The Black Ship by Dudley Pope

Author:Dudley Pope
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473819108
Publisher: Pen and Sword

17

THE OATH OF SECRECY

* * *

STEWARD JONES had been mindful of Nash’s instructions the previous night that next day he was to ‘attend the gentlemen and get dinner’, which was the midday meal. He had told Perrett, the tearful and reluctant butcher, to kill a goat, and Holford, the former Captain’s cook, had prepared it.

But the violent debate over whether or not Southcott, Casey and the other two men should be killed, had delayed the meal. Finally three leading mutineers—James Farrel, Bell, and John Elliot—who were now styling themselves ‘lieutenants’, decided that Jones should serve their meal on the quarterdeck under the awning.

They also decided to invite—perhaps order would be a more appropriate word—Mr Southcott to join them. He was brought up and seated at their table for a meal of fried goat’s meat. He was not a willing guest—perhaps he found it a bizarre experience to be dining a few feet from where, an hour earlier, his hosts had called for a show of hands to decide whether he lived or died. Questioned about the meal later he declared, ‘I was forced upon to eat with them’.

In the afternoon all the men on board were ordered aft again: the surgeon’s mate, Lawrence Cronin, had been busy once more with pen and paper. He had realized that most of the mutineers when they reached La Guaira would eventually go to sea again in Spanish or neutral ships, either to earn a living or because they wanted to get to America. With more than 150 men scattering to the four winds, the main danger of any of them being captured by the British and hanged as mutineers would come from them gossiping, bragging in their cups, or informing on each other. The British Government was certain to offer large cash rewards for information leading to arrests. To ensure the identity of the mutineers stayed a secret forever, Cronin had drawn up a special oath which he proposed administering to every man in the ship.

It may seem strange that he should expect men to keep an oath who had just mutinied, committed a series of extremely brutal murders, and were adding treason to the list; but his reasoning was perfectly sound. The British seaman of the period might be reckless with his money on shore—if he was given the chance; it might be impossible to leave liquor within his reach and expect him to stay sober; he might under pressure admit to having a wife in more than one port. He was, however, extremely superstitious and, more important, usually set great store by an oath. Once he took it, he generally regarded it as absolutely binding.

With the ship’s company assembled on the quarterdeck (South-cott, Casey, Price and Searle were also brought up to take part) Cronin administered his oath: they had to swear ‘Not to know one another in any part of the globe, man or boy, if they should meet, nor call each other by their former names’, and they had to declare ‘This is my oath and obligation, so help me God’.

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