22 Goodlad, John, PhD. Thesis: Op.cit. Section 7.1.3.
23 Thomson, Captain J.P, OBE ExC. Op.cit, p.2.
24 Goodlad, John, PhD. Thesis: Op.cit. Section 9.1.2.
25 Halcrow, Captain A. Op.cit. p.101.
26 Thomson, Captain J.P, OBE ExC. Op.cit, p.2.
27 Goodlad, John, PhD. Thesis: Op.cit Section 9.1.4.
28 Postcard No.26 to Mrs. Isbester ‘from your loving niece Susie’. (Isbester Collection).
The Novice, where John Isbester finished the 1867 season, was owned by the well-known Shetland cod fishing firm of Joseph Leask & Co., and in 1868 he signed on the schooner Anaconda, another Faero smack owned by Leask, where he was to go to the cod fishing for the next three seasons. These schooners were long, rakish, fine-lined vessels of over 35 metres in length, wet in a seaway and needing to be handled with care – ‘Like a glass baby which would as soon drown you as look at you’ – as one old salt is reported to have said. Like most of the Faero smacks they had originally been built for other trades. Anaconda and her two sister schooners had been luxuriously appointed, and the skipper of the sister ship Destiny was reputed to have adopted my lady’s boudoir as his cabin.1 It is unlikely that John Isbester, sailing as ordinary seaman, would have felt much benefit from the luxury.
During the fishing season Anaconda carried a crew of 17 of whom 13 were full-shares-men; the three ordinary seamen, of whom John Isbester was one, earned ¾ shares, and a ship’s boy earned a ½ share. These were the shares of the earnings from the fishing after the owners had taken a half of the total earnings, plus the costs of fitting out the ship for the fishing.2
After the fishing season these vessels made voyages to Spain and the Mediterranean ports with sun-dried Shetland cod (baccalà), for which there was a good market, and they made other commercial voyages to British and European ports.3 This is how the schooner Anaconda was employed during the winters of 1868–9 and 1869–70, which must have been frustrating for John Isbester, who as a junior hand was not retained outside the fishing season. His shipmates were visiting new countries, experiencing the adventure of foreign ports, seeing beautiful big sailing ships and enjoying, from time to time the sunshine, blue skies and gentle winds, the flying fish and sporting dolphins of more southern latitudes. From his more experienced shipmates he would be hearing sailors’ stories of romantic tropical seaports and great commercial centres. So it is no surprise that after five hard summers of fishing in challenging northern climes amongst his Shetland countrymen he chose to move into big ships, trading worldwide. In the spring of 1871, at the age of 19, he went south to Liverpool, to find employment in square-rigged ships.
In Liverpool he joined the ship Sealkote, 1,241 tons gross, as ordinary seaman in April 1871 shortly before she sailed for
Calcutta and any ports and places in the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and the China and Eastern Seas (thence to a port for orders and to the Continent if required) and back to a final port of discharge in the United Kingdom term not to exceed 3 years.4
The agreement also provided that:
The crew shall consist of Mate, Carpr, Bsn, Sails, Std, Cook, 8 Seamen, 1 Ordy and 1 Boy [i.e. mate, carpenter, bosun, sailmaker, steward, cook, 8 seamen, 1 ordinary seaman and 1 boy]. No grog allowed.
Life in the forecastle cannot have been pleasant. James Reddock, another ordinary seaman, fell sick on the third day of the voyage from an unidentified but appalling illness which covered him with a rash, then scabs which rubbed off to leave bare flesh. Despite care which seems to have been well intentioned and kindly, he died 12 days later, by which time he was ‘smelling very strong’.5 Throughout his illness he lay in the forecastle, sharing the space with all the other sailors. After his death, in accordance with tradition, his possessions were sold to his shipmates. This was a way of ensuring that his meagre possessions were not wasted and of providing a little money for the next of kin, when and if known.
Calcutta was reached in mid-September, after about five months at sea. During the passage while Sealkote was in the Atlantic, John Isbester would have experienced Westerlies followed by the steady north east trade winds, then the doldrums and the south east trades, mostly pleasant sailing in latitudes far more benign than was offered by the waters around Shetland. Rounding the Cape of Good Hope, probably at a good distance from the land, the westerly winds of the Roaring Forties might have accelerated their passage before they turned northwards into the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal. The final weeks of the voyage would have occurred during the south west monsoon season, providing a fair wind but unpleasant rainy, sweaty conditions when tempers are likely to have been short. Arriving at Sandheads at the mouth of the Hoogly, Sealkote would have acquired a pilot and a tug and been towed up the fast-flowing river to Budge Budge or Calcutta. The dense mangrove swamps, the innumerable small boats transporting passengers or stacked high with sacks or bales of farm produce, the fishermen with their nets and the brown-skinned people in lungis and saris would provide fascinating sights for a young man who until that time had seen only the Faeroes, Scotland and northern England.
When berthed at No.5 Hastings Moorings, Calcutta, at 0715 hrs on Monday 17 September, shortly after Sealkote’s arrival in the port, Lewis Joseph, ordinary seaman, loosing sails, fell from the mizzen topsail yard onto the poop deck. He was immediately seen by a doctor who happened to be on board at the time and sent to Calcutta hospital where he died at 1015 hrs the same morning of a ruptured spleen. A fall in these circumstances would be unusual – the ship would be steady and the temperature not extreme – but the records show that Joseph had taken a cash advance of 5 shillings on the ship’s arrival in port the previous afternoon, in addition to incurring debts of £1 5s with a bumboat man for unspecified goods or services. In Calcutta in 1871, 5 shillings – half a week’s wages for an ordinary seaman – would have been a very much more substantial figure than it seems today. Whatever the reason, it is likely that his fall was caused by feeling unwell. When Joseph’s effects were sold, John Isbester paid 3 shillings for a pair of boots which Joseph had earlier in the voyage bought for 16 shillings from the captain’s slopchest.
Most of the crew deserted soon after the ship arrived in Calcutta, which probably suited both crew and owners well. The latter could use cheap local labour when needed for the two months during which Sealkote was in the port, and the former could have a few days ashore enjoying themselves after their five months at sea and then, when their money ran out, ship out to some new destination.
Sealkote remained in Calcutta until mid-November and I like to think that my grandfather wandered around the suburban Kidderpore covered market as I did 90 years later, enjoying the immaculate stalls selling beans and pulses in sacks carefully opened to display their attractive contents, bars of coarse local soap, brilliantly coloured saris and enticing, juicy mangoes, sweet and tasty bananas and delicious
