Part 16 (2/2)
82 tons on behalf of Messrs Elder and Coer Goodchild
6 tons on behalf of Major John Cotton
2 tons on behalf of Lord Elton
2 tons on behalf of Messrs Paulson and Coer on the fourth iteain Sherry nodded, with her eyes shi+ning like sapphires The claim had been settled and the matter appeared closed until, four months later in April, 1858 the East Indianian Wal -aboard the survivors froht
There were six of them The first mate, Andrew Barlow, boatswain'swoman of twenty-two years, a Miss Charlotte Cotton, who had been a passenger e with her father, a Major in the 40th Foot
The ave his evidence to the Court of Inquiry, and beneath the dry narrative and the ponderous questions and guarded replies lay an exciting and romantic story of the sea, an epic of shi+pwreck and survival
As we read I saw the ether fit neatly into the story
Fourteen days out froht was set upon by a furious storery of the stor the shi+p before her I could ireat cyclones that had torn the roof froht was dis except the fore lower mast, mizzen lower mast, and bowsprit The rest had carried away on the tempest and there was no opportunity to set up a jury mainmast or send yards aloft in the hted to leeward, there was no chance that the shi+p ht avoid her fate A conspiracy of wind and current hurled her down into the throat of a funnel-shaped reef upon which the storm surf burst like the thunder of the heavens
The shi+p struck and held, and Andrew Barloas able with the help of twelve ers including Miss Charlotte Cotton left the stricken shi+p with theood fortune and seah the wild sea and murderous reefs into the quieter waters of the inshore channel
Finally they ran the boat ashore on the spindrift smothered beach of an island Here the survivors huddled for four days while the cyclone blew itself out
Barlow alone climbed to the summit of the southernmost of the treble peaks of the island The description was completely clear It was the Old Men and Gunfire Reef There was no doubt of it This then was how Ji for - the island with three peaks and a barrier of coral reef
Barlow took bearings off the sea-battered hull of the Dawn Light as she lay in the jaws of the reef, swept by each successive wave On the second day the shi+ps hull began to break up, and while Barloatched from the peak, the front half of her was carried up over the reef to disappear into a dark gaping hole in the coral The stern fell back into the sea and was smashed to matchwood
When at last the skies cleared and the wind dropped, Andrew Barlow discovered that his small party were all that survived from a shi+p's company of 149 souls The others had perished in the wild sea
To the west, low against the horizon, he described a low land mass which he hoped was the African mainland He embarked his party in the shi+p's boat onceof the inshore channel His hopes were fulfilled, it was Africa - but as always she was hostile and cruel
The seventeen lost beings began a long and dangerous journey southwards, and three months later only Barlow, four seamen and Miss Charlotte Cotton reached the island port of Zanzibar Fever, wild animals, wild men and misfortune had whittled away their nuaunt living skeletons, yelloith fever and riddled with dysentery frohly commended Andrew Barlow, and the Han Company had made him an award of E500 for , I looked up at Sherry She atching nitude of the old drama
”It all fits, Sherry,” I said ”It's all there” ”Yes,” she said
”We s here”
the Prints and Drawings Room was on the third floor and a quick search by an earnest assistant soon revealed the Dawn light in all her splendour
She was a graceful three- low profile She had no crossjack or e spanker and a full set of studding sails The long poop gave space for several passenger cabins, and she carried her boats on top of her deckhouse aft
She was heavily arunports a side, frohteen-pounder cannon to defend herself, in those hostile seas east of the Cape of Good Hope across which she plied to China and India
”I need a drink,” I said, and picked up the drawings of the Dawn Light ”I'll get them to make copies of these for us ”What for?” Sherry wanted to know
-The assistant est the piled trays of old prints and sucked in her cheeks at e you seventy-five pence,” she tried to discourage me
That's reasonable I said
”And on't have them ready until next week,” she added inexorably
”Oh dear,” said I, and gave her the smile ”I did need them tomorrow afternoon”
The smile crushed her, she lost the air of purpose and tried to tuck her straying wisps of hair into the side fralasses
”Well, I'll see what I can do then,” she relented
That's very sweet of you, really it is and we left her looking confused, but pleased
My sense of direction was returning and I foundflood of journalists from Fleet Street had not yet swamped it and we found a table at the back I ordered two Verlasses
”You know, Harry, Jireat treasure hunt Every week he had found, almost found, the location of a treasure shi+p from the Ared ”I have a built-in resistance to believing any of it But this one-” She sipped the wine
”Let's go over e have,” I suggested We know that Goodchild was very concerned that his agent receive five cases of luggage and put it into safe keeping We know that he was going to shi+p it aboard Dawn Light and he sent advance notice, probably through a personal friend, the captain of the naval frigate Pandker”
”Good,”she agreed
”We know that those cases were listed on the shi+p's manifest
That the shi+p was lost, presumably with them still on board We know the exact location of the wreck We have had it confirood”
”We only do not knohat those cases contained”
”Dirty socks,”she said
”Four tons of dirty socks?” I asked, and her expression changed
The weight of the cargo had not rinned at her, ”it went over your head I thought so
You read so fast you only take in half of it She pulled a face at reat deal of soures don't mean much to me, I admit
But it sounds a lot”