DRAMAS OF THE "IRON SKIPPERS."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 170, 20 July 1935, Page 6 (Supplement)

DRAMAS OF THE "IRON SKIPPERS."

The Fighting Steward Takes Command

(By CAPTAIN PATRICK CLIFFORD.)

' "(No. IV.)

Whatever may have been the failings of the roughs who manned the s.iiling ships of half a century ago, cowardice could but rarely find a place. They •were hard to the last degree, which is not surprising considering the life 1 hey led. If there was one man in a ship's company who Tieed not be a lighting man, however, it was the steward, whose chief virtue in the eyes of a discerning captain was an unquestioned ability to 6windle owners and crew alike, to his own and his commanders great prolit.

Constant Van Hoyndock was neither better nor worse than the others of his profession. Ko doubt he drew "cumshaws" from ships' outfitters and providers, and fed his men inferior meat, while drawing money for the best. In this he was merely following the rules of his trade, and had he failed to do so, he would not long have been a ships' steward. * Constant, however, was to prove a super-steward in the hour of crisis, and to perforin deeds which were to earn him the profound admiration of "Iron Skippers" and "bucko" mates in every "hell ship" on the seas.

Profit-Greedy Shipowners. Shipowners in those days shared with many of their modern prototypes an affection for filthy Southern Europeans arid questionable half-castes in their ships. Such men could be hired at-the lowest rates, and in most cases the owners could rely upon their officers to make their lives so miserable that they would desert at the first port of call, consequently saving wages and reducing the ship's running costs. That such men were responsible for most of the mutinies which occurred with alarming frequency at the time was of no moment to the owners, to whom profit was of paramount importance.

The mutiny of the schooner Lennie can, therefore, be laid at the door of such owners, who were indirectly responsible for the presence aboard of Matteo Cargolis and Giovanni Carcaris, when she left Antwerp early in 1876. Strangely enough, the tragedy of the Caswell was new in public memory, hut despite this Cargolis and Carcaris formed part of a crew of twelve Levantine hirelings who had been kicked or floundered on to the Antwerp waterfront. Trouble was not long in coming, and on the third day out, Cargolis refused to leave his bunk, pleading illness as the result of a fierce heating from the second mate, Mr. McDonald, whose fists were harder than many knuckle-dusters.

Victims of the Knife. "Bull" Wortley, the mate, knew of only one cure for such indisposition. He flogged Cargolis with a rope's end, and left him suspended from the rigging for an hour, after which Cargolis, stiff and resentful, went to work. So common were such punishments that Wortley did not give, the matter another thought, and possibly he was a surprised and much aggrieved man when Cargolis and two other men entered his cabin a week later and stabbed him to death.

Following the example of other mutineers, Cargolis planned the rising for the "dog watch" and began with the murder of the mate* knowing that such an act must bind the crew to him by a bond of mutual guilt. For the law govening mutiny at sea is a far-reaching one, and condemns the man who tacitly aids a mutiny with those who actually commit the crime. McDonald, the second mate, put up a valiant fight for his life, but such was his contempt for "dagoes" that he did not carry a revolver and was quickly beaten and knifed to death. Captain Stanley Hatfield was stabbed in his bunk by Paroschos Leonis, another mutineer, and all three bodies were flung over the side.

The Steward's Sense of Humour. Constant Van Hoyndock meantime slept the sleep of the unjust man who has not been found out, and arrived on deck to find Cargolis in command. The mutineer asked him if he knew sufficient navigation to take the ship to some

secluded part of the French coast, where the men might laud and disappear. Van Hoyndock, like a wise man, promised to do so, and suggested that the men celebrate their emancipation by opening the whisky cases in the cuddy. The suggestion being gleefully agreed to, the steward took the . wheel and with atavistic humour headed the Lennie for the Islo De Rhe, in the Bay of Biscay.

Hero the wisdom of M. Van Hoyndock was beyond question, for he knew the Isle He Rhe as the French prison island where desperados are kept pending transportation to the living death of French Guiana and Devil's Island. It would be possible for him to get close inslioro without the mutineers suspecting his intention, and he knew that boats filled with police and prison guards would not be long in pushing off to make inquiries of the strange vessel.

Van Hoyndock's Best Card. M. Van Hoyndock's second ace in the hand proved' his best card, however. The unaccustomed wine first made the men quarrelsome and then stupefied them, and the first stage was accompanied by the violent deaths of five of the mutineers, and during the second two of the more timid of their number crept to the steward with a proposition. Cargolis and Carcaris, the dreaded leaders of the rising, were lying 011 the cuddy floor in a»> horrible state of drunkenness from which it must take them some hours to recover. The two young men, Charles Renker and Giovanni Mores, who had acted throughout under duress, would disarm them and give the weapons to Van Hoyndock. When the Dutchman agreed, the pair disappeared below and presently Van Hoyndock was in possession of two revolvers, a brace of hideous knives, and the knuckle-dusters of the late I "Bull" Wortley.

The steward then did a brave thing. Locking the cuddy door on the unconscious ringleader, he rounded up the remaining three men and to the accompaniment of oaths that would have

roused the admiration of the departed Mr. Wortley, he kicked and cuffed them on to the deck. Crisply he ordered them to their several duties, and like lambs the chastened rebels obeyed him. Only one man, Leonis, who had murdered the skipper, made serious trouble, and Van Hovndock soon disposed of him. Leonis accused the steward of being false to them, which M. Van Hoyndock instantly admitted. Leonis then flung himself at Van Hoyndock, but staggered, back screaming, as a pair of knuckle-dusters, expertly used, smashed into his face. He gave no further trouble.

Approved "Bucko" Style. Nor was Van Hoyndock a stranger to the unveracious art of propaganda. Without a blush he informed the crew that he would secure free pardons for all save Cargolis and his companion, and that he would content himself with

securing a modest five years for Leonis. Thus pa'cified, the men helped to place the two leaders in irons, and Van Hoyndock proceeded to the Isle De I\lie. It

took the short-handed vessel ten days to reach the island, and during that

time the steward snatched his few •hours' rest in a looked and barred cabin, prepared all his own food for fear of poison, and went everywhere with his

revolver in his hand. He did not trust one of his allies, and twice he had to beat up Leonis in approved "bucko" style. At last the ship reached the prison island, however, where the authorities seized all seven mutineers and surrendered them to the British courts.

Leonis, Cargolis, Carcaris and two other men, Karda and Argelos, received the death sentence, but Kenken and Mores were pardoned for their aid in quelling the mutiny. All of which being satisfactorily settled, M. Van Hoyndock returned to the sea, and became once more a humble but not despised ship's steward.—Copyright.