etienne,

Bombard demonstration. As

the

Bombard came

in the papers.

demonstrate his new

life-raft.

The

raft

was

to

here to

be towed

to

sea by the Etel life-boat in which Etienne was a volunteer

crewman. The engine

on the sandbar.

more

details

The Etienne

last s

-

I

I

wasnt

I

it

in the

Eelix

was

completely recovered, and plans

But

it

must be said that

the occasion for

honour the dead

no

the boat capsized

papers

.

.)

there.

He

to sail

.

at

to

have

again next

year.

seems

in Brittany, funerals are

some euphoria, induced by .

cannot give

saw the crew of Prosper was

Old

funeral.

and

in Etel that day, so I

just read

time

stalled

always

libations to

Acknowledgments To

translate

ones own work can be quite unsettling.

My cousin Jean-Pierre Ryckmans had the patience and kindness (once again - for he did this thirty years ago for the

American edition of Chinese Shadows)

pare a close rendition of liberated

me

free to adapt

from it

my

to pre-

original French. His draft

my 'translator s

block'

and

I

became

into this final version which, in turn,

Nadine Davidoff and Chris Feik prepared tion with their customary tact

the start and at the end of

and

my

skill.

for publica-

Thus, both

enterprise,

I

at

was very

fortunate indeed to benefit from such generous and talented help

deep

- which I wish

to

acknowledge here, with

gratitude.

S.L

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