STRANGE OBJECTS

BY GARY CREW

MEET THE AUTHOR

Gary Crew is an Australian author who lives in Maleny. He deliberately set out to find an episode in Australian history that dealt with a teenager being isolated. I would like to trace the life of a boy left entirely alone in Australia before settlement. I think this would be like leaving me alone on Mars. While there would be a drive for 'physical survival', there would also be a need for 'psychic survival' - how to adjust, cope, grow through loss [Personal Journal of Strange Objects. Entry dated 11/7/1988.]

BATAVIA WRECK
The Dutch vessel Batavia was wrecked off the Western Australian coast on 4th June 1629, whilst on her maiden voyage to Batavia, now Jakarta.

BATAVIA SURVIVORS

Most passengers and crew survived and made their way to the tiny Abrolhos Islands. Captain Palsaert took off on one of the smaller sailing ships back to Batavia (the place, aka Jakarta) to get a rescue vessel

FYI: AUSTRALIAS STILL INTERESTED

Batavia Replica

The Australian National Maritime Museum in Western Australia

WHY? THINGS GOT INTERESTING

BATAVIA MUTINY
Although the initial loss of life had been minimal, once the passengers and crew were settled on the God-forsaken Abrolhos Islands, they, led by the most senior sailor Jeronimus Cornelisz began to murder each other for food rations and other supplies.

BATAVIA MASSACRES
Over 120 of the marooned were stabbed, bashed, raped, beheaded, drowned or strangled.

BATAVIA MASSACRES
Captain Pelsaert
returned, 14 weeks later, to the wreck with a rescue yacht.

What he found sickened him and he immediately set about punishing those who had acted immorally.

TRIAL & PUNISHMENTS

He tried the murderers. (Records of the proceedings have been used so that this tragedy can be shared today) The culprits were punished by having their hands cut off then they were

HUNG - OCTOBER 2ND

However, two were spared and instead castaway on the barren mainland coast of unsettled Australia.

THE CASTAWAYS
It was the fate of these two castaways that intrigued author Gary Crew. Wouter Loos was in his early thirties but Jan Pelgrom was only seventeen and by all accounts not a very nice boy.

YOUNG KILLERS?
Pelgrome was a mass murderer and probably a psychopath while evidence suggested Wouter Loos (what a name) was not a psycho killer but merely following orders

After their trial, this pair were dropped on the Western Australian coast with some trading goods - being Dutch, Pelseart hoped that they would trade with the local 'Indians' - and left to their own devices...

HISTORY LIVES ON
The following are details about these two real

figures from history according to authentic

historical documents not the ones Gary Crew dreamed up for Strange Objects which are all COMPLETELY FALSE.) Accounts of the trial detailing the men's crimes are fully documented and included as an appendix to H. Drake-Brockman's Voyage to Disaster: The Batavia Mutiny, also Captain Pelsaert wrote of them in his ships log.

JAN PELGROM DE BYE

18 year old Cabin Boy
Murdered a boy on seal island. Helped kill women (Janneken Gijssen and Andries Jansz) Insisted he be allowed to cut the head off Coen Aldertsz and cried when Mattys Beer was given the honour. Raped married women (Susan and Catherine Fredericks and Annie Bosschietsters). Was sentenced to hang without his hand being cut off but after pleading for mercy he was marooned on the Australian coast.

WOUTER LOOS
Soldier who takes part in the killing of the preachers family and is given command of the mutineers upon the capture of Jeronimus. He was to be taken to Batavia to have his guilt further investigated but acts of kindness towards Judith and Lucretia moved Pelsaert to land him on the Australian coast with Pelgrom.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?

Thats where Gary Crews imagination comes into play. He tells of their lives through the fictional journal of Wouter Loos and many other texts.

A STRANGE NOVEL INDEED

Strange Objects is not your usual novel, Gary Crew has created an intertextual tapestry that must be considered carefully by the reader (us) to make the required connections. It involves both the present (1986) and the past (1629)and is told to us through many different types of texts e.g. handwritten journal entries, news articles, interview transcripts etc.

IT FOCUSSES ON
The disappearance of 16 year old Stephen Messenger (1986) The discovery of wreckage in Western Australia from the sinking of an old Dutch ship The Batavia (1629)

Stephens time warp link to the survivors and the indigenous Australians they met up with.

IT TELLS THE STORY THROUGH CLUES

Stephen sent a project book to:

Dr Hope Michaels
Western Australian Institute of Maritime Archaeology

She has had this project book published under the title: Strange Objects. Through it we can choose to believe Stephens version of events or we can question the reliability of his state of mind. At its time of publishing Steven had been missing for just over a year.

MESSENGER PROJECT BOOK

THE TALE BEGINS

As you read ask yourself: Is what youre reading fact or fiction, objective or subjective, real or imagined, evidence based speculation or blatant gossip?

Who can you believe?

THIS ONE TIME ON BIOLOGY CAMP

STEVEN MESSENGER

I found a cannibal pot and a mummified hand!

PAST & PRESENT COLLIDE

CANNIBAL CAULDRON

MUMMIFIED HAND

WOUTER LOOS JOURNAL

THE STRANGEST OF THEM ALL

THE AUTHORS OTHER INSPIRATION

For there are strange objects in the great abyss, and the seeker of dreams must take care not to stir up, or meet, the wrong ones

REFLECTION
1. What did Gary Crew want to write about in the beginning? 2. What historical event eventually gave him a basis? 3. Who were the two real people he decided to use in the novel? 4. How are they similar & how are they different? 5. Why is this book going to be strange to read? 6. What does the beginning quote tell you about the strange objects Steven finds and the effect they may have?