The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty (31 page)
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Authors: Caroline Alexander
Tags: #History, #Europe, #Great Britain, #Military, #Naval
BOOK: The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty
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With the advance notice of the fugitives’ capture and imminent arrival, a flurry of correspondence began to whirl from Nessy Heywood’s prolific pen. Once again, James Modyford Heywood, visiting London from his Devon estate outside Plymouth, responded to his niece’s appeals for advice and assistance by extending his sincere sympathies to the family and pledging that as soon as he was informed of Peter’s arrival, he would “pay every Attention to his situation.” Referring to the news story, he stated his belief that the “Circumstances of his having swam to the
Pandora
will, I trust, be strong in his Favor.” Mr. Heywood was not indelicate enough to mention Peter’s new tattoos.
Pandora
will, I trust, be strong in his Favor.” Mr. Heywood was not indelicate enough to mention Peter’s new tattoos.
By early June, Nessy had contacted everyone associated with the
Bounty
that she could flush out. John Hallett, now Lieutenant Hallett and back in service on the sloop
Savage
off the coast of Scotland, replied with an icy letter stating that in the event he were called as a witness, “notwithstanding the Friendship I had for your Brother, I shall be strictly bound by Oath to adhere to Truth.” Peter’s youth “at the Time he committed the rash Act” might mitigate the case against him, Hallett allowed. Peter’s other messmate, Thomas Hayward, who had accompanied the
Pandora
on her hunt for the pirates, had not yet returned to England, but his father took it upon himself to respond on his son’s behalf, offering Nessy bracing and pragmatic advice: “I will take the Liberty my dear young lady of requesting you to make all possible Interest with all your Friends that Application may be made to his Majesty, so as to be prepared against and to avert the most painful consequences of the impending Trial,” Francis Hayward wrote in early June, when the prisoners were some two weeks away from Spithead. “I well know that Mr. Bligh’s Representations to the Admiralty are by no means favorable.”
Bounty
that she could flush out. John Hallett, now Lieutenant Hallett and back in service on the sloop
Savage
off the coast of Scotland, replied with an icy letter stating that in the event he were called as a witness, “notwithstanding the Friendship I had for your Brother, I shall be strictly bound by Oath to adhere to Truth.” Peter’s youth “at the Time he committed the rash Act” might mitigate the case against him, Hallett allowed. Peter’s other messmate, Thomas Hayward, who had accompanied the
Pandora
on her hunt for the pirates, had not yet returned to England, but his father took it upon himself to respond on his son’s behalf, offering Nessy bracing and pragmatic advice: “I will take the Liberty my dear young lady of requesting you to make all possible Interest with all your Friends that Application may be made to his Majesty, so as to be prepared against and to avert the most painful consequences of the impending Trial,” Francis Hayward wrote in early June, when the prisoners were some two weeks away from Spithead. “I well know that Mr. Bligh’s Representations to the Admiralty are by no means favorable.”
A surviving, highly stylized portrait shows Nessy as the ideal young woman of her time, with large, limpid eyes and a small “rosebud” mouth, her slim, pale face framed by a mane of soft curls—a portrait that does not accord entirely with Peter’s own fond and forgiving description. His sister’s features, he allowed, “were by no means regular,” although her long-lashed eyes “redeemed the whole face.” Nessy was also “below the middle height but well-formed, and graceful in her movements.” Nessy was now twenty-four, four years older than Peter.
The Heywood family had suffered another blow since the shameful dismissal of Peter and Nessy’s father by the Duke of Atholl just before the departure of the
Bounty.
In February 1790, only a month before Bligh arrived in England with news of the mutiny, Mr. Heywood had suddenly and mysteriously died. Every circumstance—his hopeless bankruptcy, the striking fact that this amateur lawyer had left no will, the family’s determined silence about the nature of this death—suggests suicide; to a family friend, Nessy ingenuously declared that her father had died of a severe attack “of gout,” although in a passage in a letter to Peter she allowed that gout, “and distress of mind from the repeated disappointments he met with, put an end to his existence.” Elizabeth Heywood, Nessy’s mother, was now raising eight children on her own and had been hauled in before various increasingly exasperated creditors to account for her husband’s debts; the defiant behavior of the Heywood women had added to the creditors’ displeasure. Rescue must have come from some undiscoverable source, for by the time the
Gorgon
arrived with Peter at Spithead, the Heywoods were living in Douglas on the Parade, a new and fashionable street directly facing the sea. Just around the corner was Fort Street, where Fletcher Christian’s mother also lived in modest but genteel circumstances.
Bounty.
