observed a little caboose, the chimney of which was smoking as though
coal had within the past few minutes been thrown into the furnace. I
saw but one boat; she stood chocked and lashed abaft the caboose--a
clumsy, broad-beamed long-boat, capable of stowing perhaps fifteen or
twenty men at a pinch. I also took notice of a pair of davits on the
starboard side, past the main rigging; they were empty.
"I stepped up to the heavily-built man who had answered the captain's
questions. He received me with a grotesque bow, pinching the brim of
his wide straw hat as he bobbed his head. I did not like his looks. He
had as hanging a face as ever a malefactor carried. His features were
heavy and coarse, his brow low and protruding, his eyes small, black,
and restless, and his mouth of the bulldog cast.
"'We're much obliged to you for this visit,' he said. 'Might I ask
your name, sir?'
"'My name is Grainger--Mr. James Grainger,' I answered, scarcely
wondering at the irregularity of such a question on such an occasion,
perceiving clearly now that the fellow was no sailor.
"'What might be your position in that ship, Mr. Grainger?' said the
man.
"'I'm mate of her,' said I.
"'Then I suppose you're capable of carrying a ship from place to place
by the art of navigation?' he exclaimed.
"'Why, I hope so!' cried I. 'But what is it you want?' and here I
looked at the man who was standing at the helm, grasping the spokes in
a manner that assured me he was not used to that sort of work; and I
was somewhat struck to observe that in some respects he was not unlike
the fellow who was addressing me--that is to say, he had quite as
hanging a face as his companion, though he wanted the other's breadth
and squareness, and ruffian-like set of figure; but his forehead was
low, and his eyes black and restless, and he was close-cropped, with
some days' growth of beard, as was the case with the other. He was
dressed in a bottle-green spencer and trousers of a military cut, and
wore one of those caps which in the days I am writing of were the
fashion amongst masters and mates.
"'If you don't mind stepping into the cabin,' said the man with whom I
was conversing, 'I'll show you a chart, and ask you to pencil out a
course for us; and with your leave, sir, I'll tell you over a glass of
wine exactly how it's come about that we're too few to carry the brig
to her destination unless your captain will kindly help us.'
"'Are you two the only people aboard?' said I.
"'The only people,' he answered.
"Anywhere else, under any other conditions, I might have suspected a
treacherous intention in two men with such hanging countenances as
this lonely brace owned; but what could I imagine to be afraid of
aboard a brig holding two persons only, with the whaler's boat and
three men within a few strokes of the oar, and the old barque, _Swan_,
full of livelies, many of them deadly in the art of casting the
harpoon, within easy hail?
"The man who invited me below stepped into the companion-way; I
followed and descended the short flight of steps. The instant I had
gained the bottom of the ladder I knew by the sudden shadow which came
into the light that the companion hatch had been closed; this must
have been done by the fellow who was standing at the wheel. It was
wisely contrived. Assuredly had the way been open, I should have
rushed upon deck and sprung overboard: because after descending the
steps I beheld five or six men standing in a sort of waiting and
listening posture under the skylight. Instantly my left arm was
gripped by the man who had asked me to step below, while another
fellow, equally powerful, and equally ruffianly in appearance, grasped
me by the right arm.
"'Now,' said the first man, 'if you make the least bit of noise or
give us any trouble, we'll cut your throat. We don't intend to do you
any harm, but we want your services, and you'll have to do what we
require without any fuss. If not, you're a dead man.'
"So saying, they threw open the door of a berth, ran me into it, shut
the door, and shot the lock. I had been so completely taken by
surprise that I was in a manner stunned. I stood in the middle of the
cabin just where the fellows had let go of me, staring around,
breathing short and fierce, my mind almost a blank. But I quickly
rallied my wits. I understood I had been kidnapped; by what sort of
people I could not imagine, but beyond question because I understood
navigation, as I had told the man. I listened, but heard no noise of
voices, nor movements of people in the cabin. Through the planks,
overhead, however, came the sound of a rapid tread of feet,
accompanied by the thud of coils of rope flung hastily down. The cabin
porthole was a middling-sized, circular window. I saw the whaler in it
as in a frame. I unscrewed the port, but with no intention to cry out,
never doubting for a moment from the looks of the men that they would
silence me in some bloody fashion as had been threatened.
