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+Project Gutenberg's "The Gallant, Good Riou", and Jack Renton, by Louis Becke
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: "The Gallant, Good Riou", and Jack Renton
+       1901
+
+Author: Louis Becke
+
+Release Date: April 19, 2008 [EBook #25106]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK "THE GALLANT, GOOD RIOU" ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+"THE GALLANT, GOOD RIOU", and JACK RENTON
+
+From "The Tapu Of Banderah and Other Stories"
+
+By Louis Becke
+
+C. Arthur Pearson Ltd.
+
+1901
+
+
+
+
+"THE GALLANT, GOOD RIOU"
+
+This is a true story of one of Nelson's captains, he of whom Nelson
+wrote as "the gallant and good Riou"--high meed of praise gloriously won
+at Copenhagen--but Riou, eleven years before that day, performed a deed,
+now almost forgotten, which, for unselfish heroism, ranks among the
+brightest in our brilliant naval annals, and in the sea story of
+Australia in particular.
+
+In September, 1789, the _Guardian_, a forty-gun ship, under the command
+of Riou, then a lieutenant, left England for the one-year-old penal
+settlement in New South Wales. The little colony was in sore need of
+food--almost starving, in fact--and Riou's orders were to make all haste
+to his destination, calling at the Cape on the way to embark live stock
+and other supplies. All the ship's guns had been removed to make room
+for the stores, which included a "plant cabin"--a temporary compartment
+built on deck for the purpose of conveying to Sydney, in pots of earth,
+trees and plants selected by Sir Joseph Banks as likely to be useful to
+the young colony--making her deck "a complete garden," says a newspaper
+of the time. Friends of the officers stationed in New South Wales sent
+on board the Guardian great quantities of private goods, and these were
+stored in the gun-room, which it was thought would be a safer place than
+the hold, but, as the event proved, it was the most insecure.
+
+The ship arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in November, and there filled
+her decks with cattle and provisions, then sailed again, her cargo being
+equal in value to about £70,000. On December 23rd--twelve days after
+leaving the Cape--what is described as "an island of ice" was seen. Riou
+gave orders to stand towards it in order to renew, by collecting lumps
+of ice, the supply of water, the stock of fresh water having run very
+low in consequence of the quantity consumed by the cattle.
+
+The Public Advertiser of April 30, 1790, describes what now happened. As
+the ship approached the island, the boats were hoisted out and manned,
+and several lumps collected. During this time the ship lay to, and on
+the ice being brought on board she attempted to stand away. Very little
+apprehension was at this time entertained of her safety, although the
+enormous bulk of the island occasioned an unfavourable current, and in
+some measure gave a partial direction to the wind. On a sudden, the
+base of the island, which projected under water considerably beyond the
+limits of the visible parts, struck the bow of the ship; she instantly
+swung round, and her head cleared, but her stern, coming on the shoal,
+struck repeatedly, and the sea being very heavy, her rudder broke
+away, and all her works abaft were shivered. The ship in this situation
+became, in a degree, embayed under the terrific bulk of ice, for its
+height was twice that of the mainmast of a ship of the line, and the
+prominent head of the berg was every moment expected to break away and
+overwhelm the ship. At length, after every practicable exertion, she was
+got off the shoal, and the ice floated past her. It was soon perceived
+that the _Guardian_ had six feet of water in her hold, and it was
+increasing very fast The hands were set to the pumps, others to find
+out the leaks, and they occasionally relieved each other. Thus they
+continued labouring unceasingly on the 24th, although on the 23rd not
+one of them had had the least rest The ship was at one period so much
+relieved that she had only two feet of water in the hold; but at this
+time, when their distress wore the best aspect, the water "increased in
+a moment to ten feet." Then the ship was discovered to be strained in
+all her works, and the sea running high, every endeavour to check the
+progress of a particular leak proved ineffectual. To lighten the ship,
+the cows, horses, sheep, and all the other live stock for the colony
+were, with their fodder, committed to the deep to perish.
+
+John Williams, boatswain of the _Guardian_, wrote to his parents in
+London, and told them about the disaster, and although we have no doubt
+he was handier with the marline-spike than with his pen, some of his
+badly spelled letter reads well:--
+
+"This axident happened on the 23rd of December, and on the 25th the
+boats left us with moast of the officers and a great part of the seamen.
