Fletcher Christian, 1785

Previous blog posts have described Captain William Bligh’s two visits to St Helena in 1792 and 1799. It was only on preparing for our recent trip to Pitcairn that I read of the visit to the island, in the spring of 1785, of Fletcher Christian, inextricably linked to Bligh by the events at sunrise on April 28th 1789; The Mutiny on The Bounty.

There is no portrait or drawing extant of Christian that was drawn from life.  This picture is from Richard Hough “Captain Bligh and Mr Christian: The Men and The Mutiny, 1988” and is described as an artist’s impression based on contemporary descriptions.  This description is the one Bligh wrote down for various port authorities after the mutiny:

Fletcher Christian, Master’s mate, age 24 years, 5 feet 9 inches high, blackish or very dark complexion, dark brown hair, strong made; a star tatowed on his left breast, tatowed on his backside; his knees stand a little out, and he may be called rather bow legged.  He is subject to violent perspirations, and particularly in his hands, so that he soils anything he handles.

Born on September 25, 1764 near Cockermouth in Cumberland, in April1783, Fletcher signed on as midshipman on board HMS Eurydice, a 6th rater with 24 9-pound guns commanded by Captain George Courtney.  For almost six months the ship lay at anchor in Spithead but finally, on October 11, Eurydice sailed for India via Madeira and Table Bay.  In Madras, on May 24, 1784, Christian was made acting lieutenant after only one year’s service.  Joining Sir Edward Hughes’ Squadron they sailed to Bombay in November 1784 and then back to England spending three weeks at St. Helena and a night at Ascension.  By June 1785, the Eurydice was back home and Christian was paid off and looking for employment.  His family was on friendly terms with the Bethams, the family of Elizabeth Bligh, and Christian applied for a berth on the merchant ship Britannia, owned by Elizabeth’s uncle Duncan Campbell and commanded by William Bligh.  Bligh took him on board and they sailed together on two voyages to the West Indies.  In August 1787, Bligh’s command of HMAV Bounty was confirmed, Christian was again signed on to sail with him and the rest, as they say, is history.

Pitcairn Photos are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30593522@N05/sets/72157627706418757/

Lady Penrhyn, 1789

The interlinking of people and places around the British Empire in the late eighteenth century is perfectly illustrated by the First Fleet transport Lady Penrhyn.

On his first voyage from July 1768 to July 1771 Captain Cook on HMS Endeavour was charged by the Royal Society and the British Admiralty to view the transit of Venus from Tahiti and then to look for the Southern Continent.  On board was Joseph Banks, then aged 25, who supplied an estimated £10,000 of his own money to equip the expedition.  Employed by Banks were the Swedish Naturalist Daniel Solander and his fellow scientist, the Finn, Dr. Herman Spöring.  Following the observation of the Transit in June 1769 the voyage then progressed to New Zealand and then became the first European expedition to reach and chart the eastern shores of Australia where, on 29 April 1770, Cook made his first landing.

Initially the name Stingrays Harbour was used by Cook and other journal keepers on his expedition, for the stingrays they caught there.  Cook's log for 6 May 1770 records "The great quantity of these sort of fish found in this place occasioned my giving it the name of Stingrays Harbour".  However, in his journal prepared later from his log, he changed to "The great quantity of plants Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander found in this place occasioned my giving it the name of Botany Bay".  The name Botanist Bay was also sometimes used.

It was Banks’ time in Australia that led to his interest in the British colonisation of that continent and he was to be the greatest proponent of settlement in New South Wales.  In 1779 Banks, by now President of The Royal Society, giving evidence before a committee of the House of Commons had stated that in his opinion the place most eligible for the establishment of a penal colony "was Botany Bay, on the coast of New Holland"

Lady Penrhyn

In 1786 Lady Penrhyn was chartered by the Navy Board as a First Fleet vessel and became one of the eleven ships which left England in 1787 carrying a total of 1,420 people including 775 convicts, sent to establish the first European Colony in Australia in the region which Cook had named New South Wales.

The 333 ton Thames-built transport left Portsmouth on 13 May with 101 female convicts, and arrived at Port Jackson, on 26 January 1788.  She also carried the first horses sent to Australia, which it is thought to have consisted of one stallion, one colt, three mares and two fillies from Cape Town.  As Surgeon responsible for the convicts on board was Arthur Bowes Smythe.  In addition to his official duties he also took a great interest in natural history, collecting specimens and making drawings including the earliest extant illustration by a European of the emu. 

Leaving Port Jackson under Captain Sever, on 5 May 1788 Lady Penrhyn sailed north into the South Pacific.  On board, en route to China, was Lieutenant John Watts who had sailed on Resolution with Cook.  The poor condition of the ship and sickness among her crew compelled her to turn back from the intended voyage to the North West coast of America when she had gone only as far as Tahiti, where the crew recovered and the ship was repaired. When Lady Penrhyn anchored in Matavai Bay in July 1788 they had only three men in one watch, and two in the other besides the mates, and two of these ailing; the rest of the crew were in a truly deplorable state.  The Lady Penrhyn also became the first British ship to visit Tahiti since Cook in August 1777, shortly before Bligh’s arrival in search of breadfruit in October of that year.

