Futility Closet

In 1629, a Dutch trading vessel struck a reef off the coast of Australia, marooning 180 people on a tiny island. As they struggled to stay alive, their leader descended into barbarity, gathering a band of cutthroats and killing scores of terrified castaways. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll document the brutal history of Batavia's graveyard, the site of Australia's most infamous shipwreck. We'll also lose money in India and puzzle over some invisible Frenchmen. Intro: In 1946, an Allied dentist inscribed "Remember Pearl Harbor" on Hideki Tojo's dentures. Sigourney Weaver named herself after a character in The Great Gatsby. Sources for our feature on the Batavia mutiny: Mike Dash, Batavia's Graveyard, 2002. Mike Sturma, "Mutiny and Narrative: Francisco Pelsaert's Journals and the Wreck of the Batavia," The Great Circle 24:1 (2002), 14-24. "We Are Still on the Batavia," Queen's Quarterly 12:4 (Winter 2005), 489. Bruce Bennett, "Politics and Spying: Representations of Pre- and Early A