+The master-gunner, purser, one master's mate, one midshipman, and a
+parson, with nine seamen, was got into the longboat and cleared the
+ship. The doctor and four or five men got into a cutter and was upset
+close to the ship, and all of them was drowned. As for the rest of the
+boats, I believe they must be lost and all in them perished, for wee was
+about six hundred leagues from any land. There was about fifty-six men
+missing; a number drowned jumping into the boats; the sea ran so
+high that the boats could scarce live. The commander had a strong
+resulution, for he said he would sooner go down in the ship than he
+wold quid her. All the officers left in the ship was the commander, the
+carpenter, one midshipman, and myself. After the boats left us we had
+two chances--either to jump or sink. We cold just get into the sailroom
+and got up a new forecourse and stuck it full of oakum and rags, and put
+itt under the ship's bottom; this is called fothering the ship. We found
+some benefit by itt for pumping and bailing we gained on hur; that gave
+us a little hope of saving our lives. We was in this terable situation
+for nine weeks before we got to the Cape of Good Hope. Sometimes our
+upper-deck scuppers was under water outside, and the ship leying like
+a log on the water, and the sea breaking over her as if she was a rock.
+Sixteen foot of water was the common run for the nine weeks in the hold.
+I am not certain what we are to doo with the ship as yet. We have got
+moast of our cargo out; it is all dammaged but the beef and pork, which
+is in good order. I have lost a great dele of my cloaths, and I am
+thinking of drawing of about six pound, wich I think I can make shift
+with. If this axident had not hapned I shold not have had aney call for
+aney. As for my stores, there is a great part of them thrown overboard;
+likewise all the officers stores in the ship is gone the same way, for
+evry thing that came to hand was thrown ovarboard to lighten the ship.
+I think that we must wait till ordars comes from England to know what we
+are to do with the ship."
+
+The chronicles of the time also relate how at daylight on Christmas
+morning, when the water was reported as being up to the orlop deck
+and gaining two feet an hour, many of the people desponded and gave
+themselves up for lost. A part of those who had any strength left,
+seeing that their utmost efforts to save the ship were likely to be in
+vain, applied to the officers for the boats, which were promised to be
+in readiness for them, and the boatswain was directly ordered to put the
+masts, sails, and compasses in each. The cooper was also set to work to
+fill a few quarter-casks of water out of some of the butts on deck, and
+provisions and other necessaries were got up from the hold.
+
+Many hours previous to this, Lieutenant Riou had privately declared to
+his officers that he saw the final loss of the ship was inevitable, and
+he could not help regretting the loss of so many brave fellows. "As
+for me," said he, "I have determined to remain in the ship, and shall
+endeavour to make my presence useful as long as there is any occasion
+for it." He was entreated, and even supplicated, to give up this fatal
+resolution, and try for safety in the boats. It was even hinted to him
+how highly criminal it was to persevere in such a determination; but
+he was not to be moved by any entreaties. He was, notwithstanding, as
+active in providing for the safety of the boats as if he intended to
+take the opportunity of securing his own escape. He was throughout as
+calm and collected as in the happier moments of his life.
+
+At seven o'clock the _Guardian_ had settled considerably abaft, and the
+water was coming in at the rudder-case in great quantities. At half-past
+seven the water in the hold obliged the people below to come upon deck;
+the ship appeared to be in a sinking state, and settling bodily down; it
+was, therefore, almost immediately agreed to have recourse to the boats.
+While engaged in consultation on this melancholy business, Riou wrote a
+letter to the Admiralty, which he delivered to Mr. Clements, the master.
+It was as follows:--
+
+     "H.M.S. Guardian, Dec. 25, 1789.
+
+     "If any part of the officers or crew of the _Guardian_
+     should ever survive to get home, I have only to say their
+     conduct, after the fatal stroke against an island of ice,
+     was admirable and wonderful in everything that relates to
+     their duty, considered either as private men, or in His
+     Majesty's service. As there seems to be no possibility of my
+     remaining many hours in this world, I beg leave to recommend
+     to the considération of the Admiralty a sister, who, if my
+     conduct or service should be found deserving any memory,
+     their favour might be shown to, together with a widowed
+     mother.
