There Were Three Ships by Christopher Richards

Author:Christopher Richards
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Christopher Richards
Published: 2014-04-08T00:00:00+00:00

VICTIM OF THE TIDES

The Stag and the Helvetia unloaded their passengers, stock and equipment and sailed out of Camden Harbour. Twenty-seven people – five families and four single men – returned east on the Stag. Captain Brown’s Calliance was now the settlers’ only link with the south until the arrival of the government magistrate – or the chance arrival of any passing vessel. Another ship, the Jeannie Oswald, was expected at some time with stores and more passengers.

They were also expecting to see members of the Denison Plains Pastoral Company, another of William Harvey’s Pastoral Ventures. This group had chartered a ship, the Warrior, to carry settlers from Portland, western Victoria, to Camden Harbour. From this base they were to make their way inland to Denison Plains, an area named by Augustus Gregory, at the headwaters of the Victoria River, more than 300 miles east.

But for the moment the Calliance was the lifeline. Captain Brown examined the shores of two inlets for a suitable beach on which to check the keel of his important vessel.

Mount Lookover, 433 feet, is the highest point on the harbour’s shores. It stands at the western end, and Brown chose a bay to the east of this with an even bottom of broken shells, sand and mud for the careening. The shoreline at the head of this bay was lined with large boulders but a sandy beach lay at its southern end. On the afternoon of 4 January he moved his ship to the entrance of this bay, steadying her inshore with a cable attached to a small kedge anchor.

Next day work resumed at 9am in 88 degree heat on getting the ship beached on the sandy strip. Brown gave the order to weigh anchor and his crew began pulling the Calliance towards the kedge. The shouts of the bosun rose above the grunts of seamen straining to pull 800 tons of sailing ship inshore. They worked for an hour, when Brown told the bosun to signal the men to stop heaving and hold her steady. They were to wait for the flowing tide to help them. The crew held the cable taut, relieved at the unexpected break in their efforts.

Then they started again, hauling the Calliance with the aid of the swiftly flowing tide. Suddenly the sea breeze came in and pushed the vessel too quickly to the kedge. Brown saw the danger immediately. “Drop anchor!” he roared, but the Calliance grounded on the bay’s eastern point before the anchor could hold her.

Brown ordered a hawser to be tied to sturdy mangrove trees on the opposite shore. With the kedge in a new position he got all hands heaving until high water. But the Calliance would not budge, even on the high Camden Harbour tide.

Worse was about to follow. To the horror of those watching from shore, as the tide fell the ship heeled over to starboard until its paint streak was under water. There were loud cracks as if her timbers or beams were breaking.

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