TRAGEDIES OF THE SEA.

NZ Truth, Issue 130, 14 December 1907, Page 7

TRAGEDIES OF THE SEA.

MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY. Four of the Prisoners Drowned hi Irons. THREE HANGED AT THE YARDARM. Capture of the Convict Byrant and His Family. NO. 1.

I'll read you matter deep and dangerous ; !As full of peril; and adventurous ;. spirit, As to o'erwalk a current, roaring loud, " On the unsteadfast footing of a spear. ' •• -7-Shakespeare. When the particulars of the mutiny bad been communicated by Bligh to the Fritish Government, steps were immeciiately taken to capture the un-, fortunate mutineers. The frigate Pandora, of 24 guns ..and i 160 men,, was despatched ' m pursuit of them, under ' Captain Edwards—who proved; himself' ■&.< greater": savage * nan Bliffh, arid riioret^fitted^fot' •the 1 custody of the . • •black' hole ' : of Calcu^' ' tha» = the command of British seam en, or the guar-fiiansliii) ' of / British prisoners. . Hayward, who had been one of the •midshipmen Vof -the Bounty, asleep at his post, and Hallett, another hiidpMpman, who. had stuck to Blie.-'h m the launch, were made third and fourth lieutenants of the Pan- I dora. v : ' ■■ .■• ■ ■•' .'.-.• ■■■'■■. '■'-.! On the .arrival, of Edwards at Ma- J tayai Bay. n?T Otaheite. on, March 23, 3.79J J three of -the m<?n, who had remained llicre. riearlv two yearsJoseph Cnlcman, Peter Heywood, and George Stewart— came '. on board the (Pandora, : ■'■'anil ■ • , ;'■ SURBEJNP EKED .> THEMSEL VBS. They were 'insiianrfy^put'.in irons, as j were elev en ! ; pothers, who werq afterwards searched :, out, 7 and taken to OtalieiteV ' ; . ' ' . ; ; Two ,of the mutineers— Churchill and Thompson-rwho . had .landed with the rest, were dead when Kdwards. arrived ....... The. , .hi si or v'~ .61 .. these -two men has a dreadful kind of interest. Churchill, after living', at, Matavav for a while, went to live' with Wahee'adoda,,who was , chief ■ .of Terrialoo when' Captain' Cook .last visited , the placp. ;■ went with Mm.' 1 but they,' soon disagreed. Waheeadooa dying without .chitdren, Churchill, who' had been his ..chief friend, 'sucseeded hini^ ttceordirip; ,tb the custom' of the island. :Thonlpsbh. - enyiqus oi" Churchill's honors, and ' anp 11 *- to some, insult, 'took . an opportunity of | shooting, him,., , {The . -naiiives. then rose and stone 4 Thompson to death. ■'■'■'•■ THE: MAN^HUNTER ; j Edwards could hear nothing of, the i Bounty, nor of Cbtistian and Ms eipht conißafnions, who had gone off' to Pitcairn;.''But Edwards secured 14 j prisoners, which he confined m the narrotv space of. lift, m leneth, built on the.afterpart of the quarterdeck, and . ' called .. the „ "Pandora's Box." Into. this wretched prison the

men were thrust heavily Ironed, a spectacle of man's inhumanity to his fellows, as if they were captured' murderers. The Pandora, however, never reached England, being wrecked on a coral reef oft the coast of New Holland, on August 29, 1791. Before she foundered, Heywood and some other prisoners disengaged their hands and feet from their irons, the key of their chains having been dropped through the scuttle to them. The master-at-arms, who dropped the key. was : drowned, with about eighty of the ship's company; and four o£ the prisoners— Stewart, Sumner, Skinner, and HiHbrandt— who sank m their irons. Of the Pandora's crew 89 were saved, and 10 prisoners. .■, The reef upon which the survivors were cast was about 90 yard's long by 60 wide, and the only shelter the prisoners had from A TROPICAL SUN / was to bury themselves up to their necks m the hot sand. Here they remained 19 days. Captain Edwards had tents, made . from sails, erected for himself and his people; but when the prisoners petitioned him. for ao old sail, part of. the wreck, wtoteh was lyin£ useless,; it was 1 refused. He ■, was needlessly severe arid; harsh f to men who had not : yet; been declared puilty, and who : had an undoubted right to the- common offices. Of humanity and respect," But there 'arethose m every: ;a^'- who.-. ..fin-d no plea- , sure, m showing kindness to the uiir fortunate, whilst '. thev; are lavish of their attention to the prosperous and happy. ; ■ : '■ ■■ ,■ ■■■:... • .■: '■.""■Edwards, and the remainder of the crew, after leaving the.: sari dy. rock, made their way m f out . boats .to r Timor, after a tedious voyage ,of nearly a thousand ■•.miles.- where they farriyjed 'on 'S/eptcmber .13, 17J1, In the meantime they had ; ... SUFFERED DREADFUL PRIVA- ,.;■.:... tionS; ; .■.;.-. ■•.,;.;-. owing to the very; .small allowance ; of bread- and water served out to , the men each day. ' One of the seamen went ma-d, and died from drinking •salt water. „. .-, • :■• ;. .', It is a curious coincidence that Hayward, who had been m the Bounty afterwards m the launch : with Bligh. and subsequently m; the Pandora with Edwards, was . again set adrift in;', the same , sea m an, open boat, again exposed to hardships, and again reached Coupang safely. "We continued to, Timor," says Morrison's journal, "till .October ... -5, when we were removed on board the. Remhang, a Dutch vessel then m the roads— and Larkin (who had been first lieutenant of, the Pandora) coining previously to the prison, with j