6 June 1788-10 July 1788

“The scurvy now began to spread very fast among the crew, and by the 6th, they had nine men unable to get out of their hammocks, and many others complained very much: swelled gums, the flesh exceeding black and hard, a contraction of the sinews, with a total debility; were the general appearances. Wine was daily served out to them, and there was sour-krout on board, but the people refused to eat it. From this to the 17th they had little variety; by that time the people were in a deplorable state, for with every person on board, the Captain included, they could only muster ten men able to do duty, and some of them were in a very weakly state: sour-krout, which before had been refused, now began to be sought after, and they had all the Captain's fresh stock, himself and officers living solely on salt provisions; and to add to their melancholy situation the wind hung almost constantly in the eastern board, so that they could scarcely make any progress. In the evening, the Chief of Matavai came on board, and in him Lieutenant Watts recollected an old friend: the Chief was greatly pleased to see Mr. Watts, as he was the only person in the ship who had been here before, except the steward, who had been before the mast in the Resolution; He informed them that no ship had been at the islands since Capt. Cook: therefore, they concealed his death, and Capt. Sever made Oediddee a present, as coming from Capt. Cook.”

Leaving Tahiti Lady Penrhyn arrived at Macao on October 19th 1788 then, proceeding upriver to Canton to take on a cargo of tea, returned to England via The Cape and St. Helena mid-August 1789. Smythe’s journal of the voyage can be read here: http://www.nla.gov.au/apps/cdview?pi=nla.ms-ms4568-s3-v

At daybreak on 18th May 1789 Smythe writes in his Logbook: “Saw St Helena- the Captain was the first who discover’d land”. 

At Jamestown he made the drawing below.

View of the Island of St. Helena

In his log he describes the following incident:

One day as I was walking in company with some Gentlemen up the Ladder Hill, just before we had reached the summit to guns were fired to answer the Salute of a Danish Indiaman and one of the artillery men had one of his hands blown off.  2 fingers of the other hand and the bones of the elbow very much shattered, we met him in the road leading down to the hospital by 3 or 4 of his Companions.

Also returning to England, Scarborough, another First Fleet ship had sailed from St. Helena on March 24th 1789.

Banks, knighted in 1781, had a continuing interest in Australia, for when the settlement started, and for 20 years afterwards, he was the general adviser to the British Government on all Australian matters.  He arranged that a large number of useful trees and plants should be sent out in the Second Fleet supply ship HMS Guardian which, however, was wrecked in 1790 off the Cape of Good Hope and every vessel that came from New South Wales brought plants or animals or geological and other specimens to Banks.  The three earliest governors of the colony, Arthur Phillip, John Hunter and Philip Gidley King, were continually in correspondence with him.  Bligh was also appointed Governor of New South Wales on Banks’ recommendation.

Byron, Wallis, Carteret and Philatelic Licence

John Byron by Joshua Reynolds, 1759, National Maritime Museum Greenwich

Byron and Dolphin June 1764 to May 1766

On the 21st June 1764 Commodore John Byron sailed HMS Dolphin from the Downs, sent by the British Admiralty, who had been persuaded by George III, to search for the great southern continent, believed to lie in the South Pacific.  With Dolphin were HMS Tamar captained by Patrick Mouat and the supply ship Florida.

Byron was accompanied on Dolphin by midshipman Charles Clerke later to sail on all three of Cook’s voyages and, following Cook’s death in 1779, took over command of Resolution.  Also sailing with Byron was master's mate John Gore who would sail on Dolphin’s second circumnavigation and on Cook’s first and third voyages.  When Clerke died (on his thirty-eighth birthday) from tuberculosis en route to Kamchatka in August 1779 Gore commanded the Resolution and Discovery expedition back to England.  Starting out on the Tamar before being promoted to First Lieutenant on the Dolphin was Philip Carteret, of whom more later.

Late 1764 and early 1765 were spent surveying Patagonia, the Straits of Magellan and the Falkland Islands., from where Florida returned to England with a message recommending that the islands be colonised.  This was nearly the cause of war between Great Britain and Spain, both countries having armed fleets ready to contest the sovereignty of the barren islands.

Byron had previously been in the area as a midshipman on HMS Wager, part of George Anson’s ill-fated 1740 to1744 expedition.  In May 1741 Wager was wrecked on the coast of Patagonia and it wasn’t until February 1746 that he was able to return to England.

Getting through the Straits of Magellan and into the Pacific took six frustrating weeks and by the time the ships came to what is now French Polynesia, the crew were suffering quite badly from scurvy, and this had a major influence on the conduct of the voyage through the Pacific.  They were desperate to restock with fresh supplies, in particular coconuts and fresh vegetables for the sick.  However, the local inhabitants opposed any landings with shows of arms, and coupled with the difficulty of anchoring near to the coral atolls, prompted Byron to name the first of them the Islands of Disappointment.  The ships went on to the Cook Islands, the Gilbert Islands and the Marianas, before heading back to Britain via the Philippines, Batavia, the Cape of Good Hope and St. Helena, which they passed on Sunday March 16th 1766 without stopping.

On April 1st after sustaining damage to her rudder, Tamar was diverted to Antigua to be fitted with a new one.  One of Byron's last official acts before entering port was to confiscate the journals kept by his crew members, a matter of routine on Navy voyages that was intended to guard against security leaks and guarantee that only the official, government-sanctioned version of the voyage would reach the public. Dolphin reached the Downs on the 9th May, Tamar a month later, the journey having taken just over 22 months which at the time was the fastest ever circumnavigation of the globe, but the discoveries made were very limited and the Admiralty made rapid plans to send the Dolphin back to the Pacific.

