Devonshire Characters and Strange EventsBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
Devonshire Characters and Strange Events
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Devon (England) -- Biography; Devon (England) -- History
“Here I cannot help breaking off in my narrative to remark on the
providential nature of our succour. The damage done to our boat had
caused us much distress, but now how different were our views of the
accident; for had our boat _not_ been damaged, our return to the
other island would have followed as a matter of course; and, in all
probability, we should never have seen the vessel that now proved the
means of our deliverance.”
On 23 January, Captain Perceval steered for the east island, and took
off the remainder of the shipwrecked men.
“The day of departure now arrived, and after remaining on those islands
one year, ten months, and five days, we bade them adieu--shall I say
with great joy? Certainly; and yet I felt a mixture of regret. Whether
from the perverseness of my nature, or from any other cause, I can only
say--so it was.”
The American captain was bent on collecting seal-skins, and it was
his purpose to visit the islands of Amsterdam and St. Paul’s, and
then make his way to the Mauritius, where he would leave those whom
he had rescued. Meanwhile, he required them, like a shrewd, not
to say grasping Yankee, to work for him at the seal fishery; and
this they did till the 1st April, when he was at St. Paul’s. There
dissatisfaction broke out among those he had rescued. He had kept
them working hard for him during two months, and had not given them
even a change of clothing. The Italian Mazora spoke out, and Captain
Perceval was furious and ordered him to be set on shore; he would take
him no further in his ship. At this his comrades in misfortune spoke
out also. Having suffered so long together they would not desert a
comrade, and they all resented the way in which Captain Perceval was
taking an unfair advantage of them. They had, in fact, secured for
him five thousand seal-skins and three hundred quintals of fish. The
Yankee captain having now got out of them all he could, did not trouble
himself about taking them any further, and sent ten of them ashore:
only three--Captain Veale, his brother, and Petherbridge--went on with
the American ship. Two others, Soper and Newbee, had remained at their
own wish at Amsterdam, which they could leave when they wished, as it
lay in the direct track of all ships going from the Cape of Good Hope
to New South Wales.
The American captain gave a cask of bread and some necessaries to those
he put ashore on St. Paul’s.
Here they remained, renewing their hardships on the Crozets, but in a
better climate, till the first week in June, when a sloop, a tender to
the _King George_ whaler, arrived, looking for her consort in vain. The
sloop was only twenty-eight tons and could not accommodate more than
three, and the lot decided that Goodridge should be one of these three.
Then the sloop sailed for Van Diemen’s Land, and after a rough passage
of thirty-six days reached Hobart Town on 7 July.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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