Melinda spent over a year researching the facts of the Batavia, the events leading up to the tragic ship wreck and the subsequent tales of misery, debauchery and murder. She had started her Masters of Fine Arts and this work of passion would form her thesis. The writing of the thesis took almost two years, getting completely immersed in the story and reading through archaeological and scientific papers about the burial digs on the islands where the Batavia was shipwrecked and where the surviving passengers lived until their rescue, or death.