A SEA-DOG’S DIARY

Evening Star, Issue 21835, 26 September 1934, Page 15

A SEA-DOG’S DIARY

CAPTURED BY THE DUTCH One of the most remarkable journals of life at sea is that which lias come down to us from Edward Barlow, born at Prestwich in 1642, the son of a poor husbandman. It was a common thing for naval officers, master mariners, and deep-water mates to keep private logs; Barlow, however, was a common seaman in King's ships and merchantmen. But he kept a journal of some 225,000 words, closely and beautifully written on thick, hand-made foolscap, covering his life from the age of 13, when bo left home to become a “ whitester ” or bleacher, up to the day when he left sea at 61. Further, ho illustrated it meticulously with 127 sketches of ships and ports, sea birds and fish in colour and 55 pencil drawings of coastlines for the assistance of navigators. A PRISONER OF THE DUTCH. Mr Basil Lubock, in transcribing from the original MS., claims that Barlow stands alone in his artistry and can bear comparison with contemporary sea diarists, such as the admiral, Lord Montagu, first Earl of Sandwich; the naval chaplain, Henry Teonge; the slave trader, Captain Nathaniel Uring; the buccaneers, Dampier and Bartholomew Sharp; and the privateersmen, Woodos, Rogers, and Shelvocke. But how Barlow manages “ to write and draw so beautifully in the dank, dark forecastles of ships, which rolled and tossed like barrels in even the slightest sea, is beyond my comprehension. Probably his only writing desk and drawing board were the lid of his sea chest’, and only light a purser’s tallow dip, which in the foul air of a fo’c’slu crowded to suffocation by tired-out. heavy-breathing seamen must often have refused to do more than gutter.” The first dozen or so chapters were written when he was a prisoner of the Dutch in oppressive Batavia; the rest mainly at sea. Barlow records in graphic detail his capture in 1672 in the Straits of Banca, where eight Dutch ships intercepted his own, the Experiment, and made a prize of her. The Dutchmen swarmed aboard, “ plundering and breaking up chests up and down the ship and cabins, and one carrying away his arms full of_ silk in one place and another his pockets full of gold in another . . . some getting little enough, yet would be sure to fill their hollies full of good drink, which they found plentiful aboard the ship, making themselves drunk as beggars, all being prize what they found.” Barlow, spying an open hatch, slipped past them into the hold, unlocked his chest, took gold and silver out, hid the best part of the gold in his shoes—- “ where 1 kept it above a year longer ” —and gave three shipmates £4 each to hold for him. WORSE THAN IN TURKEY. The ensuing months wore a time of great hardship. The prisoners were called “ English dogs ” by their captors and “ beaten many times if we did but deny to work for them, which was against all reason to force prisoners to work, for they do no more to their slaves in Turkey, and many times the slaves get their bellyful of victuals, but we could not get ours half-full, unless wo could eat it full of dry rice, which has as much heart in it as a piece of wood.” Simple Barlow’s cup of bitterness overflowed when, ashing his shipmates in “ Batavia ” for the money he had committed to their keeping, they would give him only half of it. His one consolation was his journal, begun hero in the hope that friends “ may understand in part what dangers and troubles poor seamen pass through, and also of the manner and situation of most places which .1 have been at since 1 first went to sea.”

THE DANGER OF FIRE. Barlow was not one of your gay “ sailors don’t care ” school. He cared a great deal about the short rations ana the lamentable quality thereof, the constant sleeping in one’s clothes so as to be ready to “go up into the maintop or foretop to take in our topsails, half awake and half asleep, with one shoe on and the other off, not having time to put it on,” the ordeals by storm and other dangers. Even in' the fairest weather “ the least fire may set a ship on fire, many ships having been burnt by some careless man in smoking a pipe of tobacco; and in carelessness of the cook in. not putting the fire well out at night; and of burning a candle in a man’s cabin, he falling asleep and forgetting to put it out, and by burning of brandy and other strong liquors; aqd in many other ways a ship is set alight, and when they are on fire it is a bun-, dred to one if that you put it out, everything being so pitchy and tarry that the least fire setteth it all in flame; and also there is great danger of powder, for the least spark with a hammer or anything else in the room where it is, or the snuff of a candle causeth all to be turned into a blast, and in a moment no hopes of any person’s lives being saved from death in the twinkling of an eye.” Barlow certainly had his share of adventure. He served against the Barbary pirates under Lord Sandwich in 1661-2; fought at the battle of Lowestoft, and saw the ship of the Dutch Admiral Opdam, blow up; and was knocked over by a spent ball in the Four Days’ Fight; took part in the victory of St. James’ Day; and was shipwrecked on the Goodwins in 1676. THE SKIPPER’S NIGHTMARE. The naive seaman is frankly superstitious about this last affair. At North Bergen, from which port the ship sailed, some of the men refused to pay for their lodgings, the skipper refused to pay fop them, and the irate landladies neaped curses on ship and crew. The master, in the course of the voyage, “ told mo once that he could not take any rest m the night, and always when he was almost alseep he was still affrighted with the old woman that he had denied to pay money which was due to her. when we came away, from some of our men, and that she was ready to pull him out of his bed. and so he was troubled every night, and ( we had much bad weather ana cross winds.” Furthermore, a black cat was discovered on board. Small wonder, then, when the Forentine struck the sands in a gale in the dark and had to bo abandoned before she broke up, Barlow only just managed to dive below for his precious Journal and get away with it with the help of the Deal boatmen, “ Heathens,” Barlow called them, for they claimed two-thirds of everything salved from the ship; “ the Turks could do no more.” THE RETURN OF CHARLES 11. Barlow’s entries concern happenings on shore as well as at sea. He gives an account of Charles ll.’s return which makes an interesting contrast with that of Pepys, and of the finding of a great whale at Greenwich in June, 1658, recorded also in Evelyn’s diary. Barlow actually stood on the whale’s back, and saw bits of him. “ the bigness of a man’s finger,” being sold as mementoes at twopence or threepence a time; for which excursion, he, being a lad, received a beating.