Samuel Wallis by Henry Stubble, ca 1785, National Library of Australia

Wallis and Dolphin August 1766 to May 1768

Losing no time, on the 19th August the Admiralty recalled Captain Samuel Wallis to active service and gave him sailing orders to take HMS Dolphin back to the Pacific for a second expedition.  Accompanying him was HMS Swallow under the command of Philip Carteret, (who had only been back in England three months), and the store-ship Prince Frederick.  Wallis kept his orders secret from Carteret until they were three weeks out at sea. Carteret thought that the fleet was going to re-provision the settlement at Port Egmont in the Falkland Islands but the real objective of the fleet was to sail for Magellan Straits where the Prince Frederick would head back to the Falklands and the Dolphin and the Swallow were to sail west for further exploration in the Pacific.  After struggling through the Magellan Straits for 115 days, they reached the Pacific Ocean where on 11th April 1767 the Swallow, in no fit state to undertake the journey in the first place, was separated from the Dolphin.  On 23rd June Dolphin arrived at Tahiti and Wallis sent Tobias Furneaux, the second lieutenant, ashore to claim it for England naming it King George Island.  Furneaux would return to Tahiti in 1773 as Captain of Adventure accompanying Resolution on Cook's second voyage.

Wallis and his crew had communication and cultural difficulties and sailed from Tahiti on 27th July after having refitted the Dolphin and loaded up with water and fresh food.  They sailed to the islands to the west of Samoa that now bear his name, to Tinian and on to Batavia where Wallis lost forty men to smallpox and most of his crew were unfit for duty on the crossing of the Indian Ocean to the Cape of Good Hope. 

 The Dolphin had to spend a month in South Africa so that the crew could recover their health. On the 17th March 1768 Dolphin arrived at Jamestown but left at noon the following day.

“At six o’ clock in the evening of Wednesday the 16^th we saw the Island of St. Helena, at the distance of about four leagues and at one the next morning brought to.  At break of day we made sail for the island and at nine anchored in the bay.  The fort saluted us with thirteen guns and we returned the same number.  We found riding here the Northumberland Indiaman, Captain Milford, who saluted us with eleven guns and we returned nine.  We got out all the boats as soon as possible and sent the empty casks to be filled with water; at the same time several of the people were employed to gather purslain (purslane) which grows here in great plenty.  About two o’ clock I went on shore myself and was saluted by the fort with thirteen guns, which I returned. The Governor and the principal gentlemen of the island did me the honour to meet me at the water-side, and having conducted me to the fort, told me, that it was expected that I should make it my home during my stay.  By noon the next day our water was completed and the ship was made ready for sea; soon after she was unmoored to take advantage of the first breeze, and at five in the afternoon I returned on board.  Upon my leaving the shore I was saluted with thirteen guns, and soon after upon getting under way I was saluted with thirteen more, both of which I returned; the Northumberland Indiaman then saluted me with thirteen guns, so did the Ollery, which arrived her the evening before I made sail, and I returned the compliment with the same number.”

St Helena, Jamestown, Dolphin Postal Stone 1645

The postal stone outside the Castle in Jamestown refers to a much earlier ship.  Dolphin finally reached England on the 18th May 1768 after a twenty-one month circumnavigation becoming the first ship to sail twice around the world.  It was presumed by Wallis that the Swallow had been lost; it was reported as such when they reached Britain and James Cook believed this to be the case when he left Plymouth for Tahiti in the Endeavour with Joseph Banks in August of that year. 

Why Tahiti?  Dr Nevil Maskelyne, Astronomer Royal and fellow of the Royal Society, had calculated that the best possible vantage point south of the equator to observe the 1769 Transit of Venus was between the Marquesas Islands and Tonga.  The preferred site within this large area had not yet been determined when Wallis returned to England having “discovered” Tahiti, located almost at the centre of the area identified by Maskelyne.  Tahiti’s longitude had been established by the Dolphin’s purser, John Harrison, (not the John Harrison of Longitude fame) using Maskelyne’s astronomical tables to perform the mathematically complicated but effective method of calculating lunar distances.  Thus it was that the Royal Society informed the Admiralty that Tahiti was its desired site for the Pacific observation of the transit, and Cook set sail accompanied by John Gore who knew more about the Pacific than anyone else on the ship and three other Dolphin seamen, Molyneaux, Pickersgill and Wilkinson.

Philip Carteret

Carteret and Swallow April 1767 to March 1769

But Swallow was not lost, just abandoned and Carteret felt bitter and angry about having been left with a slug of a ship and an inadequate crew.  He sailed for Juan Fernandez Island intending to refit but it was occupied by Spanish colonists and he was forced to sail to the island of Mas Afuera where there was no safe anchorage and they had trouble getting water.  (Mas Afuera is one of a group of islands about 600km from the coast of Chile and, since they are mainly known for having been the home to the sailor Alexander Selkirk for four years, which may have inspired the novel Robinson Crusoe, have been renamed Alejandro Selkirk Island, Santa Clara Island and Robinson Crusoe Island).  They left on the 31st May with only half a supply of food and water and sailed north in order to pick up the trade winds to get them across the Pacific.

