Magellania by Jules Verne

Author:Jules Verne [Verne, Jules]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-8032-5590-6
Publisher: UNP - Nebraska Paperback
Published: 2013-03-28T04:00:00+00:00

IX

THE JONATHAN

Two weeks before the night of February fifteenth to sixteenth, the American clipper The Jonathan left San Francisco, California, heading for southern Africa. It was a crossing of […] miles, that a fast ship might make in five weeks, given favorable winds and seas.

This sailboat, with a burden of 2,500 tons, was equipped with four masts, the foremast and mainmast with square sails, and the two others with lateen sails, spankers and topsails. It was built in the Sherry and Foster shipyards. Rated as a first-class vessel, with a finely elongated iron hull, its draft, perfect sails and masts, and machinery for various onboard functions, offered every assurance of a quick crossing.

She was commanded by Captain Leccar, an excellent seaman in his prime, and under his orders were the first mate Musgrave, lieutenants Furner and Maddison, boatswain Tom Sand, and a crew of twenty-seven men, all Americans.

The Jonathan had already crossed the Pacific Ocean twice, headed for Australia and British East India. Its returns from Calcutta and Sydney were made under favorable conditions, even though the southern seas were violent as usual. From both a maritime and business point of view, its owners, Blount and Frary, were pleased with the results of these two trips.

For this latest trip, which had just finished in catastrophe, The Jonathan was not chartered to transport merchandise. Nine hundred emigrants had boarded it, headed for a southern African colony. This colony would be established on a land grant accorded by the Portuguese government at Lagoa Bay, part of South Africa’s Portuguese possessions.

Most of these emigrants were from the northern states. However, they also included some German and Irish families, the sort of Americanized Europeans who are plentiful in Illinois and California. The colonization company, which opened in these states, invited emigrants of every origin to populate the vast land grants obtained on Lagoa Bay, in a fertile land, in the hopes of offsetting British influence on the Cape.

To amalgamate this hybrid population made up of diverse elements would be difficult if the severe discipline that they experienced aboard The Jonathan were not repeated on land. The four-master had been outfitted for transporting the colonists. Men, women, and children were able to settle down fairly comfortably inside the deckhouse and steerage. The crossing was not meant to take a long time. In February and March, after going down the American coastline, The Jonathan faced the warm season, and in neither the Pacific nor the Atlantic would she encounter the extreme bad weather of wintertime.

Apart from provisions needed for the trip, the clipper’s cargo included everything the colony would need at its beginnings. Several months’ worth of flour, canned food, and alcoholic drinks ensured that the nine hundred emigrants would be fed. The Jonathan also carried equipment for a first settlement, like tents, collapsible dwellings, scant furniture, and necessary household utensils. The company took care to provide colonists agricultural equipment that would allow them to immediately exploit the land grants: different varieties of plants, seeds for

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