Murder on the High Seas by Martin Baggoley

Author:Martin Baggoley
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Fonthill Media
Published: 2014-12-04T05:00:00+00:00

9

The Rising Sun, 1881

The fishing smack Rising Sun sailed out of Albert Dock at Hull, heading for the fishing grounds of the North Sea on the morning of 16 December 1881. She was part owned and skippered by twenty-seven-year-old Oswald Otto Brand who had been at sea since his youth and was therefore an experienced sailor and fisherman. He had a crew of five, of which the two most experienced were John Dench, the second hand, and the third hand was Frederick Rycroft. In addition, there were two fisherboys, William Blackburn and David Yates. The youngest member of the crew was fourteen-year-old William Papper who eight months earlier had been apprenticed to Brand for seven years by his parents. William was an ‘indoor apprentice’, meaning that when not at sea, he lived with Brand and his wife in their home. At sea, he undertook a wide range of duties including those of cook.

The crew had joined the boat on the night of 15 December and as young William went aboard, Brand was saying farewell to his wife on the dockside. As he passed, the youngster was heard to say, ‘My sister knows you, skipper.’ Brand asked, ‘Who is your sister?’ William replied, ‘Emma Papper of Trundle Street.’ This was in a notorious district of Hull in which a number of brothels were located and Brand seemed a little taken aback and embarrassed but said nothing further.

The Rising Sun was at sea for almost three weeks and returned to port on 5 January 1882. Brand, accompanied by Rycroft, Dench and Blackburn, visited William’s parents to give them the sad news that on New Year’s Day, their son was lost overboard in a fierce storm 120 miles off Spurn Point. A high wind caught the large foresail sheet that carried him over the side and despite a thorough search of the area they could not find him. Mr and Mrs Papper were extremely distressed on hearing the news but were also unhappy with the explanation given by Brand. They suspected that William might have been the victim of foul play as they knew from their son and others that Brand would at times ill-treat his crews. They made their concerns known to Brand who turned to the other crewmembers, all of whom supported their skipper’s version of events. William’s parents had little option other than to accept this account and his death was reported to the local police and the Shipping Office, enabling William’s mother and father to make a claim for compensation.

Sadly, such accidents were far from unusual. Between January 1878 and December 1881, twenty-eight adults and fifty-nine youths and apprentices had been lost at sea from Hull fishing smacks. There were considered to be no grounds for any further investigations on this occasion and William was simply recorded as being the first loss of 1882. In the weeks that followed, the Rising Sun, skippered by Brand and with the same crew, made two further voyages into the North Sea.

However, on 1 March, there was a dramatic development.

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