Sailing west just south of the tropics Carteret describes in his log the discovery for which this expedition is best remembered:

“We continued our course westward till the evening of Thursday the 2nd of July, when we discovered land to the northward of us.  Upon approaching it the next day, it appeared like a great rock rising out of the sea.  It was not more than five miles in circumference, and seemed to be uninhabited.  It was however covered with trees, and we saw a small stream of fresh water running down one side of it.  I would have landed upon it, but the surf, which at this season broke upon it with great violence, rendered it impossible.  I got soundings on the west side of it, at somewhat less than a mile from shore, in twenty five fathoms, with a bottom of coral and sand, and it is probable that in fine summer weather, landing here may not only be practicable, but very easy.  We saw a great number of sea birds hovering about it, at somewhat less than a mile from the shore, and the sea here seemed to have fish.  It lies in latitude 25°, 2′ south, longitude 133°, 21′ west, and about a thousand leagues to the westward of the continent of America.  It is so high that we saw it at the distance of more than fifteen leagues; and it having been discovered by a young gentleman, son to Major Pitcairn of the marines, who was unfortunately lost in the Aurora, we called it PITCAIRN'S ISLAND."

Carteret, sailing without a chronometer was unable to precisely determine longitude so his recorded position of 133.21 W placed Pitcairn over 200 miles from its true position of 130.06 W.  That twenty-three years later Pitcairn was able to provide a refuge for the mutineers from HMS Bounty, not finally being discovered until 1808 is undoubtedly due in part to the fact that nobody in the Royal Navy knew precisely where the island was.  The error was also compounded in the first edition of Hawkesworth where the latitude in the text disagreed with the map position by an additional 350 miles.  Following the Mutiny on April 28th 1789 Fletcher Christian not only took over Bligh's cabin but his library.  Thus the mutineers of the Bounty were able to seek Pitcairn Island as their refuge in January 1790 because they had on board Hawkesworth's volumes and read therein the report of Carteret's discovery in 1767.  That they found the island despite the errors is remarkable but of such errors are legends born.

Carteret turned north and sailed west of the Society Islands and east of Samoa.  At about 10 00 S 167.00 W Dolphin veered to the west, looking for the Solomon Islands. He found Santa Cruz, but had to sail away without all the supplies they needed.  Leaving New Ireland on 9th September 1767 they made for Mindanao in the southern Philippines where the natives fired guns to signal them not to land so Carteret moved on and sailed between Sulawesi and Borneo to Batavia where the Swallow was repaired and re-provisioned for the voyage home.  Carteret could not wait to get away from Batavia because of the sickness and left on 15th September with many of his crew sick with malaria or dysentery.  The Swallow took two months to cross the Indian Ocean to Cape Town.  Leaving in the new year of 1769, from the 20^th to 24^th January they were at St Helena some ten months after Wallis. 

Following closely behind Carteret, passing St. Helena on 29th January, was Bougainville in the Boudeuse returning to France from his own 1766 to 1769 circumnavigation. 

 Bougainville had received news of Carteret at Batavia and at the Cape and reaching the (then) uninhabited Ascension on the 4th February he read a note left in a bottle informing him that the Swallow had departed on 1st February.  After collecting turtles, as Carteret had done, on the 19^th February Swallow was sighted and Bougainville offered Carteret assistance, which was politely declined.  Bougainville described Swallow as being in poor condition and wondered how it had sailed so far and how miserable it must have been on the ship.  In any event Carteret finally arrived back in England on 20th March.

Which brings us to the philatelic licence of Swallow and Dolphin together at St Helena.



Bligh's Second Visit, 1799

1814 Portrait of Rear-Admiral William Bligh by Alexander Huey. Bligh is depicted wearing the uniform of a Flag Officer and the Captain's Naval Gold Medal for the Battle of Camperdown. National Library of Australia.

 

A March blog post “Bligh, Banks and Breadfruit” described William Bligh’s December 1792 visit to St. Helena in HMS Providence en route from Tahiti to the West Indies carrying breadfruit plants which it was hoped would provide food for the slaves on the Caribbean sugar estates.  It was only on reading Ian Baker’s “St. Helena One Man’s Island”, a book written with a real passion for St. Helena, that I found that Bligh had paid a second visit in 1799.

Following his return to England and after a short period as Commander of HMS Calcutta, in January 1796 Bligh was given command of a 64-gun third rate ship of the line HMS Director.  In the spring of 1797 he was one of the captains whose crews mutinied over "issues of pay and involuntary service for common seamen" during the Spithead Mutiny and was again one of the captains affected during the mutiny at the Royal Navy anchorage of Nore.  These events were not triggered by any specific actions by Bligh as they "were widespread, and involved a fair number of English ships" but it was at this time that he learned that his common nickname among men in the fleet was 'that Bounty bastard'.  In October 1797 Director, under Bligh, was part of the British Fleet which defeated the Dutch Navy at the Battle of Camperdown.

H.M.S. Director raking the Dutch flagship Vrijheid, during the Battle of Camperdown, 11th October 1797

On Sunday 15th September 1799 Director sailed from Plymouth under sealed orders.  His log gives no details of the number of crew but does record "Beer on Board 27 tons, Water on Board 195 tons”.  On the 17th Bligh writes: “Conceiving myself fully within the situation intended by My Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to open my sealed orders I have done so and will put them in execution without the least delay”.  The orders were to sail to St. Helena to escort an East India Merchant Fleet back to Britain.

