Editing Batavia (1628 ship) (section)

===Bullion and jewels===
[[File:Batavia treasure.jpg|thumb|Rijksdaalder silver coins recovered from the wreck site]]
''Batavia'' carried a considerable amount of silver coins, manufactured silver items and jewels. The manufactured silverware were trade goods that Pelsaert had specifically requested to use in improving the VOC's trading capability{{snd}}he had found that these were sought after by the "great men" he had dealt with in [[Agra]]. Though Pelsaert's divers recovered some of the silverware in his salvage operations, a large quantity still remained to be recovered in the archaeolocial investigation. As well as more usual tableware, the silver finds included parts of bedsteads.{{Sfn|Green|1989|p=195}} 

Each ship in the ''Batavia'' class carried an estimated 250,000&nbsp;[[guilder]]s in twelve wooden chests, each containing about 8,000&nbsp;silver coins.{{sfn|Dash|2002|p=55}} This money was intended for the purchase of spices and other commodities in [[Java]]. The bulk of these coins were silver [[rijksdaalder]] produced by the individual Dutch states, with the remainder being mostly made up of similar coins produced by German cities such as [[Hamburg]].{{citation needed|date=November 2019}}

Pelsaert was instructed to recover as much of the money as possible on his return to the Abrolhos Islands, using divers "to try if it is possible to salvage all the money [and] the casket of jewels that before your departure was already saved on the small island".{{sfn|Drake-Brockman|2006|pp=257–258}} Recovery of the money was far from easy. Pelsaert reported difficulties in pulling up heavy chests, e.g. 27&nbsp;October 1629, when a chest had to be marked with a [[buoy]] for later recovery. On 9&nbsp;November, he recorded sending four money chests to ''Sardam'', and three the next day, but then abandoned further recovery work. By 13&nbsp;November, Pelsaert recorded that ten money chests had been recovered—about 80,000&nbsp;coins—leaving two lost since there had been twelve loaded originally. One was jammed under a cannon, and the other one had been broken open by Cornelisz' men.{{sfn|Drake-Brockman|2006|pp=218–220}}

''Batavia''{{'}}s cargo also included special items being carried by Pelsaert for sale to the [[Mughal Empire|Mughal Court]] in India where he had intended to travel on to. There were four jewel bags, stated to be worth about 60,000&nbsp;guilders, and an early-fourth-century [[Cameo (carving)|Roman cameo]], as well as numerous other items either now displayed in [[Fremantle]] and [[Geraldton]], Western Australia, or recovered by Pelsaert.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/wreck-of-the-batavia |title=Defining Moments Wreck of the Batavia |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=15 June 2020 |website=nma.gov.au |publisher=[[National Museum of Australia]]|access-date=8 July 2020 }}</ref>