Читать книгу The Mystery of the Laughlin Islands - Becke Louis - Страница 3

Table of Contents

It was a close, steamy morning, and a heavy mist still hung over the harbour and concealed the shore from view, when Mr. William Irish, the master of the Salamander came on deck and asked the mate if the hands had finished breakfast.

“No, sir,” answered the officer, “not quite.”

“Well, hurry ’em up, Wilkins. That flash gentleman over there,” pointing to the spars of the Resolution that towered up about a cable’s length away, “seems in a damned hurry to get away before us. Now I would like to get away first, just to spite him. He is a lowlived swab.”

Mr. William Irish did not like Mr. John Locke the master of the Resolution, and was not diffident in expressing his dislike upon every possible occasion.

The master of the Resolution was a gentleman of no small importance, and of considerable personal attractions. This was his own estimate of himself. Mr. William Irish—a short, stout man with a leathern-hued complexion—held different opinions. We know this because on one memorable occasion he thus expressed himself to a sergeant of the New South Wales Corps, who had boarded the Salamander on pressing official business.

“I call myself Bill Irish. I am a plain man, with no damned nonsense about me; but I am honest, and I am a master mariner, and left the King’s service with a clean record, as Governor Collins can tell you. Locke—who is a swab—calls himself ‘Captain’ Locke, oils his hair, and curls his blarsted whiskers, and is a blarsted liar. You can search my ship, sergeant, from the fore-peak to the lazarette, and if you find any of your infernal jail birds aboard o’ me, I’ll give you a cask of rum; but if you take my advice you’ll search the Resolution. And when you board her tell her flash captain that I say he is a liar, and be damned to him!”

And then, turning to his mate, Mr. Irish told him to assist the sergeant and his men to search the ship for convict stowaways, adding, “And the first one you get lug him up on deck, and then get a cask of rum up from the lazarette and put it in the sergeant’s boat.”

Sergeant Day, being a soldier and a man of few words, took the remarks of the master of the Salamander very quietly, merely observing—

“That is all very well, but it is my duty to search,” and then he stopped suddenly, and exclaimed, pointing to the Resolution, whose hull now came out clearly as the breeze dispersed the fog—“Why, he’s getting under weigh.”

“Serves you right! I told you he was a rascal and a liar. Now you’ll be very neatly sold. Told you he was going ashore to dinner with some of the soldier gentlemen, to-day, did he? He’s sold you very neatly. His anchor’s underfoot, and you can’t catch him.”

“I’ll try, anyhow,” said the sergeant, and then his face fell. He had sent his boat ashore to report to his officer that he had searched the Resolution fruitlessly. Turning to Mr. Irish, he asked him to lend him one of his boats.

“Don’t see why I should; but I will though, because the infernal liar told you I had ’em aboard of my ship.”

The sergeant was halfway down the side-ladder while Mr. Irish was speaking, and he was followed by Sergeant Jones and a couple of privates who had remained on board when the boat had been sent ashore to report.

“Two hands jump into that boat,” sang out the master of the Salamander. “I don’t want them redcoats cruising around the harbour in one of my whaleboats, with no one to look, after them,” he added.

In a few moments the boat had shoved off, and was pulling hard for the Resolution; the boat’s crew consisting of two seamen from the Salamander and the four soldiers. Even as they shoved off the Resolution’s maintopsail was sheeted home, and the cook of the Salamander, a personage with a snow-white cap, and an exceedingly dirty face, and who, when on shore, was a patron of sport in the neighbourhood of Whitechapel, called out as the boat was being urged on by the rowers— “Even money you doesn’t catch her; pull your damndest, you red-coated sons of guns; even money, I say, you doesn’t catch her.”

Now as this is a perfectly true story, we will, at this stage in the telling of it, “put in,” as they say in the courts of law, the affidavits of certain individuals who took part in the affair. First comes the—

AFFIDAVIT OF WILLIAM IRISH

Mr. William Irish, master of the ship Salamander, came before me and voluntarily deposed that, having been furnished with a copy of a letter which it was necessary to write to the Lieutenant-Governor, for the purpose of obtaining permission to receive on board such persons as he had shipped belonging to the Colony, and being officially desired to communicate the same to Mr. John Locke, master of the Resolution, and undertaking to do so, he accordingly supplied him with a copy of the paper he had received, as above mentioned, explaining at the same time to the said Mr. Locke the necessity there was for his obtaining the Lieutenant-Governor’s written permission to take any person from the Colony.

(Signed) William Irish

Sworn before me at Sydney this eleventh day of November, 1794.

(Signed) David Collins.

Witness present (signed) John Palmer.