"Just as I pulled the port open a voice overhead sang out: 'Get back
to your ship, you three men; your mate has consented to stop with us
as we're in want of a navigator.'
"'Let him tell us that himself,' said one of my men; 'let him show up.
What ha' ye done with him?'
"'Be off,' roared one of the people, in a savage, hurricane note.
"There was a little pause as of astonishment on the part of the boat's
crew--I could not see them, the boat lay too far astern,--but after a
bit I heard the splash of oars, the boat swept into the sphere of the
porthole, and I beheld her making for the barque.
"I was now sensible, however, not only by observing the whaler to
recede, but by hearing the streaming and rippling of broken waters
along the bends, that the people of the brig had in some fashion
trimmed sail and filled upon the vessel. We were under way. The barque
slided out of the compass of the porthole, but now I heard her
captain's voice coming across the space of water, clear and strong:
"'Brig ahoy! What do you mean by keeping my mate?'
"To this no answer was returned. Again the captain hailed the brig;
but owing to the shift in the postures of the two vessels, and to my
having nothing but a circular hole to hear through, I could only dimly
and imperfectly catch what was shouted. The cries from the whaler grew
more and more threadlike. Indeed, I knew the brig must be a very poor
sailer if she did not speedily leave the _Swan_ far astern.
"And now, as I conjectured from the noise of the tread of feet and the
hum of voices, the brig on a sudden seemed full of men; not the eight
or ten whom I had beheld with my own eyes, but a big ship's company.
And the sight of the crowd, I reckoned, as I stood hearkening at the
open porthole--amazed, confounded, in the utmost distress of mind--was
probably the reason why the captain of the _Swan_ had not thought
proper to send boats to rescue me. Be this as it will I was
thunderstruck by the discovery--the discovery of my hearing, and of my
capacity as a sailor of interpreting shipboard sounds--that this
little brig, which I had supposed tenanted by two men only, had hidden
a whole freight of human souls somewhere away in the execution of this
diabolical stratagem. What was this vessel? Who were the people on
board her? What use did they design to put me to? And when I had
served them, what was to be my fate?
"Quite three hours passed, during which I was left unvisited.
Sometimes I heard men talking in the cabin; over my head there went a
regular swing of heavy feet, a pendulum tread, as of half-a-score of
burly ruffians marching abreast, and keeping a look-out all together.
The door of my berth was opened at last, and the villain who had
seduced me into the brig stepped in.
"'I was sorry,' said he, 'to be obliged to use threats. Threats aren't
in our way. We mean no mischief. Quite the contrary; we count upon you
handsomely serving us. Come into the cabin, sir, that I may make you
known to my mates.'
"His manner was as civil as a fellow with his looks could possibly
contrive, and an ugly smile sat upon his face whilst he addressed me,
and I observed that he held his great straw hat in his hand, as though
to show respect.
"About twenty men were assembled in the cabin. I came to a dead stand
on the threshold of the door of the berth, so astounded was I by the
sight of all those fellows. I ran my eye swiftly over them; they were
variously dressed--some in the attire of seamen, some in such clothes
as gentlemen of that period wore, a few in a puzzling sort of military
undress. They all had cropped heads, and many were grim with a few
days' growth of beard and moustache. They had the felon's look, and
there was somehow a suggestion of escaped prisoners in their general
bearing. A dark suspicion rushed upon me with the velocity of thought,
as I stood on the threshold of the door of the berth for the space of
a few heart-beats, gazing at the mob.
"The cabin was a plain, old-fashioned interior. A stout, wide table
secured to stanchions ran amidships. Overhead was a skylight. There
were a few chairs on either hand the table, and down the cabin on both
sides went a length of lockers. Some of the men were smoking. A few
sat upon the table with their arms folded; others lounged upon the
lockers, and in chairs. They stared like one man at me, whilst I stood
looking at them.
"'Is he a navigator, Swallow?' said one of them--a wiry, dark-faced
man, who held his head hung, and looked at you by lifting his eyes.
