Vicki Rutherford - Sailors Yarns & Tavern Tales: Vanishings, Ghosts and Spooky Ships

Copyright 2012 Vicki Rutherford

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ISBN: 978-0-9918397-0-4 [epub format]

This book contains an excerpt from therecently book Chad and the Cobra by Vicki Rutherford. Thisexcerpt has been set for this edition only and may not reflect thefinal content of the forthcoming edition.

Cover design by S. Rutherford. Image is a penand wash drawing by malacologist Pierre Dnys de Montfort, 1801,from the descriptions of French sailors reportedly attacked by sucha creature off the coast of Angola. Acquired from WikimediaCommons.

Table of Contents

When did the first human being venture ontothe surface of a lake or ocean, perhaps holding onto a log?Archaeologists believe that humans became mariners at least 50,000years ago, probably in Southeast Asia.

From that beginning, people colonizedAustralia and, over several thousand years, the islands of thePacific Ocean. By two thousand years ago, Phoenicians, Romans andGreeks regularly sailed the Mediterranean Sea in ships propelled byoar and sail. In recent years, marine archaeologists have locatedand excavated the remains of some of their ships that did not makeit back to port, recovering not only parts of the ships but alsocargo such as pottery amphorae, some still holding wine and oliveoil.

For most of the long history of humans atsea, thousands of primitive and not so primitive vessels must havegone missing, succumbing to the perils of the sea. We have noknowledge of those events as, for the most part, history was anoral tradition. Seafarers of those times doubtlessly talked ofmissing ships and other happenings at sea. And, being humans,seafarers embellished those stories as they were told and retold inport taverns.

Following the Mediterranean sailors, manycultures explored the worlds oceans and used those waters forcommerce and warfare. Notably, these were Vikings, Basques,Spanish, Portuguese, English, Dutch, Arabs, and Chinese. Coincidentwith this expansion of maritime trade and exploration, came thecreation of writing and map-making in Europe and the Middle East.The Chinese were many centuries ahead in this respect. Throughthose years, ships saw nearly constant improvement, but the life ofa sailor was ever dangerous. Ships and crews still vanished, oftenwithout a trace. News of ships that were overdue and missing beganto appear in the written record. And sailors, being sailors,continued talking about their experiences at sea and about missingships and shipmates.

The rumor mills of the time speculated as towhy ships and sailors went missing. In the absence of hard factsand evidence, people created a mythology of sea monsters. Manymedieval European maps showed artists depiction of such creatures.One such monster was the kraken, depicted attacking a ship on thecover of this book. Norse sailors originated tales of thekrakenbut such tales might be based in fact. We now know of twovarieties of huge squids that live in all the worlds ocean depthsand rarely come to the surface. They can reach a length of almost50 feet (15 m.). Certainly one could overwhelm a small vessel, buthardly the ocean-going one illustrated!

Despite modern technology, ships stillsuccumb to the dangers of the seas. During the decades 1984 to2004, over 200 large cargo ships were lost. These ships, known assuper carriers, are over 656 feet (200 m.) in length! Accordingto Wolfgang Rosenthal, of a research center in Germany engaged inmaterials and coastal research, Two large ships sink every week onaverage, but the cause is never studied to the same detail as anair crash. It simply gets put down to bad weather.

The mystery yarns of the sea in this book arefrom the past four centuries and from many sources. Some are fact,others based on fact but embroidered in the telling, and stillothers may only be figments of storytellers imaginations. Whatevertheir authenticity, sailors yarns are entertaining. Such talesalso give those who live on land a glimpse into the world of thosewho follow the sea as a career. In a world of satellites and GPS,the oceans are still mysterious with secrets yet to beunraveled.

Portauthorities and bankers in Hobart, Tasmania anxiously awaited anoverdue ship named Britomart. The 247-ton barque, commandedby Captain Glues, had left Melbourne on the fifteenth of Decemberin 1839. In the cargo was a large shipment of gold coins for theHobart banks. The banks waited in vainthe Britomart neverarrived.

The Britomarts course lay throughBass Strait between Australia and Tasmania. The dangers of thepassage were well known. Foul weather, turbulent waters andclusters of islands off Tasmanias north coast were not the onlydangers. Escaped convicts were occasionally encountered among theislands of Bass Strait. Some lived under the guise of seal hunterswhile others blatantly led the pirates life.

Tasmania was a young British colony with manynew banks so it was no easy task to keep secret the shipments ofcoins and bullion. Did pirates force Britomart onto a reef?There were no survivors: were they murdered? What happened to thegold? As usual over the years, there were plenty of stories,doubtlessly exaggerated in the telling.

One of the tales recounts, that some monthslater, Captain Sheehan, master of the Sir John Franklin, wasforced to shelter from gale winds at Preservation Island in theFlinders Group, which lie off the northeastern tip of Tasmania.Entering a sheltered bay, he spotted a small brig at anchor.Sheehan assumed the brig was crewed by seal hunters as he observedhuts on shore, some with smoking chimneys. He also saw sealskinsdrying on the beach. The captain found one hut occupied by aseveral hunters. They told Captain Sheehan that the other hunterswere ashore enjoying the taverns and fleshpots of Launceston. anorthern Tasmanian port. Those who remained were surly andinsolent. Undaunted, Captain Sheehan invited several to join himfor a whisky aboard the Franklin. The sealers spoke littlebut did mention their lucky season and good profits.

Wish my old friend Glueshe was the skipperof the Britomart that disappeared in these watersI wish hehad found protection here. Maybe hed still be around, Sheehanlamented. At the mention of the