Book of the Week: Batavia, gripping, horrifying, the best read!

12:14 AM Tue 5 Apr 2011 GMT

'Peter FitzSimon&rsquo;s version of &rsquo;Batavia&rsquo;' . Click Here to view large photo

The story of the Batavia must be one of the most fascinating, if horrifying, sailing shipwreck stories of all time. It combines a tale of derring-do, of sea-faring adventure, mutiny, love, lust, blood-lust, petty fascist dictatorship, criminality, a reign of terror, murders most foul, sexual slavery, natural nobility, survival, retribution, rescue, first contact with native peoples with the unlikely tale of the birth of the world's first corporation, the brutality of colonisation, the battle of good versus evil, the and so much more. The story is set in 1629, when the pride of the Dutch East India Company, the Batavia, ...

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by Rob Tickner/Sail-World Cruising