Wreck’s big history

TIMBER from a centuries-old shipwreck off Western Australia has revealed the secrets of a 17th century Dutch seafaring domination.

Built in Amsterdam in 1626-28 and wrecked on its maiden voyage in June 1629 on Morning Reef off Beacon Island, Batavia’s remains were raised in the 1970s and are on display at the Western Australian Shipwrecks Museum in Fremantle.

This allowed archaeologists and dendrochronologists from Flinders University, the University of Amsterdam and University of Copenhagen to undertake sampling and analysis of the hull’s timbers.