In February 1790, only a month before Bligh arrived in England with news of the mutiny, Mr. Heywood had suddenly and mysteriously died. Every circumstance—his hopeless bankruptcy, the striking fact that this amateur lawyer had left no will, the family’s determined silence about the nature of this death—suggests suicide; to a family friend, Nessy ingenuously declared that her father had died of a severe attack “of gout,” although in a passage in a letter to Peter she allowed that gout, “and distress of mind from the repeated disappointments he met with, put an end to his existence.” Elizabeth Heywood, Nessy’s mother, was now raising eight children on her own and had been hauled in before various increasingly exasperated creditors to account for her husband’s debts; the defiant behavior of the Heywood women had added to the creditors’ displeasure. Rescue must have come from some undiscoverable source, for by the time the
Gorgon
arrived with Peter at Spithead, the Heywoods were living in Douglas on the Parade, a new and fashionable street directly facing the sea. Just around the corner was Fort Street, where Fletcher Christian’s mother also lived in modest but genteel circumstances.
The Isle of Man received all its news of the outside world from the mail, gazettes or random passengers arriving by the regular Liverpool packet, which was itself entirely at the whim of prevailing weather. As events unfolded across the Irish Sea, the Heywoods, frantic for information, knew themselves to be oppressively, maddeningly isolated. Mrs. Heywood, overwhelmed by all that had overtaken the family and with the responsibility of her many children (the youngest, Edwin, was nine), increasingly followed events at second hand, relying on Nessy’s reports from her widening circle of correspondents.
Chief of these was Nessy’s uncle by marriage, Captain Thomas Pasley, now in command of the 74-gun
Vengeance.
Pasley knew Bligh personally, and had in fact sent a favorite midshipman, Matthew Flinders, to join Bligh’s second breadfruit expedition. Nearly sixty years old, this bluff, straight-talking Scotsman was respectfully regarded as “old school,” a characterization born out by his inimitable personal diary: “A very dull stupid Cruize this, not one Yankie on the Seas I believe—already out 17 Days and have not seen one—hard, very hard. . . .”
Vengeance.
Pasley knew Bligh personally, and had in fact sent a favorite midshipman, Matthew Flinders, to join Bligh’s second breadfruit expedition. Nearly sixty years old, this bluff, straight-talking Scotsman was respectfully regarded as “old school,” a characterization born out by his inimitable personal diary: “A very dull stupid Cruize this, not one Yankie on the Seas I believe—already out 17 Days and have not seen one—hard, very hard. . . .”
“ . . . At ½ past 4 our Stupid Rascal of a Pilot run the Ship’s stern upon the Crow Rock. . . . The Shock was so great that it broke several Bottles in one of my Cases of Rum. . . . I hope we shall be able without further disaster to bundle the Old Bitch into one King’s Port or other.”
Pasley had gone to sea at sixteen and seen much action against the French and in the West Indies. While stationed off the Isle of Man, he met Maria Heywood, sister of Peter John Heywood (and Nessy’s aunt), and the two married in 1774. Pasley had helped discreetly in other Heywood family troubles, as his diary makes clear. In 1778, while on patrol at the Leeward Islands, he met a new sister-in-law, a fourteen-year-old “Child,” now pregnant by one of the Heywood men, a “D——d Rascal,” who had absconded. Although finding the girl a “large, course [
sic
], clumsy piece, with a flat broad face and small peeping Eyes,” Captain Pasley was moved by her plight and did what he could to aid her.
sic
], clumsy piece, with a flat broad face and small peeping Eyes,” Captain Pasley was moved by her plight and did what he could to aid her.
Corpulent and with a stern-featured face, Captain Pasley was an imposing figure, but the kind of rough man who melted before a woman in distress. He was also the commander in chief in the Medway, based at Sheerness, a fact not lost on Nessy Heywood. And if this gallant officer had been moved by his pudding of a sister-in-law, how much more was he affected by the grief and anxiety of his charming niece! Pasley was genuinely fond of Nessy, who had on occasion stayed with him and his wife at their Bedfordshire estate. He had even been induced to enter into one of Nessy’s interminable poetic exchanges:
Lines by Capt. Pasley to his niece, Miss Hester Heywood, with a present to her of some pairs of gloves, on her having stolen a kiss from him when he was asleep in his chair:Accept, my dear Nessy, the tribute that’s due
Poor the kiss that so sweetly was given by you.
But be cautious, my fair one; for had I been single
One kiss such as that would have made my heart jingle . . .
At the beginning of June, Nessy sat down to write a letter to Peter. It was not yet known when he and the
Gorgon
would arrive, and Pasley had forewarned her that in any case she would have “no chance of seeing him, for no bail can be offered.” A letter, then, would be her only means of communication. Sitting in the windswept house in Douglas, Nessy had written as if speaking to the young, well-educated man of budding honor who had left the family nest five years before. Peter’s adventures on the far side of the globe would have been beyond the boundaries of her maiden imagination, experiences she would not have known to guess at—the adventures in love and lust, mutiny and power, the wars and bloodletting on Tubuai, the tattoos and settled domestic life on Tahiti, the wreck of the
Pandora
in the night sea and the long journey home in chains.