High Resolution images of the complete Journal of this voyage in Bligh’s own hand, photographed in 1972, can now be accessed at: http://badc.nerc.ac.uk/cgi-bin/corral/view_images/a=55/l=19/p=1/

What follows are some extracts from the Journal but seeing the images of the original log gives a real sense of what a trip to St. Helena, under sail, 210 years ago entailed.

The following Journal is an account of my proceedings in a voyage to St Helena and from thence back to England in his Majesty’s Ship Director.

16^th September: Saw two Men of war in the SW.  In the course of getting ready for action I found Lieut. Tatham not capable or disposed to carry my orders into execution and therefore directed Lieut. Johnston to take his place in future and Mr. Tatham to take Mr. Johnston’s quarters.

19th September.  The weather was so bad and the sea increased upon us so much that by 6 o’clock we had the fore and mizzen top gallant masts on deck.

20th September. Punished Daniel Diggins with 12 lashes for permitting water to be taken away from the scuttle cask contrary to any orders.  At noon fresh gales and cloudy.

23rd September. Punished Jasper Birches with 12 lashes for neglect in letting the reef out of the main Sail whereby it was split.

25th September. Began to serve lemon juice and sugar to the ship’s company.

26th September. The lemon juice will be continued every morning although I may not mention it.

28th September. I was under the necessity to put Lieut. Oxborough of the watch under an arrest for disobeying my orders.

6th October. Read the Articles of War and mustered the ship’s company in their hot-climate apparel.

8th October. Having prepared several butts for the purpose of holding the Great Coats and Thick Jackets of the seamen, they were now collected and tallied and stowed away until the return of the cold weather.

9th October. Fine weather but I could not today bear to be in the sun from headache and which prevented me from observing.

12th October. At ½ past 10 when I came out to leave my orders for the night to Lieut. Tathham I found a great part of the watch lying at full length asleep on the damp decks thereby endangering the health of the strongest men as well as not being prepared to execute any duty that might be suddenly required of them.  This is in direct disobedience of my public orders.

15th October. Saw several large brown boobies and Gannets a little before sunset. Porpoises and other fish seen.

18th October. Punished David Hood, XX Hopkins William Rowley and XX Davies with 2 dozen lashes each for gambling and one of them for throwing a stool at the Master at Arms.  Edward Lemon turned King’s Evidence after receiving 3 lashes.  Punished James Todd with 36 lashes and Clement Johnson with 18 lashes for theft.  Also Stephen Dempsey with 6 lashes for Insolence and John Heugh with 24 lashes for drunkenness and mutinous expressions.

21st October. Every attention to our sails but the swell from the Southward renders them almost useless by flapping with great violence.  Punished Thomas Romie with 12 lashes for selling his allowance of liquor.

25th October. Shoals of fish in sight and many birds flying about them.  Saw two Grampuses.

26th October. William White, seaman, fell out of the foretop and fractured his thigh and otherwise bruised himself in a very bad manner.

29th October. I now ordered the lemon juice to be mixed with the grog which made excellent punch.

1st November. Punished XX Williams with 12 lashes for drunkenness and William Creed with 9 lashes for quarrelling.

4th November. The Ship’s Steward Robert Pearson being detected in embezzling the Ship’s Rum I ordered him to be punished with 36 lashes and XX Scott (Cooper) with 24 lashes for being an accomplice and insolence. Also XX Kendrick with 12 lashes for uttering blasphemous words and getting drunk

16th November. Punished Thomas Davies with 12 lashes for disobedience of orders and Christopher Jay, George Millar with 12 lashes each and Joseph Ironmonger with 18 lashes for drunkenness.

28th November. At 10h anchored in James, Road, St. Helena with the Best Bower in 161/2 fathoms the Small Bower in 24 fathoms.  Returned the salute of 13 guns from Ladder Hill with the same Number.  No Ships in the Road and by an Officer who came off to wait on me, I found the convoy sailed on the 15th.  (As Bligh notes in his Journal he may have made the rendezvous had he not been obliged to sail to nearly 30 degrees south, about 1,000 nautical miles from the Island at his furthest point)

I landed and was saluted with 13 guns from the Hill

30th November. Departed this life Nicholas James from a fall down the main hatch.

1st December. Punished Geo Davies and XX Reid with 3 dozen lashes each for Drunkenness and disorderly behaviour and being old offenders.

2nd December. Buried Nicholas James on Shore.

The days spent moored in St. James’ Road were spent restocking the ship.  On the 5th 1,050 lbs of fresh beef, cabbage, watercress and 9 butts of water were received.  Fishing at Rupert’s was unsuccessful “caught a few small fish which did not repay the people for their trouble”.  The coopers were employed repairing casks “and they require much to be done to them.”

On Sunday the 8th Bligh records “Completed watering – received plants for Kew.”  This, in fact, may have been the principal reason for the voyage and the suggestion has been made that the whole trip was engineered by Bligh’s friend Joseph Banks who at this time was Kew’s unofficial Director.  In 1787 a garden had been established on St. Helena as a repository for specimens and managed by the Governor.  Banks had pioneered the movement of plants within the British Colonies and the island was used as a transfer station for plants being transported by ship from Australia, China and India.  Under Banks’ “benign superintendence” the Botanic Gardens at Kew became not simply a collecting house for botanical specimens, but the British centre for economic botany with a direct practical relevance to both Britain and her Colonies.