cords for the purpose, pinioned us with his own hands, "by setting his foot against out backs, and bracing our arms together so as. almost to haul them out of the sockets. We were tied two and two by the elbows, and' having our leg-irons- ; knocked off, were conducted to the beach and put into a long-boat, to be taken to the ship. Before we reached her, some of us fainted, circulation fojeiftg stopped by th"c arm lashings, and when we 'got on board we had both legs put into irons and the lashing's taken off.'' A fitting lieutenant was Larkirt to infamous Edwards. From Batavia three Dutch ships were chartered to convey the' party to the Cape of Good Hope. Thence the prisoners were removed to the Gorgon, where they were 'tested more kindly, a<nd allowed. t< itfalk tlie deck for exercise daily. The Gorgon- arrived at Portsmouth on. June 19, 1792, and a couple of days later the wretched prisoners, inanaci,ed and m tatters, were transhipped to the Hector, a. 74-gun ship, commaftded by Captain Montagu, which was' for upwards of 18 weeks their prison. Then came the trial, and the conviction.. The first clause of the 19th Article of War (22nd George II.) read} "If any person m. or belonging to the fleet shall make, or. endeavor to make, any .mutinous , assembly, on any pretence whatever, every person offending herein, and being convicted thereof, by the sentence of the courtmar iial, shall suffer death.?' THE COURTMARTIAL was held at Portsmouth, on board the Duke, on September 12, 1792, a.nd was presided over by Vioe-Ad-miral Lord Hood. The names of the ten surviving prisoners,' capitally, charged with mutiny and piracy, were Peter Heywood, , James Morrison, Thomas Ellison, Thomas Burkitt, John Millward, William Muspratt, Charles Norman, Joseph Coleman, Thomas Mclntpsh . and , Michael Byoie,,all of. whom -had beeii nearly: 15 months m irons. ■■ -. : While Edwards was at; Timor, it was brought under his notice that an ex-convict, from Port Jackson, his devoted wife, and five brave mates (still liable to sentence here), with two .children of the Bryants— who, flying fr'onv want and savage punishments, had slipped their fetters* and. tictoetrof-leave— had escaped through Sydney Pleads^ on the night of, March 28,; 1791, ; ; m a 21ft. boat, and ■ had made that island , after the most daring voyage made on. any coast. ToiJ-. ing, "striving, ' hoping, fearing', as they slowly m ad e their way alone the whole eastern shores of-'Austra-lia,-. and either- through .Torres Straits, or round' by New GiiiHea, they !at > last "reached -the green shore's of Timor, the ve'rv . place they meant to make six months before at Sydney. Their subsequent story is as interesting as it is sa'tj. . Captain "Edwards, with the instinct of AN OCEAN. POLICEMAN, ■; demanded and obtained irom the G over nor of Timor the surrender of poor Bryant and his party as prisoners of the Crown illegally 'at large. This being granted, he carried them to Baiavia, m the Remhang, along With the other captives. Bryant one of the children, and two, of his grown ■ companions died at Batavia ; another of them was drowned m the Straits of Sunda, but Mary Bryant, with her surviving child, and- the remainder of the party, were brought by Edwards to England.; Here, when their courage, their determination, fidelity and sufferings they had evinced m their desperate boat voyage from Sydney to Timor became known, the sympathy of the imblic was theirs, and the narration of the misery heroically borne by Mrs Bryant excited much compassion. But,, alas, the law knows nothing of thatfine quality of the human heart, and, unfortunate Mary Bryant and the two surviving convicts were brought up at the Old Bailey, m August, 1792. There they were ordered by the Court to remain m Newtrate "till the periods of their original sentences', of transportation should expire." But to resume. The cburtmartial was concluded on the sixth dar September- 18, when the prisoners were brought iii. The court having agjrieed that the charges, of ' running away with the ship, and deser ting Ms Majesty's service, . '; '. ":'\. HAD BEEN PROVED / against six of the prisoners, they found Heywood, Morrison, Ellison, Burkitt v Millward, and Muspratt guilty, and adjudged them to suffer death by being hanged by the neck on board ship of war. The court acquitted Norman, Colem'an,\ Mclntosh, and Byrne, and recommended Peter Heywood and James Morrison to mercy. . ' • ' ■ ( On -October 24, 1792, the Royal warrant was despatched, granting .a free pardon to Heywood and Morrison, with a respite for Muspratt. At the same time was sent a warrant for the execution of Burkitt, Ellison, and Millward. r Muspratt was afterwards pardoned. " \ ' Millward, Muspratt, and Churchill were the men who had been deserters at Otaheite, and who had been forgiven by Bligh for it. Burkitt had been forward m the mutiny on board the Bounty,' but Ellison was a mere boy of 1? at the time, yet be was sacrificed to propitiate a tyrannical but outraged law. ' . *• • Burkitt, Ellison, and Millward were executed, pursuant to their sentence, on October 26, on board the ship Brunswick, m Portsmouth Harbor. A party from each ship m the harbor,, aratf from Spithead attended the execution. Heywood, on his release, visited hi 9' family, and afterwards joined the . Navy, and rose ramdly. In 1803 he, was made post captain, and m 1813, was appointed to the command of the Montaeu, of 74 guns.. Being near the rank of admiral, lie died ,m London m 1831, aged 58. When the <Monta^\ mi was •■ put out of commission, m 1816, one / of her crew, by desire of. the ship's company composed A SPIRITED STANZA m his honor, one verse of which ran •'— "Farewell to thee, Heywood, a truer I one never ' ; ' Hath exercised rule o'er the sons ! of the wave ; The seamen who served thee would serve tLoe for ever, i Who swayed, but ne'er fettered, the hearts of the brave." ' Of the others, Hnliett, the midshipman., who gave evidence at ther"ni.!rtmartini, was ao"oint'*d Hen^n;nu of H.M.S. J?f>nrlow, -.qn^iio l V'M.v> , afterwards lav unon his death b'ed>

