Ambon revolt of 1817

View of Fort Duurstede, where the massacre took place

On 15 May 1817 an indigenous leader, by the pseudonym Pattimura, of the people of the island of Saparua, east of Ambon Island, in what is now the Indonesian province of Maluku, started a revolt against the Dutch colonial government. The Dutch Fort Duurstede was taken the next day by the insurgents. The Resident, Johannes Rudolph van den Berg, his wife, three of his four children, and their governess, and 19 Dutch soldiers of the garrison, were killed. The only survivor was the fourth child, Jean Lubbert, five years at the time.^{[lower-alpha 5][10][11]} The massacre caused great outrage among the Dutch colonists. But a hastily assembled punitive expedition was easily defeated by the insurgents. The Governor-General Godert van der Capellen^{[lower-alpha 6]} sacked the Dutch officials he considered responsible for the unrest through misrule and ordered Rear-Admiral Buyskes^{[lower-alpha 7]} to mount an expedition to restore order on Saparua.^{[lower-alpha 8]}

Ver Huell's ship, the Admiraal Evertsen, and he himself^{[lower-alpha 9]} were to play an important role in the expedition. The campaign unfolded with the following typical pattern. A Dutch warship, accompanied by a fleet of corra-corras would approach an island in the hands of the insurgents. The warship would fire a few broadsides to impress the insurgents. This usually was enough to have the civilian population flee into the bush. Then the warship would land parties of soldiers and armed crew members (there were few marines present), and the corra-corras likewise would unload the auxiliary troops. Skirmishes with insurgents would take place, which usually would end with a Dutch victory. The surviving insurgents would be rounded up and put in irons.^[15] Sometimes an "exemplary punishment" would be meted out to the captives, like the one in Pelauw on the island of Haruku, where 23 "ringleaders" were summarily executed.^[16]

Ver Huell was not personally present at this arguable atrocity, but later related this event in his memoir Herinneringen. He thought the punishment "harsh, but necessary". With a certain satisfaction he concluded that the insurgents that were still at large were so cowed by the Dutch terror, that they came in and surrendered, as did the remaining civilian population. The Dutch authorities then magnanimously pardoned them, after they swore to obey henceforth the local feudal lord, or Raja (who had been deposed by Pattimura)^{[lower-alpha 10]} and accept the Dutch colonial authority.^[17]

Kemp, who based his own, later published version of events partly on Ver Huell's memoir, disagrees with Ver Huell's positive assessment. He calls the execution "needlessly cruel" and condemns in particular the bloody way in which it was conducted. He thinks that this contributed to the desperate defense by the Saparuan rebels later in the year, and so proved counterproductive from the viewpoint of the Dutch colonial government.^[18]

Eventually, Pattimura and his companions, and the Radja of Nusa Laut, Paulus Tiahahu, and his daughter Martha Christina Tiahahu), were cornered and defeated after heroic resistance. Pattimura himself was betrayed by the Radja of Booi. Tiahahu was summarily shot in Fort Beverwijk on Nusa Laut. The other men were condemned to die and hanged in front of Fort Victoria on the island of Ambon.^[19] Ver Huell was as commander of the Admiraal Evertsen directly involved in the arrest of Pattimura. The ship transported the insurgent chiefs from Saparua to Ambon.^{[20][lower-alpha 11]}

Ver Huell was impressed with the beauty and self-assuredness of Martha Christina, who was also his prisoner on board the Evertsen, so much so, that he later made her the heroine of his novel, Christina Martha. He relates that, though she was released by Buyskes, after the Rear-Admiral had personally interviewed Pattimura, she chose to remain with her father to the end.^[21]

Rear-Admiral Buyskes,leader of the expedition

Ver Huell was also present at the execution of Pattimura and the other ringleaders on Ambon on 16 December 1817. He narrates the event extensively in his memoir. He describes how the executioner botched the first execution, of a heavy-set man named "Latoemahina" (the rope broke, and the man had to be hanged a second time). Pattimura^{[lower-alpha 12]} met his death calmly, politely greeting Buyskes, according to his narrative. Martha Christina, who remained with her father till the last moment, was after the execution released to a local schoolmaster, but she absconded and spent time in the wilderness, living on whatever she could find, But she was recaptured and brought aboard the Evertsen where Ver Huell was amazed to meet her again. He assured her that she would not be harmed, and gave her a cabin to herself. But she only regarded him with contempt. She died aboard ship, apparently of a sudden illness.^[22]