Sunday 8th. Read the articles of war and punished William Flinn with 10 lashes, XX Marr with 36 Lashes, XX Hexton with 24 lashes William Norris with 24 lashes for drunkenness and disorderly behaviour, XX Kenderick with 24 lashes for disobedience of orders and James Fancourt with 24 lashes for theft.

In his Journal Bligh writes “Remarks at St Helena”, a selection of which are transcribed below.

It has taken us 74 days to reach this place, which is longer than we at first expected, nevertheless it is, by the St. Helena people’s account a (indecipherable) passage as very few ships accomplish it under ten or eleven weeks.

Our run from the line has been 26 days the winds forced us into thirty degrees of latitude, nearly before we could get under the meridian of St. Helena.

I have formed a correct map to show the route of the ship and the direction of the wind

I should have attempted to have got to an anchor the night I lay to off the sand if I had not considered it hazardous on account of the shipping which I expected to have found lying in the Roads.  I was therefore extremely surprised at not finding any and more so, when by an officer who the Governor sent off to wait on me I was told that the ships had sailed without Convoy on the 15th inst (November)

As soon as the Ship anchored I went on shore and saw Governor Brooke. He told me he had permitted the ships to sail without convoys he was not at liberty to detain them longer than the 15th.  They were the Belvedere, Earl Wycombe’s Thetis, Worcester and Walpole’s regular ships, Seringapatam, Extra Indiaman with the Marquis Cornwallis’ packet and two Whalers – He had no intimation of any man of War coming out.

It was very uncertain when other ships might arrive – he knew not when to expect them.

We got fresh beef four days while we were here but we could not get any other species of provisions as the Garrison was in great want of these necessaries.

There is a plan under consideration with some of our merchants at home of making this island a depot for the Southern Skin Trade and Whale Fishery, the principal of which is to keep a class of ships here to be constantly employed while other Ships come from England to take home what may be lodged and prepared for the market.  The East India Company is amicable to the proposition.

The seasons at this place are become regular and a sufficiency of rain falls every year.  Our thermometer varied from 68 to 71 Degrees.

The anchoring place is as secure as any harbour, for the sea is free from tempestuous weather and ships may go in and out at all times of the year without any risk or trouble.

The watering is convenient, except sometimes when, from a great swell and little wind to landward of the island much surf runs on the piers.

The situation of Jamestown is Latitude 15.55 S Longitude 5. 49 West

On Monday 9^th December at 1hr 15 Director weighed anchor and sailed towards England arriving in The Downs on the 28th January 1800.

Director was broken up at Chatham in January 1801.  In 1805 Bligh was offered the position as Governor of New South Wales by Sir Joseph Banks, arriving in Sydney in August 1806.  Conflict between Bligh and the Colonists culminated in another mutiny and he eventually returned to England where he died in December 1817.

From 14th February to 5th September 1781 Bligh was Master of the Belle Poule, a captured French frigate put into the King's service. Same name but a different ship to that which in October 1840 would carry the exhumed body of Napoleon from St. Helena back to France.

The Portuguese Church, 1571

“Where the English settle they first build a Punch house, the Dutch a Fort and the Portuguese a Church.” Janisch 1885 April 7 1711, Jackson 1903 p.181, Gosse 1938 p.135, and Cannan 1992 p. 23.

On the 21st May 1502 Joao da Nova returning to Europe from India discovered St. Helena.  Gosse relates that “according to several early legends a large carrack, one of the fleet, was either wrecked or else became so unseaworthy that the Portuguese broke her up and drew on shore her weather-beaten sides and all the armoury and tackling, building with the timber a chappell in this valley, from thence is called Chappell Valley”

By the time Thomas Cavendish set foot on St Helena on the 9th June 1588, the early wooden church had been replaced by one of stone.

Linschoten's drawing of the Stone Church and The Santa Cruz flying the Portuguese Standard, May 1589

About two or three of the clocke in the afternoone wee went on shore, where wee found a marveilous faire & pleasant valley, wherein divers handsome buildings and houses were set up, and especially one which was a Church, which was tyled & whited on the outside very faire, and made with a porch, and within the Church at the upper end was set an altar, whereon stood a very large table set in a frame having in it the picture of our Saviour Christ upon the Crosse and the image of our Lady praying, with divers other histories curiously painted in the same. The sides of the Church were all hanged with stained clothes having many devises drawen in them.

There are two houses adjoyning to the Church, on each side one, which serve for kitchins to dresse meate in, with necessary roomes and houses of office: the coverings of the said houses are made flat, whereon is planted a very faire vine, and through both the saide houses runneth a very good and holsome streame of fresh water.

There is also right over against the saide Church a faire causey made up with stones reaching unto a valley by the seaside, in which valley is planted a garden, wherein grow great store of pompions and melons : And upon the saide causey is a frame erected whereon hange two bells wherewith they ring to Masse ; and hard unto it is a Crosse set up, which is squared, framed and made very artificially of free stone, whereon is carved in cyphers what time it was builded, which was in the yeere of our Lord 1571.

The Portuguese fleet had left the island, for Europe, twenty days before Cavendish’s arrival.

We found in the houses at our comming 3. slaves which were Negros, & one which was borne in the yland of Java, which tolde us that the East Indian fleete, which were in number 5. sailes, the least whereof were in burthen 8. or 900. tunnes, all laden with spices and Calicut cloth, with store of treasure and very rich stones and pearles, were gone from the saide yland of S. Helena but 20, dayes before we came thither.