"'Ay, mate of the whaler--James Grainger by name,' answered the fellow
who had opened the door of my berth. 'Salute him, bullies. He's the
charley-pitcher for to handle this butter-box.'
"The voices of the men swelled into a roar of welcomes of as many
sorts as there were speakers. One of them came round the table and
shook me by the hand.
"'My name's Alexander Stevenson,' said he; 'come and sit you down
here.'
"All very civilly he conducted me to a chair at the head of the table.
And now, happening to glance upwards, I spied seven or eight faces
peering down at me through the skylight.
"'Swallow, do the jawing, will 'ee?' said the man who called himself
Stevenson.
"'Why, yes,' answered Swallow, posting himself at the top of the
table, and addressing me through the double ranks of men on either
side. 'This is how it stands with us, Mr. Grainger--clear as mud in a
wineglass; and we're sorry it should have come to it, for your sake.
But do your duty by us faithfully, and we'll take care you sha'n't
suffer. We're thirty-one convicts in all. We were thirty-two, but
Milkliver Poppy took a header, and went for the land and the
lickspittle; if he lives he'll get his liberty for a reward. We were
bound from Hobart to Norfolk Island. You'll have heard of that
settlement?'
"I said 'Yes,' and an odd guttural laugh broke from some of the men.
"'Well, mister,' continued the man Swallow, 'Norfolk Island was a
destination that didn't accord with our views. And what more d' ye
want me to say? Here we are, and we want our liberty, and we mean to
get it without any risk, and you're the man to help us.'
"'What do you want me to do?' said I, speaking boldly, and looking
about me steadily, for now I perceived exactly how it was with the
brig, and the worst had been explained and the whole mystery solved
when Swallow told me they were convicts; and likewise I had plenty of
time to screw my nerves up.
"Several men spoke at once on my asking the above question. Stevenson
roared out: 'Let Swallow man the jaw tackle, boys. One at a time, or
you'll addle the gent.'
"'This is what we want you to do,' said Swallow. 'There are scores of
islands in these seas, and we want you to carry us to them; heaving-to
off them one after another that we may pick and choose, some going
ashore here, and some there, for our game is to scatter. That's clear,
I hope.'
"'I understand you,' said I."
"Swallow seemed at a loss. Stevenson then said: 'But we shall want
nothing that's got a white settlement on it; nothing that's likely to
have a pennant flying near. We've got no fixed notions. We leave it to
you to raise the islands, and it'll be for us to select and take our
chance.'
"'There'll be charts aboard, I suppose?' said I.
"Instantly one of them stepped into a cabin and returned with a bag
full of charts. I turned them out upon the table and promptly came
across charts of the North and South Pacific oceans. These charts gave
me from the Philippines to Cape St. Lucas, and from the Eastern
Australian coast to away as far as 120 deg. W. longitude. The men did
not utter a word whilst I looked; I could hear their deep breathing,
mingled with the noise of a hard sucking of pipes. One of them who
looked through the skylight called down. Swallow silenced him with a
gesture of his fist.
"'Have you got what's wanted here, Mr. Grainger?' said Stevenson.
"'All that I shall want is here,' I answered.
"'A low growl of applause ran through the men.
"'Will you be able to light upon the islands that'll prove suitable
for us men to live on without risk until the opportunity comes in the
shape of vessels for us to get away?' said Swallow.
"'I'll do my best for you,' said I. 'I see your wants, and you may
trust me, providing I may trust you. What's to become of me when
you're out of the brig? That's it!'
"'You'll stay on board and do what you like with the vessel,' answered
Swallow. 'She'll be yours to have and hold. Make what you call a
salvage job of it, and your pickings, mister, 'ull be out and away
beyond the value of what we've been obliged to make you leave behind
you.'
"'Ain't that fair?' said a man.
"'Is my life safe?' said I.
"'Ay,' cried the Swallow, with a great oath, striking the table a
heavy blow with his clenched fist. 'Understand this and comfort
yourself. There's been no blood shed in this job, and there'll be
none, so help me God--you permitting, mister.'
