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Updated: June 11, 2025
Old Growles suggested that they should be put into a boat and allowed to shift for themselves, just as their officers were treated by the mutineers of the "Bounty." The boatswain said that he thought the best way of treating them would be to put them on shore on some desert island far-away to the southward, seldom visited by ships, so that they could not make their escape.
Having done this, I was inclined to shout; but I feared that if I did so old Growles would return and put it back, and perhaps ill-treat me into the bargain. I therefore thought it wiser to remain silent, and to try and get the handkerchief off my eyes. I lay quiet for some time to recover my breath.
I waited concealed under the long-boat stowed amidships till I fancied that there was no one near the side where the whale-boat lay. I then crept out and got into the main chains. I was just about to lower myself down when a huge hand was placed on my shoulder, and I heard a voice which I knew to be that of old Growles.
A cloth was shoved into my mouth, and another bound over my eyes, so that I was unable to see or cry out, and I was carried down the main hatchway in the strong arms of a man whose voice I had been unable to recognise, though I fancied that he was either Growles or the boatswain. In vain I struggled to get free.
At first the food had been pretty good, but it now became worse and worse, and the men swore that they would stand it no longer. At last, when some rancid pork had been served out with musty peas and weevilly biscuits, the men went aft in a body, headed by the boatswain, Sass Jowler, and Growles, who were deputed to be spokesmen, to the quarterdeck, where the captain was walking.
"Here's the food I promised you," said the voice of old Growles. "Eat it and be thankful; it's more than you deserve." It consisted of biscuit and meat, and a cooked root of some sort. He placed also a can of water by my side. "Don't capsize it; for you'll get no more," he said, drawing my attention to it. Wishing to soothe him and throw him off his guard, I answered and thanked him.
"That will be seen." "What business had he to stow himself away, and make us all fancy that a ghost was haunting the ship?" cried Growles, in a surly way. "We shall hear what the captain has to say to him. To my notion, as he's made his bed, so he'll have to lie on it."
Old Growles answered Mr McDonald's hail. I observed that my companions had examined their pistols and reloaded their rifles, so that they would be on their guard should any treachery be attempted. On arriving on board, the captain received the gentlemen in a somewhat surly way, and inquired why Mr Fraser had not returned.
While these thoughts were passing through my mind I again fell asleep. It might be found wearisome were I to describe my thoughts and sensations, my hopes and fears, while I was awake, or to say how often I slept. Day after day passed. Old Growles and the boatswain invariably came together; they seemed to divine that should only one come I might in my desperation attempt to pass him.
One of the men, old Growles, scrambled on to the bowsprit, to which he held on like grim death, but before the other man could follow his example, the jibboom was carried away and he with it. I saw the poor fellow struggling amid the foaming seas. The captain did not on this occasion refuse to try to save him.
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