Krakatau was an uninhabited island. Tourists from Batavia did go there throughout the summer before the eruption in late August, along with several scientists and geologists. The last boat left the island on August 12, just two weeks before the disaster.
Unlike the stereotypical image of a volcano, Krakatau did not erupt with a river of lava moving down the side of the mountain. The actual eruption was similar to that of Mount St. Helens in Washington State in 1980, with a blast of ash shooting into the sky. It is estimated that the blast from Krakatau went almost thirty miles into the air. After that, a fiery rain of ash fell in Ketimbang, where the Brinckerhoff/Beyerinck family lived, killing about one thousand people. These were the only direct victims of the explosion itself. Although I describe fire falling in Anjer in this story, this phenomenon did not actually occur there. It is a bit of authorial manipulation of the facts to bring even more drama to the tale.
Official Dutch records put the death toll at 36,417. However, some historians believe that almost 120,000 people died in the disaster. While the precise number may never be known, it is clear that most were killed by the tsunamis, which are estimated to have been between 95 and 150 feet high. The towns of Anjer and Merak were completely destroyed, and it is true that a giant piece of coral did obliterate the Anjer lighthouse, as Katrien and Brigitta saw. Although the lighthouse keeper survived, his family did not.
The tsunamis traveled far, too, growing weaker the farther they went. Small waves were even noted in the English Channel. For up to a year after the eruption, there were reports of bodies floating in the ocean and washing up on the coasts of Africa.
Parts of Java were never repopulated after the eruption of Krakatau, including the area south of Anjer. This region is now the Ujung Kulon National Park, and it is the only place on Earth where the critically endangered Javan rhinoceros can be found. As of this writing, there may be only forty of these creatures left in the world. None are in captivity.
The force of the explosions destroyed most of the island of Krakatau, obliterating the volcanic mountain and creating the dust and ash that fell over the region. Underwater, however, eruptions continued. In 1927, a new island broke the surface of the water in the footprint of what vanished that August morning more than forty years before. This island is called Anak Krakatau, which means “child of Krakatau.” It continues to grow, and perhaps one day will rival its parent in size and power.
Sara K Joiner
May 2015
RESOURCES
How do you write a book about a place you’ve never been and a time that has long since passed?
Research!
Fortunately, I’m a librarian, so I knew just how to find information about the topics I needed. I relied on lots of books and Internet sites, plus one movie.
The movie was The Impossible, directed by J. A. Bayona (2012), and it is based on one family’s experience during the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia. The astounding Hollywood effects helped me visualize a tsunami more clearly in my head.
Here are some of the best print resources I used in the almost five years it took to write this book. Although some of these titles are older and do not deal directly with the eruption of Krakatau, I used them to better understand how conditions would have been in Anjer during and after the eruption and tsunamis. Books written specifically for younger readers are marked with an asterisk.
*Adamson, Thomas K. Tsunamis. Mankato, MN: Capstone Press, 2006.
*Aylesworth, Thomas G., and Virginia L. Aylesworth. The Mount St. Helens Disaster. Danbury, CT: Franklin Watts, 1983.
Beers, Susan-Jane. Jamu: The Ancient Indonesian Art of Herbal Healing. Riverside, NJ: Tuttle Publishing, 2012.
*Benoit, Peter. The Krakatau Eruption. New York: Children’s Press, 2011.
*Bredeson, Carmen. Fiery Volcano: The Eruption of Mount St. Helens. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers, 2012.
Bullard, Fred M. Volcanoes of the Earth. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1984, second revised edition.
*Fradin, Judy, and Dennis Fradin. Volcanoes: Witness to Disaster. Washington, DC: National Geographic, 2007.
*Matthews, Rupert. The Eruption of Krakatoa. New York: The Bookwright Press, 1989.
McGuire, Bill, and Christopher Kilburn. Volcanoes of the World. San Diego, CA: Thunder Bay Press, 1997.
Merrilees, Scott. Batavia in Nineteenth-Century Photographs. Brooklyn, NY: Archipelago Press. 2000.
*Morris, Ann, and Heidi Larson. Tsunami: Helping Each Other. Minneapolis, MN: Millbrook Press, 2005.
*Nardo, Don. Krakatoa. San Diego, CA: Lucent Books, 1990.
*Orr, Tamra. Indonesia. New York: Children’s Press, 2005.
Sanna, Ellyn. Nature’s Wrath: Surviving Natural Disasters. Broomall, PA: Mason Crest, 2009.
*Stewart, Gail B. Catastophe in Southern Asia: The Tsunami of 2004. Detroit, MI: Thomson Gale, 2005.
*Winchester, Simon. The Day the World Exploded: The Earthshaking Catastrophe at Krakatoa. New York: HarperCollins, 2008.
Winchester, Simon. Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883. New York: HarperCollins, 2003.
In addition to the print resources, I also found helpful information on the Internet. Some of the most useful sites I found are listed below (all links were active as of this writing).
ARKive
www.arkive.org
The Dutch East Indies in Photographs, 1860–1940—Collections— Memory of the Netherlands
www.geheugenvannederland.nl/?/en/collecties/nederlands-indie_in_fotos,_1860-1940
Max Havelaar 150 jaar: An Album on Flickr
www.flickr.com/photos/nationaalarchief/sets/72157623920774561/
Project Gutenberg: Holland: The History of the Netherlands by Thomas Colley Grattan
www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10583/pg10583.html
Project Gutenberg: The Descent of Man by Charles Darwin
www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2300/pg2300.html
Project Gutenberg: On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
www.gutenberg.org/files/1228/1228-h/1228-h.htm
Tropenmuseum: Search for Anjer
collectie.tropenmuseum.nl/default.aspx?idx=ALL&field=*&search=anjer
You Tube: Tsunami Coming Japan 2011
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbscSyy0Oic
After the Ashes Page 24