"When this was said, a fellow, whom I afterwards heard called by the
name of Jim Davies, asked if I was willing to take an oath that I
would be honest. I said, 'Yes.' He stood up and dictated an oath full
of blasphemy, shocking with imprecations, and grossly illiterate. The
eyes of the crowd fastened upon me, and some of the ruffians watched
me in a scowling way with faces dark with suspicion, till I repeated
the horrid language of the man Davies, and swore, after which the
greater bulk of them went on deck.
"Swallow put some beef and biscuit on the table and a bottle of rum,
and bade me fall to. He told me to understand that I was captain of
the ship; that I was at liberty to appoint officers under me; and
that, though none of the convicts had been seafaring men, they had
learnt how the ropes led and how to furl canvas, and would obey any
orders for the common good which I might deliver. I ate and drank,
being determined to put the best face I could on this extraordinary
business, and asked for the captain's cabin, that I might find out
what nautical instruments the brig carried. Swallow, Stevenson, and a
convict named William Watts conducted me to a berth right aft on the
starboard side. They told me it had been occupied by the captain, and
should be mine. Here I found all I needed in the shape of navigating
instruments, and went on deck with Swallow and the others.
"I could see nothing of the _Swan_; she was out of sight from the
elevation of the brig's bulwarks. All the convicts were on deck, and
the brig looked full of men. Those who had been above whilst I was in
the cabin with the others, approached and stared at me, but not
insolently--merely with curiosity. They seemed a vile lot, one and
all. With some of them every other word was an oath; their talk was
almost gibberish to my ears with thieves' slang. I wondered to find
not one of them dressed in felon's garb; but on reflection I concluded
that they had plundered the crew and the people who had had charge of
them and of the _Cyprus_, and had forced all those they drove out of
the brig to change clothes before quitting the vessel.
"However, it was my immediate policy to prove my sincerity. I valued
my life, and I had but to look at the men to reckon that it would not
be worth a rushlight if they suspected I was not doing my best to find
them a safe asylum among the islands in the Pacific. Accordingly, I
fetched one of the charts, placed it upon the skylight, where those
who gathered about me could see it, and laid off a course for the
Tonga Islands; telling the men as I pointed to the group upon the
chart that if no island thereabouts satisfied them, we could head for
the Fijis or cruise about the Friendly or Navigator groups, working
our way as far as the Low Archipelago, betwixt which and the first
island we sighted we ought certainly to fall in with the sort of
hiding-place they wanted. My words raised a grin of satisfaction in
every face within reach of my voice.
"I stepped to the helm and headed the brig on a northerly course, and
stood awhile looking at the compass to satisfy myself that the convict
who grasped the spokes understood what to do with the wheel. He
managed fairly well. I then asked Swallow to serve as my chief mate,
and Stevenson to act as second, and calling the rest of the felons
together, I divided them into two watches. My next step was to crowd
the little brig with all the canvas she could spread, and set every
stitch of it properly. Thus passed the first day.
"I have no time to enter minutely into what happened till we made a
small point of land in the neighbourhood of the Friendly Islands.
There was abundance of provisions on board, plenty of fresh water, and
a stock of spirits intended for the commandant and soldiers at
Macquarie Harbour and Norfolk Island; but though the convicts freely
used whatever they found in the brig's hold, never once was there an
instance of drunkenness amongst them. I guessed them all to be as
desperate a set of miscreants as were ever transported for crime upon
crime from a convict establishment; yet they used me very well. Saving
their villainous speech, their behaviour was fairly decorous. They
sprang to my bidding, sir'd me as though they had been seamen and I
their captain, and, indeed, by their behaviour so reassured me that my
dread of being butchered vanished, and I carried on the brig as
assured of my personal safety--providing I dealt by them honestly--as
though I had been on board the old _Swan_.
"We sighted several vessels, but, as you may suppose, we had nothing
to say to them. Off the first island we came across I hove the brig
to; the convicts got the long-boat out, and a dozen of them went
ashore to examine and report. Five returned; the remainder had chosen
to stay. We made three of the islands; the natives of two of them were
threatening, and frightened the convicts back to the brig; the third
proved uninhabited--a very gem of an island was this,--and here
fifteen convicts went ashore, and thrice the boat went between the
island and the brig with provisions and necessaries for their
maintenance.