Gorgon
would arrive, and Pasley had forewarned her that in any case she would have “no chance of seeing him, for no bail can be offered.” A letter, then, would be her only means of communication. Sitting in the windswept house in Douglas, Nessy had written as if speaking to the young, well-educated man of budding honor who had left the family nest five years before. Peter’s adventures on the far side of the globe would have been beyond the boundaries of her maiden imagination, experiences she would not have known to guess at—the adventures in love and lust, mutiny and power, the wars and bloodletting on Tubuai, the tattoos and settled domestic life on Tahiti, the wreck of the
Pandora
in the night sea and the long journey home in chains.
“I will not ask you my beloved Brother whether you are innocent of the dreadful crime of Mutiny,” Nessy began. Curiously, she addressed the letter to the care of Francis Hayward, the father of Thomas Hayward, who had accompanied the
Pandora;
Hayward Sr. at least appears to have remained kindly disposed toward the Heywood family.
Pandora;
Hayward Sr. at least appears to have remained kindly disposed toward the Heywood family.
“[I]f the Transactions of that Day were as Mr. Bligh represented them, such is my Conviction of your worth & Honor, that I will without hesitation stake my Life on your Innocence,” Nessy had continued loyally, but illogically. “—If on the Contrary you were concerned in such a Conspiracy against your commander I shall be as firmly persuaded his Conduct was the Occasion of it—But,” she hastily added, “alas Could any Occasion justify so atrocious an Attempt to destroy a Number of our fellow Creatures?”
When the
Gorgon
was still at least a week away, more news was brought by a batch of the
Pandora
’s crew just arrived from Holland and, as luck would have it, delivered specifically to Pasley’s care at Sheerness. This was the advance party that had sailed from Batavia on the Dutch East Indiaman,
Zwan,
under the charge of the despised Lieutenant Larkan. On arrival, the men had been whisked to Pasley’s ship, the
Vengeance,
for a thorough debriefing. From these men, who had lived on top of Peter and the other prisoners for a full nine months, eavesdropping on their every word and—if one is to believe Captain Edwards—inclined to regard their captives with a troubling sympathy, Pasley learned disheartening news.
Gorgon
was still at least a week away, more news was brought by a batch of the
Pandora
’s crew just arrived from Holland and, as luck would have it, delivered specifically to Pasley’s care at Sheerness. This was the advance party that had sailed from Batavia on the Dutch East Indiaman,
Zwan,
under the charge of the despised Lieutenant Larkan. On arrival, the men had been whisked to Pasley’s ship, the
Vengeance,
for a thorough debriefing. From these men, who had lived on top of Peter and the other prisoners for a full nine months, eavesdropping on their every word and—if one is to believe Captain Edwards—inclined to regard their captives with a troubling sympathy, Pasley learned disheartening news.
“I cannot conceal it from you my dearest Nessy, neither is it proper I should,” Pasley reported in his blunt way, “—your Brother appears by all Account to be the greatest Culprit of all, Christian alone excepted. Every Exertion you may rest assured I shall use to save his Life—but on Trial I have no hope of his not being condemned.” Pasley was compelled to disclose one more piece of bad news to Nessy: the report that Peter had been the first to swim to the
Pandora
—a circumstance very much in his favor—was, he had learned, untrue. There was little to do now except await the arrival of the prisoners themselves and hope subsequent accounts would offer more encouragement.
Pandora
—a circumstance very much in his favor—was, he had learned, untrue. There was little to do now except await the arrival of the prisoners themselves and hope subsequent accounts would offer more encouragement.
The summer of 1792 promised to be one of the worst and wettest in memory. Toward the middle of June, the weather turned blustery with lightning storms seen to the south, before settling back to a calmer pattern of dull skies and showers of rain. Two days after the
Gorgon
dropped anchor, a longboat was sent out from the 74-gun guardship
Hector
to collect the prisoners. As the boat made its way across the broad, busy anchorage to Portsmouth Harbour, the weather broke and it was under the light, fair skies of an English summer day that the prisoners beheld their native land. Once on the
Hector,
the prisoners were taken down to the gun room for confinement.
Gorgon
dropped anchor, a longboat was sent out from the 74-gun guardship
Hector
to collect the prisoners. As the boat made its way across the broad, busy anchorage to Portsmouth Harbour, the weather broke and it was under the light, fair skies of an English summer day that the prisoners beheld their native land. Once on the
Hector,
the prisoners were taken down to the gun room for confinement.