The next document is the

AFFIDAVIT OF WILLIAM DAY

William Day, Sergeant in the New South Wales Corps, came this day before me and voluntarily made oath that he had the charge of the guard which was placed on board the Resolution storeship by order of the Lieutenant-Governor for the purpose of preventing convicts or other persons being received on board without permission: that on the morning of the departure of the said ship from this harbour, information was sent down to the master, John Locke, that some convicts were missing from the Colony and were supposed to be secreted on board his ship; that he assisted with the sergeant who came on board in searching the said ship, but without effect; that he went from her on board the Salamander to search that vessel; the while on board he perceived the Resolution getting under weigh, on which he returned to her and caused the master to come to an anchor, telling him he could not go to sea without having received a certificate of the number of persons he had on board belonging to the Colony; that having sent up the pilot and the boat to receive the Lieutenant-Governor’s further orders, that as soon as the boat was out of sight the master again got up his anchor, notwithstanding the remonstrances of this deponent, who urged him to wait the return of the boat; that the said John Locke made use of many execrations, refusing to wait under an idea that he might be ordered to return to the Cove; that the Salamander’s boat in which deponent had boarded the Resolution then returned, the ship by this time being between the Heads, and this deponent with his party having no means of leaving the vessel; that the said John Locke repeatedly asserted with many horrible curses that he would not furnish this deponent with a boat from the ship, but that he would certainly land him and his party on some desolate part of the coast if he persisted in waiting for a boat from Sydney; that firmly believing that Mr. Locke would put his threats into execution, he with some difficulty made himself heard, by the men in the Salamander’s boat, who returned and took him and his party in; that going down in the cabin just before this deponent left the ship he perceived the surgeon (Mr. Blackburne) and second mate (Mr. Gibson) filling several cartridges with powder, which he supposed were intended to be made use of in case any boat should attempt to come on board the Resolution; the master having repeatedly sworn that no boat should board her; that at the time this deponent left the Resolution she was eight miles without the Heads of the harbour. And further this deponent sayeth not.

(Signed) William Day.

Then followed the same signatures of the officials who had taken Mr. Irish’s affidavit

After this came the

AFFIDAVIT OF DAVID JONES

Sergeant David Jones, of the New South Wales Corps, personally appeared before me and made oath that on Sunday morning, the 9th of this instant month of November, he was sent on board the Resolution (John Locke, master), then at anchor just above the South Head of this harbour, with a message from the Lieutenant-Governor, which message was to inform the master that the Lieutenant-Governor had heard that he (John Locke) was about to quit the port without having received a certificate of the number of persons he was permitted to receive on board belonging to the Colony, and that he was not to take any person away without the Lieutenant-Governor’s permission; that this message being delivered to Mr. Locke, he replied to this deponent that he did not think he had any business with a certificate; that deponent, on telling Mr. Locke that he was ordered to search for a woman of the name of Morgan, the master of the Resolution said she was not there—he knew nothing about such a person; that having searched for the space of four hours, during which time the woman could not be found in this ship, this deponent went on board the Salamander to search that ship, and that while he was there he perceived the Resolution to be getting under weigh, though he had communicated to the master the necessity there was for his waiting until he heard further from the Lieutenant-Governor.

(Duly signed, witnessed, &c., &c.)

After Sergeant Jones’ statement comes another which tells this story from another point of view. This is the

AFFIDAVIT OF GEORGE BANNISTER

George Bannister (a free man) came before me on this day, the eleventh of November, 1794, and voluntarily deposed that on the night of Saturday the 8th instant, Mr. Stephenson asked him to go out in the boat to fish the next morning; that he is accustomed to fish with Mr. Stephenson; that accordingly he went with him accompanied by one Kelly, Thomas Vicker, and John Toft; that they procured bait in the North Harbour and went without the Heads to their fishing-ground, where they remained until the Resolution went out; that the ship stood directly out to sea, and that when they had nearly lost sight of her they saw her make a tack and stand towards Broken Bay; that when she had run nearly the length of Broken Bay she ran down along shore, heaving to several times; that a little time before sunset the ship being near Cabbage Tree Beach, round the North Head of this Harbour. Mr. Stephenson proposed to Kelly and the others in the boat to go on board the Resolution; that this deponent refused to be concerned in taking a boat belonging to any one, and declared he would not go; that this deponent and Toft refusing to row’ alongside the ship the other three men rowed the boat alongside; that they had previously perceived people on the foretopsail-yard looking at the boat with glasses, and on their coming alongside, the master, Mr. John Locke, asked them what they wanted; they said they had some fish to sell; that he gave them half-a-gallon of liquor for the fish; that he (John Locke) then asked Mr. Stephenson if he had seen a boat off there; Stephenson said, Yes, the boat he (Mr. Locke) wanted was there; the master then called him into the cabin; that in about ten minutes he returned with some wine, some cheese, and some bread, and told this deponent and the others to pull into Cabbage Tree and meet a boat they would find there; that they rowed into Cabbage Tree, and not finding the boat there they returned to the ship, and Stephenson, Kelly, and Vicker went on board, and this deponent with Toft returned with the boat up to Sydney Cove; that just as they left the ship they saw a boat lowered down from the ship and saw two lights hoisted, one at the stern of the ship and one on the foretopsail-yard; that Kelly took the fishing tackle belonging to the boat with him into the ship, saying that it might procure them a fresh meal at sea, and that the Lieutenant might be damned for all the fish he (Kelly) would ever catch for him again; that the ship appeared to stand off when they left her, at which time she might be about five miles from the land to the northward.

his

George X Bannister

mark

Sworn before me, &c., &c.