The Book of the Bush | Page 7

mate, whom he had imprisoned at sea in a hencoop,
and left to pick up his food with the fowls. He had been out-lawed, and
forbidden to sail as officer in any British ship. These were facts made
known to, and discussed by, all the whalers who entered the Tamar,
when the whaling season was over in the year 1835. And yet the
notorious Blogg found no difficulty in buying the schooner 'Industry',
taking in a cargo, and obtaining a clearance for Hokianga, in New
Zealand. He had shipped a crew consisting of a mate, four seamen, and

a cook.
Black Ned Tomlins, Jim Parrish, and a few other friends interviewed
the crew when the 'Industry' was getting ready for sea. Black Ned was a
half-breed native of Kangaroo Island, and was looked upon as the best
whaler in the colonies, and the smartest man ever seen in a boat. He
was the principal speaker. He put the case to the crew in a friendly way,
and asked them if they did not feel themselves to be a set of fools, to
think of going to sea with a murdering villain like Blogg?
Dick Secker replied mildly but firmly. He reckoned the crew were, in a
general way, able to take care of themselves. They could do their duty,
whatever it was; and they were not afraid of sailing with any man that
ever trod a deck.
After a few days at sea they were able to form a correct estimate of
their master mariner. He never came on deck absolutely drunk, but he
was saturated with rum to the very marrow of his bones. A devil of
cruelty, hate, and murder glared from his eyes, and his blasphemies
could come from no other place but the lowest depths of the bottomless
pit. The mate was comparatively a gentle and inoffensive lamb. He did
not curse and swear more than was considered decent and proper on
board ship, did his duty, and avoided quarrels.
One day Blogg was rating the cook in his usual style when the latter
made some reply, and the captain knocked him down. He then called
the mate, and with his help stripped the cook to the waist and triced
him up to the mast on the weather side. This gave the captain the
advantage of a position in which he could deliver his blows downward
with full effect. Then he selected a rope's end and began to flog the
cook. At every blow he made a spring on his feet, swung the rope over
his head, and brought it down on the bare back with the utmost force. It
was evident that he was no 'prentice hand at the business, but a good
master flogger. The cook writhed and screamed, as every stroke raised
bloody ridges on his back; but Blogg enjoyed it. He was in no hurry.
He was like a boy who had found a sweet morsel, and was turning it
over in his mouth to enjoy it the longer. After each blow he looked at
the three seamen standing near, and at the man at the helm, and made

little speeches at them. "I'll show you who is master aboard this ship."
Whack! "That's what every man Jack of you will get if you give me any
of your jaw." Whack! "Maybe you'd like to mutiny, wouldn't you?"
Whack! The blows came down with deliberate regularity; the cook's
back was blue, black, and bleeding, but the captain showed no sign of
any intention to stay his hand. The suffering victim's cries seemed to
inflame his cruelty. He was a wild beast in the semblance of a man. At
last, in his extreme agony, the cook made a piteous appeal to the
seamen:
[ILLUSTRATION 2]
"Mates, are you men? Are you going to stand there all day, and watch
me being flogged to death for nothing?"
Before the next stroke fell the three men had seized the captain; but he
fought with so much strength and fury that they found it difficult to
hold him. The helmsman steadied the tiller with two turns of the rope
and ran forward to assist them. They laid Blogg flat on the deck, but he
kept struggling, cursing, threatening, and calling on the mate to help
him; but that officer took fright, ran to his cabin in the deckhouse, and
began to barricade the door.
Then a difficulty arose. What was to be done with the prisoner? He was
like a raving maniac. If they allowed him his liberty, he was sure to kill
one or more of them. If they bound him he would get loose in some
way--probably through the mate--and after what had occurred, it would
be safer to turn loose a Bengal tiger on deck