"But it gave me a fortnight of anxious hunting to discover such
another island as the remaining convicts considered suitable. This at
last we fell in with midway betwixt the Union group and the Marquesas;
and here the rest of the felons went ashore, after almost emptying the
brig's hold of provisions and the like. They kept the long-boat, and
left me alone in the brig. Some of them shook hands with me as they
went over the side, and thanked me for having served them so honestly.
"It was in the evening when I was left alone. The sun was setting
behind the island, off which a gentle breeze was blowing. My first
business was to run the ensign aloft, jack down. I then trimmed sail
as best I could with my single pair of hands, and, putting the helm
amidships, let the brig blow away south-west, designing to make for
one of the Navigator Islands, where I might hope to fall in with
assistance, either from the shore or from a vessel. But, shortly after
midnight the brig, sailing quietly, grounded upon a coral shoal, fell
over on to her bilge, and lay quiet. I was without a boat, and could
do nothing but wait for daylight, and pray for a sight of some passing
vessel. All next day passed, and nothing showed the wide horizon
round; but about nine o'clock that night, the moon shining clearly, I
spied a sail down in the south. She drew closer, and proved a little
schooner. I hailed her with a desperate voice, and to my joy was
answered, and in less than ten minutes she sent a boat and took me
aboard."
The South Seaman's narrative ends abruptly here, but it is known that
he was conveyed to Honolulu, at which place, strangely enough, the
_Swan_ touched after he had been ashore about a week. He at once went
on board, related his strange experiences to his captain, and
proceeded on his whaling career with the easy indifference of a sailor
accustomed to tragic surprises.
The brig _Cyprus_ went to pieces on the shoal on which she had
grounded. It is on record that of the convicts retaken on their return
to England, two were hanged--namely, Watts and Davies; two others,
Beveridge and Stevenson, were transported for life to Norfolk Island;
and Swallow was sent back to Macquarie Harbour.
_The Adventures of
Three Sailors._
TOLD BY DANIEL SMALL, ONLY
MATE.
Our vessel was a little brig, named the _Hindoo Merchant_, and we
sailed on a day in March in the year of our Lord 1857, from
Trincomalee bound to Calcutta. The captain, myself, and three sailors
were Europeans; the rest of the ship's company, natives. Though we
were "flying light" as the term is--that is to say, though there was
little more in the ship's hold than ballast, and though she had
tolerably nimble heels, for what one might term a _country-wallah_--yet
the little ship was so bothered with head winds and light airs,
and long days of stagnation, that we had been several weeks afloat
before we managed to crawl to the Norrad of the Andaman parallels,
which yet left a long stretch of waters before us. If this remainder
of the ocean was not to be traversed more fleetly than the space we
had already measured, then it was certain we should be running short
of water many a long while before the Sandheads came within the
compass of our horizon, and to provide against the most horrible
situation that the crew of a ship can find themselves placed in, we
kept a bright look-out for vessels, and within four days managed to
speak two; but they had no water to spare, and we pushed on.
But within three days of our speaking the second of the two vessels we
sighted a third, a large barque, who at once backed her topsail to our
signals, and hailed us to know what we wanted. My captain, Mr. Roger
Blow, stood up in the mizzen-rigging and asked for water. They asked
how much we needed; Captain Blow responded that whatever they could
spare would be a god-send. On this they sung out: "Send a boat with a
cask and you shall have what we can afford to part with." Captain Blow
then told me to put an eighteen-gallon cask in the port-quarter boat,
and go away to the barque with it. "They'll not fill it," said he,
"but a half'll be better than a quarter, and a quarter'll be good
enough; for we stand to pick up more as we go along."
I had called to two of the English sailors, named Mike Jackson and
Thomas Fallows, to get into the boat, when the cask had been placed in
her; and when I had entered her the darkeys lowered us; we unhooked
and shoved off. There was a pleasant breeze of wind blowing; it blew
hot, as though it came straight from the inside of an oven, the door
of which had been suddenly opened; the sky had the sort of glazed
dimness of the human eye in fever; but right overhead it was of a
copperish dazzle where the roasting orb of the sun was. I could not
see a speck of cloud anywhere, which rendered what followed the more
amazing to my mind for the suddenness of it.