A week later, Captain Montagu warped the
Hector
farther down harbor to moorings off Gosport, where she would lie until the court-martial was assembled. Several conditions had to be met, which might take many months. All of the men from the
Pandora
had to have returned, especially Lieutenant Hayward, who would certainly be called on as an “evidence,” or witness, and twelve captains of sufficiently senior rank had to be assembled in port. Finally, much depended upon the movements of Vice Admiral Lord Hood, commander in chief at Portsmouth and a First Lord of the Admiralty, who would preside over the proceedings.
Hector
farther down harbor to moorings off Gosport, where she would lie until the court-martial was assembled. Several conditions had to be met, which might take many months. All of the men from the
Pandora
had to have returned, especially Lieutenant Hayward, who would certainly be called on as an “evidence,” or witness, and twelve captains of sufficiently senior rank had to be assembled in port. Finally, much depended upon the movements of Vice Admiral Lord Hood, commander in chief at Portsmouth and a First Lord of the Admiralty, who would preside over the proceedings.
With the
Gorgon’s
safe arrival, relatives and well-wishers felt it their duty to prepare Nessy and her family for the heartbreak that inevitably lay ahead. James Modyford Heywood, the helpful relation who lived close to Plymouth and had previously offered only words of consolation and support, now felt it proper to disabuse Nessy of any illusions: Peter’s character “will I fear avail him little when he is convicted of a Crime, which, viewed in a political Light, is of the blackest Dye,” he wrote darkly, in language that ominously echoed Bligh’s.
Gorgon’s
safe arrival, relatives and well-wishers felt it their duty to prepare Nessy and her family for the heartbreak that inevitably lay ahead. James Modyford Heywood, the helpful relation who lived close to Plymouth and had previously offered only words of consolation and support, now felt it proper to disabuse Nessy of any illusions: Peter’s character “will I fear avail him little when he is convicted of a Crime, which, viewed in a political Light, is of the blackest Dye,” he wrote darkly, in language that ominously echoed Bligh’s.
Similarly, from his private island in Lake Windermere, Cumberland, John Curwen (Fletcher Christian’s well-connected first cousin) wrote to Nessy that “however painful, I think it just to say that unless some favourable Circumstance should appear any Interest which can be made will have little Weight.” Only Peter’s “extreme youth” was in his favor. However, as Curwen undoubtedly knew, Peter’s youth was neither extreme nor, in a profession in which young boys were sent to sea as children, even remarkable. Peter was now twenty; on the day of the mutiny, he had been five weeks shy of his seventeenth birthday. In a postscript to his letter, Curwen added that it was “not unlikely” that he might be on the Isle of Man for a few days on unspecified business with his friend and relation Captain Hugh Cloberry Christian, “who has more the Power of serving you than any Person I know.”
This seems to have been a broad hint of support, for it was not long afterward that Captain Christian took the liberty of approaching the lost
Pandora
’s captain, Edward Edwards, with queries on Peter’s behalf. Regarding “the unfortunate Young Man Peter Heywood,” Edwards duly responded that he well understood the young man had not taken an active part
against
his commander; the question, however, was “how far he may be reprehensible for not taking an active & decided part in his favour in the early part of the business.” As for possible allowance being made for Peter’s youth, “I have only to observe,” wrote the unaccommodating Edwards, “that he appeared to me to be much older and I understand that he passed for and was considered to be so on board the
Bounty.
” Edwards had also witnessed, all those months ago on Tahiti, the evidence of Peter’s manhood—the little houses where he and Stewart had lived with their Tahitian wives, for example. Despite a certain guardedness that suggested that Edwards might not be the ideal witness in Peter’s favor when he took the stand, Edwards offered a glimmer of good news. Peter “certainly came on board the Pandora of his own accord almost immediately after she came to an Anchor.” Also, Peter was a young man of abilities; for instance, “he made himself Master of the Otaheitian Language.” This last point, however, like the incriminating tattoos, was not the kind of information the family felt needed to be bandied about.
Pandora
’s captain, Edward Edwards, with queries on Peter’s behalf. Regarding “the unfortunate Young Man Peter Heywood,” Edwards duly responded that he well understood the young man had not taken an active part
against
his commander; the question, however, was “how far he may be reprehensible for not taking an active & decided part in his favour in the early part of the business.” As for possible allowance being made for Peter’s youth, “I have only to observe,” wrote the unaccommodating Edwards, “that he appeared to me to be much older and I understand that he passed for and was considered to be so on board the
Bounty.
” Edwards had also witnessed, all those months ago on Tahiti, the evidence of Peter’s manhood—the little houses where he and Stewart had lived with their Tahitian wives, for example. Despite a certain guardedness that suggested that Edwards might not be the ideal witness in Peter’s favor when he took the stand, Edwards offered a glimmer of good news. Peter “certainly came on board the Pandora of his own accord almost immediately after she came to an Anchor.” Also, Peter was a young man of abilities; for instance, “he made himself Master of the Otaheitian Language.” This last point, however, like the incriminating tattoos, was not the kind of information the family felt needed to be bandied about.
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