David Hoy, Master Shipwright, and Captain Charles Taw of the brig, The Frederick, had been taken prisoner by mutineers as they prepared to sail from Macquarie harbour to Hobart in January 1834
David was powerless to resist,and reluctantly he turned round and let Fare tie his arms; Porter, who was armed with a cutlass, its tip broken off, took charge and gave him over to Jones as Captain Taw came up on deck and was bound in the same way.
David did not need telling what the plan was, and he must have felt a certain relief that he was not to be murdered where he stood. There was a sliver of new moon in the sky and the shore-line must have been invisible before the dark mass of the land. He was taken back down below to the cabin and supervised by Shires and Barker, he was allowed to get some of his clothes. Unexpectedly Shires and unseen by the others in the darkness, Shires slipped a compass into David’s pocket and a bottle of spirits, wrapped in some of David’s clothes.
“Give me your watch, guv’nor!” Barker demanded suddenly.
It was pointless to try and avoid Barker’s hand diving into his jacket, pointless protesting that the watch had been a gift, and David stood still, letting the ruffian fumble through his pockets.
David was manhandled back up onto deck and saw the jolly-boat tied up by the ship; he could just make out two of the soldiers, and MacFarlane another convict, sitting on board by the light of the lantern. It must have been puzzling him how the four soldiers on the Frederick had all been overpowered by the convicts; what he did not know was that two of the men had illicitly taken the little jolly-boat and gone ashore. They had been given permission to do so earlier in the day, maybe they thought the permission extended all day, maybe they were just taking advantage of the quiet evening and others on board settling down for the night.
Whatever their motivation, the two soldiers were away when the mutiny took place. Was that the trigger for the mutineers? The captain and the shipwright were taking their ease in the cabin below, only two of the soldiers on board, no doubt enjoying a pipe or two after dinner before retiring to their bunks or hammocks. Somehow the soldiers were quietly and unknowingly separated from their weapons because the the mutiny was planned, not just a spur of the moment decision to take advantage of an opportunity for freedom. Barker, the leader of the mutineers, was a gunsmith by trade, and had secretly been making weapons during the winter at the settlement.
David and Taw were directed into the dinghy, along with the acting mate, James Tait, one of David’s shipwrights. Also on the water was the whale boat and the men onboard ordered those on the dinghy to bring it round and it was taken in tow by the Frederick. Later, the new prisoners in the jolly-boat were obliged to pull for the shore followed by the whale boat which contained four armed mutineers. The provisions were delivered as promised by the mutineers
One part of the horrific adventure was closing; on the morning of the 14th January, David and his companions were set ashore with MacFarlane and another convict, Nichols. The mutineers treated their captives honourably in their way. Although they were marooned a week’s jouney from the nearest settlement, they were given half of the ships provisions including bandages and medicaments for the injuries they had suffered.
With the weather and tide set fair,and shortly after daylight, the Frederick weighed anchor and crossed the bar and set off in a south-south-westerly direction on a remarkable voyage which ended in Chile several months later.
I don’t claim this is 1005 accurate; I have taken the details from court reports and newspaper articles from the time, and have used imagination to fill in any gaps. No doubt there are inaccuracies and mistakes, but I just wanted to try to tell David’s remarkable story!
Lois Elsden 