Really, a Cabin from the Batavia

Although the surviving fragment of Batavia gives important information on how the ship was built, it does not convey much about how people were accommodated. This replica cabin was built to give an idea of just how cramped conditions were in a vessel of this type. Firstly, you would have had a couple of trunks with you holding the clothes and personal items that you would use on the voyage. Keeping in mind that a voyage from the Netherlands to the East Indies took several months, you had to be careful what you packed, as the rest of your luggage would have been stored in the hold, which was inaccessible during the voyage. Then you had your bunk, which could have been fixed to the deck, or slung from ropes attached to the deckhead (ceiling). Then there was the issue of going to the toilet. Those ornate appendages you see on the stern of the model of Batavia were toilets for the officers, company officials and first-class passengers. The crew relieved themselves, as discretely as possible, over the bow, or ‘head’ of the ship. In your cabin, you would have had a ‘potty’ to use at night, which a steward would have emptied over the side in the morning. The gunport is not for letting in the breeze, you may even have had to share your cabin with a cannon. Claustrophobic? This amount of space was considered ‘luxury’!

Cabin in the Swedish ship Vasa (1627), which is roughly the same size as the Batavia. 
Credit: Deror Avi, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

The great cabin on the upper gun deck of the warship Vasa (1627). 
Credit: Peter Isotalo, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0