Pirates in Batavia (2020) (German Piraten in Batavia) is a water

dark ride A dark ride or ghost train is an indoor amusement ride on which passengers aboard guided vehicles travel through specially lit scenes that typically contain animation, sound, music and special effects. Appearing as early as the 19th century, su ...

Europa-Park Europa-Park is the largest theme park in Germany, and the second most popular theme park in Europe, after Disneyland Paris. Europa-Park is located in Rust, Baden-Württemberg, Rust, south-western Germany, between Freiburg im Breisgau and Strasbo ...

that opened on July 28, 2020. It was rebuilt in place of the old ride by the same name, which burned down in a fire in 2018. The ride was built by Mack Rides in 1987 and was situated in a large hall at the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

themed area, which was designed as a typical Dutch

clinker brick Clinker bricks are partially-vitrified bricks used in the construction of buildings. Clinker bricks are produced when wet clay bricks are exposed to excessive heat during the firing process, sintering the surface of the brick and forming a shin ...

building from the outside. Although located in the Dutch area, its theming is largely based on

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

(then the Dutch East Indies), in which the

colonized.

Theming

The ride is set during a

pirate Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

raid on Jakarta (known as ''Batavia'' until 1942) in the 17th century at the beginning of the Dutch colonization of

Ride

The building of the ride was characterized with a banner labeled with "Piraten in Batavia" in golden letters and a

Jolly Roger Jolly Roger is the traditional English name for the flags flown to identify a pirate ship preceding or during an attack, during the early 18th century (the later part of the Golden Age of Piracy). The flag most commonly identified as the Jolly ...

. The station was situated on the first floor. On their way to the station, visitors were introduced to the backstory, while learning about the history of the Dutch colonisation of Indonesia, shown in different animated scenes. Mural paintings showed the Java Sea, including the maps of Sumatra,

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and ea ...

and

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...

. At the station the visitors got on one of the boats, each with a capacity of 16 riders. The first scene showed a cave in the Indonesian jungle, which was inhabited by different animals and humans. After a wide bend, the boat went down a waterfall and passed through a battle scene, in which a pirate ship attacked a nearby fort. The scene was dominated by screaming pirates and gunfire. Through a break in the fortification wall, the boat arrived in Batavia, which was full of marauding pirates. In the following scenes the visitor experienced how the pirates won over the native women, staving off their hunger by eating exotic animals and getting drunk. The ride carried on passing a hidden temple in the jungle, a burning fort, a fishermen's village and a jail. Just before the end of the ride, the boats passed a show venue on the right, which was embedded into the setting, and the themed restaurant ''Bamboe Baai''.

Fire

On 26 May 2018, Pirates in Batavia burned to the ground in a fire that destroyed the main themed area of the Scandinavia portion of the park. The cause of the fire is unknown, but a fireball erupted in a storage hall and spread towards the ride building resulting in high flames and a smoke plume stretching for miles. At first, the area was evacuated, but this was later revised to include the whole park. The park re-opened on Sunday, albeit with the Scandinavia and Norwegian sections of the ride closed. Two attractions, the 'Fjord-Rafting' and the 'Dschungel-Floßfahrt' remained closed, as firefighters had used water from those attractions to battle the fire.

References

External links

*
Official page of Europa-Park attraction
(English)
Pirates in Batavia on freizeitpark-welt.de
(German)
Pirates in Batavia on flickr.com
{{Europa-Park Amusement rides introduced in 1987 Amusement rides that closed in 2018 Amusement rides manufactured by Mack Rides Rides at Europa-Park