Batavialand

The Batavia was a Dutch East India Company ship that struck a reef off Western Australia on her maiden voyage in 1629; the survivors reached an island, and while the commander went for help one of the officers took control and organised the murder of more than a hundred of them, in an episode that is one of the darker stories of the Company era. A replica was built at Lelystad between 1985 and 1995 as a training project, largely by unemployed young people learning shipwright trades under master craftsmen, using seventeenth-century methods, and she is moored here and walkable from hold to poop. Alongside is the national maritime archaeology depot, holding finds from the hundreds of wrecks in the former Zuiderzee that the polders exposed, and the reconstruction workshops. The 1629 story is told without softening.

What you actually see

• A full-size East Indiaman - built 1985-1995 by trainees using seventeenth-century methods.
• Walkable from hold to deck - the ship open throughout at the quay.
• The national wreck depot - finds from the Zuiderzee wrecks the polders uncovered.
• The 1629 mutiny told plainly - the murders after the wreck, not softened.

When to go

April to October. A day.

Honest expectations

Below decks is low and steep. The ship closes in high wind and for maintenance. Seasonal opening with reduced winter hours. Lelystad is a distance from the station.

Nearby

Oostvaardersplassen is south; Schokland and Urk are north-east.