when he expressed contrition for the evidence he had given against the mutineers, saying he had spoken too positively of facts of whioh he could not be certain^ for, m the confusion of the mutiny, Ire was quite bewildered. It was too late then to rectify mistakes. Hayward, another midshipman, , who gave evidence against the mutineers, was app milted to the command of the sloop of war Swift, which, y?ith\ himself, was ' LOST IN A TYPHOON m the China Sea. Morrison, after his pardon was appointed gunner of the Blenheim, m which lie perished with Admiral Sir Thomas Troubridge. The Blenheim was on. her way trom Madras to . the Cape with a large complementof passengers and crew, and is sujj^ posed to have foundered m a vioJ^M? gale that raged on February l,,i|||| as she was, never heard of wfp>' wards. ".'■'' '. . '.»/- .. Of Bligh it is almost unnecessary to add anything, as, being o'rte of our Governors, every schoolboy has read of Ms . dethronement by Colonel Johnston, of Annand'ale fame. There seems, to be something of Richard the Third's qualities about him— at once a coward and a brave man, a ruffian, and a psalm-singer, a fortunate and ' unfortunate man, a deserving and an undeserving man. ' He, . DISTINGUISHED HIMSELF :. at the battles of Gaijc; St.; Vincent, Camperddwn .,'■ and, and received the sTiecipilthankjs of , the incomparable Nelson^mmself', for his coolness and daring "iiVthe last-men-' tioned sea fight. How^ve^ two yeats after his arrival m- I^^iW.' as 0-ov-ernor he was de.posedv : :.in:.(-;^J'ajiuaTy, : 1808, by the fflUi^*ry,>seEtfi).g- undef him, (or . ar^trary A^firessiye, and , illegal conduct. Yea^|-dafter wards .-.her was made A%e-admar^l of the BUie/ nd died peacefully m London in' 1817. ;■■-■. . . -, , : , ;; ,, -(The Em!.) >■