Early Life
Little is known about Wiebbe Hayes's background and early life. It is surmised that he was of Frisian descent, as he is known to have come from the small town of Winschoten in the Groningen Province of The Netherlands. Because Hayes could read and write, it is believed he had at least some basic formal education, and thus it is inferred that he was probably from a respectable, but impoverished family.
In October 1628, Hayes boarded the Batavia along with about 70 other soldiers at the rank of Private. Employed by the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, or VOC), the soldiers were off to the Dutch East Indies for five years of garrison duty at Batavia (present-day Jakarta). Most of the soldiers were young men in their late teens or early twenties. Hayes, at the time of the shipwreck, was thought to be about 21.
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