at the time regarded it as normal and the fifteen-year-old Sophia Pigot was no exception, receiving (and enjoying) a great deal of attention from the captain of the Northampton, even though he had a wife and children at home in England. Sophia’s diary reveals a two-way flirtation, which she even boasted about. It is sprinkled with entries like these: ‘Captain Charlton very full of mischief, taking our things below … laughed very much’; ‘Working after tea – in Captain Charlton’s seat’; ‘Captain Charlton teasing me about my poetry.’
Sexual encounters were common, as we have seen, and the opportunities plentiful, given the sleeping arrangements. Several couples met during the voyage and subsequently shared their destinies on the frontier. And when not cowering beneath the dreadful waves, throwing up, fighting hunger, feeling ill or mourning dead children, the settlers made the most of the fact that they were surrounded by other people. On the calm, warm days and evenings there were many kinds of shared pleasures – in addition to the open-air prayer meetings and sermons.
Apart from the flirting among the settlers and between women passengers and crew members, and the less discreet bed hopping, there was a generally jovial relationship between passengers and crew. The worldly, well-travelled sailors enjoyed spinning tall yarns to the inexperienced and naive settlers, and they told their passengers stories about sea monsters, giant octopuses and other mythological wonders of the deep, not to mention weird accounts of the cultures on the islands they had visited.
When the Zoroaster was moored at Simonstown, its passengers were fascinated by the mountains that rose from the bay and they looked out for the sheep that they had been told grazed on the mountain slopes. The sailors, Jeremiah Goldswain wrote, had told them that they had seen sheep climbing the hills, ‘with their tails made fast to a little truck with two wheels. They stated that the hills that the sheep had to graze on were so steep that all their fat ran into their tails.’
When they reached Simonstown, he was disappointed that the sheep were nowhere to be seen, ‘but in the course of that day we saw one of those tails, weighing about five pounds’.
When the sea was calm, there were not only religious gatherings on the decks, but also parties, where rum flowed. And on every ship there was the customary ‘crossing the line’ ceremony where members of the crew dressed up as Neptune and his wife and their court members, and ‘boarded’ the ship to the accompaniment of music. This was an initiation rite of the sea, in which all the men who were crossing the equator for the first time were condemned by Neptune to be shaved, thrown into a lifeboat filled with water and made to drink rum whether they wanted to or not.
Most of those who wrote or gave talks about the voyage later mentioned that ceremony, which always occurred in extreme heat, of course. Little Tom Stubbs, on board the Northampton, recaptured his childish excitement at the event in old age. Being the son of a party leader, he had been in the privileged position of being able to watch the whole spectacle from start to finish from a seat on the poop, shaded by an awning. His father, John, was part of the pageant, as the organiser had asked him to provide the music by playing his fiddle: ‘That morning the “tiger hunters”, as the sailors called us, were battened down, with the exception of heads of parties who, with the cabin passengers, were accommodated with seats on the poop, having an awning over them … At about ten o’clock a gun was fired, and it was reported below that Neptune was on board. The old sea god and his wife soon made their appearance, she riding on a gun carriage, covered with a Union Jack, drawn by some fellows in masks, and with the violin playing in front. Old Neptune then gave orders to bring up the first novice and introduce him to His Majesty and Mrs Nep. A regular chaw-bacon [simple country person] was brought up from below, blindfolded, and brought to the small boat filled with water, and seated on the gunale, a guard holding each arm. In the meantime one of the men had mixed the suds – tar and fat, and with this decoction the unwilling countryman’s face was smeared. He was then asked where he came from, and on opening his mouth to speak, the tar brush was inserted in the aperture. After three duckings in the water he was taken to see old Neptune and his spouse, whose healths he had to drink.’
Tom was not spared humiliation either. He was dragged off his chair to be initiated: ‘I was too young to shave, so was only dipped in the boat, but had my tot of grog and was kissed by Mrs Neptune. She had a precious hard beard.’
The ceremony aboard the La Belle Alliance was similar but, according to Ayliff, very intimidating, even for an adult. He described the emotions around him as he too was put through the initiation: ‘All of the royal party looked most frightful, and a lot of the young girls and children, and some of the young chaps, looked somewhat alarmed, and went off between decks to get out of the way.’
As John Ayliff describes it, the shaving implement looked crude and unhygienic – ‘a piece of iron hoop for the razor’ – and after that he was dumped in the lifeboat where as he was plunged in and out of the water bucket after bucket of water was thrown at him. ‘My eyes smarted so dreadfully with the salt water being dashed on them that it was some time before I could get right again.’
He concluded the day’s entry: ‘So passed this day, by a grand ball in the evening in which all the settlers seemed to enjoy themselves. I am certainly glad that I have passed the line, and the razor of Neptune’s barber.’
It would be unnatural if there had not been some serious conflict among a group of British people in such close confinement. The vinegar incident on the Zoroaster, insignificant as the cause of the conflict was, resulted in dangerous consequences for the ‘mutineers’ – expulsion from the ship and the prospect of being marooned on a remote island.
And there were more significant conflicts – some recorded but probably very many more unrecorded. Without doubt, the most notorious occurred aboard the Northampton, observed by Sophia Pigot and Tom Stubbs.
Although she was thrilled by Captain Charlton’s attention and the new friends she had made among the other teenage girls, Sophia was unsettled by the conflict all around her throughout the voyage, in both the domestic and the wider spheres. On 17 February she wrote: ‘Mr and Mrs Clark quarrelled very much – he beat her etc.’ And again: ‘Wed 1st March: Disturbances with Mr Clark.’
Mrs Clark must have sought comfort from the teenager because Sophia wrote: ‘She told me a great deal about it.’
However, the disharmonious chords on board the Northampton came mainly from the Irish settlers and their leader. These settlers, led by the colourful, eccentric architect Thomas Mahoney, were extremely violent and aggressive towards him, each other, the other passengers, the captain and the crew. They kept the Northampton in a state of constant turmoil with their drunken brawls and quarrels. Although Sophia was wrapped up in her own little preoccupations, their disruptive effect on life on board the vessel forced itself on her attention. ‘January 11,’ she wrote, ‘Two men handcuffed for striking the captain.’
‘January 20, a meeting of the gentlemen below, sad disturbance with these Irish people.’
‘Friday 3 February. Great disturbances with the Irish people, sharpening both sides of their knives. Rather frightened. They were threatening to put a sentinel at Mr Mahoney’s cabin door.’
The climax came when Mahoney refused to draw his party’s water ration. When the captain ordered him to perform the task, Mahoney became insolent and abusive. The captain tried to arrest him and a fight took place: some of Mahoney’s men rushed to his aid, the captain called for help and his officers became involved. Mahoney’s supporters resisted for some time but were finally subdued. The Irishmen were put in irons and locked up in the punishment cells.
When they were released, the disruptive behaviour started again. Party leaders Pigot, Stubbs and Dalgairn formed a committee of public safety to try to find a way through.
The first