The Stone Church and Linschoten's Fleet, May 1589
Linschoten's drawings were made as the Santa Cruz circled the Island arriving and departing

Jan Huyghen van Linschoten (1563-1611) was a Dutch Protestant merchant, traveller and historian who spent from 1583 to 1588 in the employ of the Portuguese in Goa.  He piloted the Portuguese East India fleet which left Cochin on January 1st 1589 and visited St. Helena in May of that year, eleven months after Cavendish’s visit.

When the ships come thether, everie man maketh his lodging under a tree, setting a Tent about it: for that the trees are there so thicke, that it presently seemeth a little towne or an armie lying in the fielde. Everie man provideth for himself, both flesh, fish, fruite, and woode, for there is enough for them all: and everie one washeth Linnen. There they hold a generall fasting and prayer, with Masse everie daye, which is done with great devotion, with procession, and thankesgiving and other Himnes, thanking God that hee hath preserved them from the danger of the Cape de Bona Speranca, and brought them to that Iland in safetie.

Linschoten also reported on the apparent vandalism by the English:

About foure monthes before our arrivall, there had beene an English ship which came to the Iland of Saint Helena; where they tooke in fresh water and other necessaries, and beate downe the Alter and the Crosse that stoode in the Church, and left behind them a Ketle and a Sword, which the Portingales at our arrival found there, yet could they not conceive or thinke what they might meane.

Gosse tells of other acts of vandalism by Dutch and Portuguese and in 1610 Francois Pyrard discovered on landing the bad state of the chapel, which he had seen in good condition nine years previously. A white marble cross brought from Portugal was broken in pieces, done in revenge, said Pyrard, by the Dutch.

The French traveller Tavernier visited in 1649 and though Gosse cautions that not too much reliance should be placed on his tale continues “There is only a little settlement near the sea where a chapel was once built but this chapel is now half a ruin.

Linschoten's two drawings of St Helena were reproduced as the endpapers in Gosse, part used on the cover of Edward Cannan's "Churches of the South Atlantic Islands" and on the obverse of the St Helena One Pound note, which was replaced by a coin in 1984 and is no longer in circulation.

The same image was also used on the 3p stamp, one of a set of six, issued in 1978 commemorating the 1613 sinking of the "Witte Leeuw" in James Bay.

Captain John Dutton arrived in May 1659 to take possession of the island for The East India Company and the next church to be built would be an Anglican one.

Cannan, 1992, Churches of the South Atlantic Islands 1502-1991 Nelson, ISBN 0 904614 48 4

The Linschoten drawings and more information can be accessed on Barry Weaver's web site St Helena Virtual Library and Archive at: http://www.bweaver.nom.sh/



  

Robert Jenkins, 1741

Robert Jenkins hands a swooning Prime Minister Robert Walpole his Spanish-sliced ear which led to the War of Jenkins’s Ear in 1739. His companions lift off his wig to show the scar while one of Walpole's associates displays total indifference, preferring to converse with a lady. Satirical Cartoon, 1738, British Museum.

Returning home from the West Indies in command of the brig Rebecca in April 1731, Captain Jenkins' ship was stopped and boarded by the Spanish guarda-costa La Isabela.  Though no proof of smuggling had been found her commander, Captain Julio León Fandiño, had Jenkins bound to a mast, then sliced off one of his ears with his sword and told him to say to his King "same will happen to him (the king) if caught doing the same".

There are various conflicting contemporary stories about this episode.  Jenkins was allowed to appear before the king with his story shortly after his return to England in June the same year but the matter was dropped and only revived again during the agitation of 1738 when political capital was eventually made out of the incident.  Brooke in his 1806 History of St. Helena relates that:  Captain Jenkins was insulted, tortured, and had one of his ears torn off, which, upon his arrival in England, he exhibited at the bar of the House of Commons, and, being asked by a member what he thought and did when they mangled him, made that memorable reply, "I committed my soul to God, and my cause to my country."

The evidence from parliamentary records is inconclusive.  It is recorded in the House of Commons Journal that on 16 March 1738 it was 'Ordered, that Captain Robert Jenkins do attend this House immediately'.  He obviously did not do so because again on 17 March it was 'Ordered, That Captain Robert Jenkins do attend, on Tuesday morning next, the Committee of the whole House to whom the Petition of divers merchants ... interested in the British plantations in America ... and many others is referred'.  After that there is no mention of him at all, even though reference is made to the petitions 'of divers merchants ...' etc. several times on 21-22, 28 and 30 March.  The MP William Pulteney, however, refers to the Jenkins case in a speech after the Committee had reported to the House and other contemporary accounts state that Jenkins did in fact appear before the Committee.

Unfortunately detailed records of the proceedings of the Committee of the whole House do not exist for this period.  According to the Dictionary of National Biography Jenkins produced something which he asserted was the ear which was cut or torn off, which suggests that it need not have been the actual ear.  Indeed, it seems highly improbable that he would have kept it for seven years.  After all, he was not to know in 1731 that his story was going to be brought back into the limelight and become an important factor in bringing about war with Spain so many years later.  During the popular excitement following the Committee's report it was said that Jenkins paraded around showing off his 'ear' wrapped in cotton wool and kept in either a box or a bottle.  Producing the alleged ear in the House of Commons (described as a retrospective put-up job) helped to force Walpole into what became known as the ‘War of Jenkins’ Ear’ against Spain in 1739, which then merged into the War of the Austrian Succession between 1740 and 1748.