Though most leaders of the expedition later received one or the other degree of the Military Order of William (each according to his military status; Buyskes was made a Commandeur), Ver Huell was only much later (in 1841) rewarded with the Military Order of William 3rd class, for his conduct during that campaign. This was a result of the fact that he lost his ship, the Admiraal Evertsen, in a shipwreck near Diego Garcia.^[3]

The shipwreck of the Admiraal Evertsen

In the year after the campaign against the Moluccan insurgents Ver Huell spent most of his leisure time exploring the Indonesian archipel and its natural wonders. He made a large number of sketches and aquarels, and collected all kinds of zooological and herbal specimens.^{[lower-alpha 13]} He had a large amount of free time, because the Admiraal Evertsen was showing its bad shape and had to be put in drydock repeatedly for urgent repairs. This foreshadowed the problems that were to come. Of course, Ver Huell was not the only naturalist working in Indonesia at the time. A much more important name was that of Caspar Georg Carl Reinwardt, the founder of the botanical gardens at Buitenzorg, who was amassing a large collection of specimens, intended for the Hortus Botanicus of Leiden University. It was this important cargo that was put aboard the Admiraal Evertsen when the ship was sent home to the Netherlands with the royal commissioners Elout and Buyskes.^[24]

Zr. Ms.Admiraal Evertsen just before foundering near Diego Garcia in 1819 by Q.M.R. Ver Huell^{[lower-alpha 14]}

Early March 1819 the ship left for Patria. Soon the ship began falling slowly apart. The pumps had to be worked constantly.^[26] Rear-Admiral Buyskes, though only a passenger, began to interfere with Ver Huell's command, and ordered him to go to the isolated atoll of Diego Garcia. When the ship arrived there on 10 April it was in a very bad shape. Ver Huell spied another ship in the lagoon. It turned out to be the American merchant brig Pickering (capt. Samuel B. Edes). Edes came aboard the Evertsen, and advised not to cross the coral reef around the atoll, and Buyskes concurred. He overrode Ver Huell and the order to abandon ship was given.^[27] Both Reinwardt's irreplaceable collection and Ver Huell's personal one were lost in the shipwreck. The Pickering picked up the crew of the Admiraal Evertsen and first brought them ashore on Diego Garcia, at the French settlement of Pointe de l'Est.^[28] As it was unlikely that they would be picked up there by another ship (in view of the isolated location of the atoll) the Pickering then ferried the crew in two stages to Mauritius. This took about six weeks to complete during which time Ver Huell again made a number of sketches and watercolors of the natural wonders of the atoll. From Mauritius Ver Huell and the crew left on 29 July 1819 for the Netherlands on the British merchantman Cadmus. They arrived at Hellevoetsluis on 25 November 1819.^[29]

The naval authorities then had Ver Huell court-martialed as the captain responsible for the loss of the Admiraal Evertsen, but he was acquitted.^[3] Nevertheless, he was not given a new command, so that he had to remain on shore, a situation that could be compared to the British custom of half pay. He repaired to his parents in Doesburg as a private citizen. Het met his future wife during that period of inactivity. To get an income he accepted an appointment as onderequipagemeester (deputy superintendent) of the naval shipyard in Rotterdam.^[3]

Later naval career

After having been promoted to captain in 1826, he accepted a position at the naval shipyard in Rotterdam where he became equipagemeester (superintendent) in 1828, and in 1839 he became director, and commander of the Navy in the main navy department of the Maas.In this position of authority he finally received the recognition he thought he deserved. At the gala dinner held at the occasion of the visit of King William II to Rotterdam in 1841, for instance, he sat next to the King's son, Prince Hendrik. During the dinner the two gentlemen agreed to found the Royal Dutch Dutch Yachtclub, the predecessor of the Koninklijke Nederlandsche Zeil en Roei Vereeniging . A building owned by the club, its modelkamer (Models Room), became in 1874 the Maritime Museum Rotterdam.^[30]

In 1840 he received the Order of the Netherlands Lion and in 1841 he was finally made a knight 3rd class in the Military Order of William for his role in the suppression of the Ambon insurrection. When czar Nicholas I of Russia visited Rotterdam, he was made a knight 3rd class of the Order of Saint Vladimir. King William II made him a commander in the Order of the Oak Crown^{[lower-alpha 15]} in 1844.^[31]

In 1850 (by then a Rear-Admiral) he was pensioned off when the naval shipyard was closed.^[31]