Foul-mouthed captain pushes crew to the limits The way we were
PRIOR to the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, thousands of sailing ships rounded the Cape of Good Hope and entered the Indian Ocean each year. Many vessels bound for the Pacific were also forced to sail “the long way round” (via the Cape and Australia) because the direct course via Cape Horn was so dangerous.
This was the case when a small 230-ton Royal Naval Armed Vessel (RNAV) limped into Simon’s Bay in May 1788, leaking badly as a result of trying to force a passage around the Horn to Tahiti.
The ship, formerly a collier known as the Bethia, had cleared Spithead two days before Christmas, having been seriously delayed by the late arrival of her sailing orders from the Admiralty.
This put the captain (an experienced lieutenant who was the only commissioned officer aboard) in a bad mood, as he would miss the best period for attempting to skirt the southern tip of South America.
He nevertheless intended to try. Discipline was tightened and his men were given severe tongue-lashings and punishments for petty faults and omissions. Swearing and bad language abounded on naval ships, but public criticism and humiliation caused lasting resentments, especially when delivered by a short, plump, curly-headed officer with a foul temper. Although he was not a notorious flogger, his words cut his men to the quick.
His small crew spent 29 days in March and April fighting the elements in an attempt to pass from the stormy Atlantic into the benign Pacific.
They were appalled by the vicious gales and the height and length of the swells, the like of which even the oldest and most experienced seaman aboard had never witnessed.
The captain refused to give up until his sick and exhausted men could no longer handle the rigging. Finally, at five o’clock on April 22, 1788, he ordered the helm to be put a-weather, “to the great joy of every person on board”.
They spotted Table Mountain after a month (during which the vessel leaked so badly that the pumps had to be manned every hour) and anchored in False Bay for extensive repairs.
The ship had to be completely re-caulked, the sails and rigging overhauled and the stores examined and supplemented. The captain met Governor Van De Graaff and Colonel Gordon and found them agreeable.
The RNAV Bounty left Simon’s Bay on July 1 after a stay of 38 days. Lieutenant William Bligh wrote: “My people had received all the advantage that could be derived from the refreshments of every kind that are here to be met with.”
Ahead lay the famous “Mutiny on the Bounty” (portrayed in five feature films and described in numerous books and documentaries).
More next week.