On St. Helena the second administration of Governor Pyke, starting in March 1731, was notable for his arbitrary conduct.  White inhabitants were ignominiously whipped and imprisoned for trivial offences and military officers fined and suspended without courts martial.  He was eventually judged unfit to be any longer trusted with the power he so grossly abused, the Court of Directors dismissed him, but prior to the receipt of their orders to this effect, in July 1738, he died.  The Court then confirmed the senior member of Council, Mr John Goodwin, as Governor.  The next ranking individual was Mr. Duke Crisp who Brooke describes as; “a man not deficient in talents, and possessed of no common share of knavery and cunning.  He was concerned in trade with Governor Goodwin, had an entire influence over him, and was, in fact, the grand spring which regulated all the measures of Council. The Company's lands were disposed of for a tenth part of their value, the stores embezzled, the most infamous frauds committed by erasure and false entries, and the treasury robbed of nearly four thousand pounds”.

In 1739 Goodwin died and Crisp succeeded him as acting Governor but he had neglected to give a due share of the plunder to G. Powel, one of his colleagues in Council, a man still more artful than himself, and equally devoid of principle.  Powel turned informer, and from the nature of the intelligence he secretly transmitted to London, it was judged proper that a person of integrity should be immediately sent out, with extraordinary powers, to investigate the charges, and even, if necessary, to supersede the Governor and Council.  The man selected for this was Robert Jenkins who was appointed Supervisor of all the Company's affairs at St. Helena.  Under this title he left for the island, where he arrived in May, 1740, and, pursuant to his instructions, landed in the first boat, and immediately proceeded to the Castle, accompanied by Mr. John Godfrey, his assistant.  Announcing that he had charge of dispatches, a Council was instantly assembled.  He then opened his commission, summoned the chief Supercargoes, and Captains of the Company's ships then at the island, and in their presence demanded the keys of the treasury.  The cash found, and counted on the spot, amounted to only six pounds sterling.  Mr. Crisp and the rest of the Council (with the exception of Mr. Powel), were declared to be no longer in the Company's service, and Jenkins assumed the government and formed a Council.  A thorough investigation was started and most ample proof found in support of the accusations made by Mr. Powel, who was in consequence made second in Council; and the estates of the guilty were seized to the extent of the Company's losses, which were calculated at six thousand two hundred and eighty-four pounds.

May 9th 1741.—Governor Robert Jenkins arrived with Powell as deputy Governor—and Mr. Godfrey 3rd in Council.  Agreeable to our Hon. Master's orders we immediately demanded of Messrs. Duke Crispe and Bazett the keys of the Castle.  We found Cash in notes £94 7 6 and the Cash Book brought up to 31st March by which there appears to be due to the Company only £6 19 0.

Mr. Crispe and Bazett being told they were not to go hence until they have satisfied our just demands they answer the late Mr. Goodwin was cashere they therefore consider him to be wholly culpable with respect to the deficiency.  Resolved, as they have refused to give the security asked that there be a guard upon their persons until the Dane ship now riding in the road was sailed.

Letter from Gov. Jenkins to Directors, 11th May 1741.—Your Honours Estate here is in a worse condition than we expected.  The frauds are so errant and so open that Mr. Crispe and Mr. Bazett have confessed them only they scruple being made accountable.  Mr. Goodwin we find (unhappily for him) was concerned with Mr. Crispe.  We would if we could point out who has been the chief actor therein but all that we are able to say is that it is evident that Mr. Crispe has been the wheel by which the other two have blindly moved—the total deficiency is £6284.  The Estates of the late Mr. Goodwin and Mr. Bazett are more than sufficient to make good their proportions.  Mr. Crispe gave an Inventory 1st of £1,427, afterwards one of £2,461—now we assure your Honours we know not what to say of this gentleman.

Council Proceedings 10th June.—Mr. Crispe owns to having burnt papers and letters which were taken by him from a file of Mr. Goodwin's a few hours after he died. Council agreed that Mr. Crispe appears to us in such colours as is not possible for us to paint.

June 4^th 1742.—Mr. Crispe finds Bonds for £1145 and is allowed to leave by next ship.

Jenkins, having executed his commission, was succeeded by Major Lambert who arrived on the 22d of March, 1741, in the ship Harrington, of which Captain Jenkins was directed to assume the command for the remainder of the voyage.  Lambert didn’t last long as Governor, dying on July 20^th the same year and nothing further is on the record relating to Robert Jenkins, though he is remembered in the name of one of the houses at Prince Andrew School.  During his time on the island Jenkins lived in a cottage on the Sandy Bay road, on the right after the Baptist Chapel almost as far as it was possible to be from Jamestown.  Ian Baker gives the detail that “you might just make out a black stone built into the corner of one cottage:

Rob. Jenkins Esq.,

December 16^th AD

1741

http://www.bweaver.nom.sh/janisch/janisch_1725-49.html

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/parliamentary-archives/archives-practical/archives-faqs/records-frequently-asked-questions/#jump-link-30

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Jenkins_(master_mariner)

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=CmYLAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=brooke+history+of+st+helena&hl=en&ei=h3OYTfDxGI6K4gbq5OjUAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false