+
+     "I am, &c,
+
+     "Phil. Stephens, Esq."
+
+     "E. RIOU.
+
+With the utmost difficulty the boats were launched. After they were got
+afloat and had cleared the ship, with the exception of the launch they
+were never afterwards heard of; the launch with nine survivors was
+picked up by a passing vessel ten days after she left the wreck, her
+people reduced to the last extremity for want of food and water.
+
+Among the survivors was the parson mentioned by the boatswain. This was
+the Rev. Mr. Crowther, who was on his way as a missionary to the penal
+settlement. The Rev. John Newton, of Olney (poet Cowper's Newton), had
+got Crowther the appointment, at "eight shillings per diem, of assistant
+chaplain of the settlement," and Newton, writing to the Rev. R. Johnson,
+chaplain of Sydney, tells how he heard of the loss of the Guardian, "and
+the very next morning Mr. Crowther knocked at my door himself." Then Mr.
+Newton writes a letter which shows that Mr. Crowther had had enough of
+the sea. "It is not a service for mere flesh and blood to undertake. A
+man without that apostolic spirit and peculiar call which the Lord alone
+can give would hardly be able to maintain his ground. Mr. Crowther,
+though a sincere, humble, good man, seems not to have had those
+qualifications, and therefore he has been partly intimidated by what he
+met with abroad, and partly influenced by nearer personal considerations
+at home, to stay with us and sleep in a whole skin." But after his
+experience it was not to be wondered at that he preferred to stay at
+home and sleep in a whole skin.
+
+Meanwhile Riou, in spite of a ship without a rudder, and with the water
+in her up to the orlop deck, succeeded, as the boatswain's letter shows,
+after a voyage of nine weeks, in bringing his command to the Cape. A
+letter from Capetown, written on March 1, 1790, tells us she arrived
+there "eight days ago in a situation not to be credited without ocular
+proofs. She had, I think, nine feet of water in her when she anchored.
+The lower gun-deck served as a second bottom; it was stowed with a very
+great weight equally fore and aft. To this, and to the uncommon strength
+of it, Captain Riou ascribes his safety. Seeing an English ship with a
+signal of distress, four of us went on board, scarcely hoping but with
+busy fancy still pointing her out to be the _Guardian_, and, to our
+inexpressible joy, we found it was her. We stood in silent admiration
+of her heroic commander (whose supposed fate had drawn tears from us
+before), shining through the rags of the meanest sailor. The fortitude
+of this man is a glorious example for British officers to emulate. Since
+that time we have gone on board again to see him. He is affable in
+his manners, and of most commanding presence.... Perhaps we, under the
+influence of that attraction which great sufferings always produce, may,
+in the enthusiasm of our commendation, be too lavish in his praise; were
+it not for this fear I would at once pronounce him the most God-like
+mortal I ever viewed. They were two months from the time the accident
+happened until they reached this place. Every man shared alike in the
+labour; and not having at all attended to their persons during the
+whole of that dismal period they looked like men of another world--long
+beards, dirt, and rags covered them. Mr. Riou got one of his hands
+crushed and one of his legs hurt, but all are getting well. None of his
+people died during their fatigues. He says his principal attention
+was to keep up their spirits and to watch over their health. He never
+allowed himself to hope until the day before he got in here, when
+he made the land. Destitute of that support, how superior must his
+fortitude be! He has this morning, for the first time, come on shore,
+having been employed getting stores, &c., out to lighten the ship. He
+wavers what to do with her--whether to put Government to the expense
+of repairing her here (which would almost equal her first cost, perhaps
+exceed it) or burn her. Most likely the last will be resolved on."
+
+The ship was in such a state that she was condemned by the experts at
+the Cape, but Riou, bearing in mind the distressed state of the colony
+of New South Wales, did not rest until he had sent on in other vessels
+all the stores he could collect.
+
+Neither did he forget the behaviour of certain convicts. In a letter
+to the Admiralty he wrote: "Permit me, sir, to address you on a subject
+which I hope their Lordships will not consider to be unworthy their
+notice. It is to recommend as much as is in my power to their Lordships'
+favour and interest the case of the twenty convicts which my duty
+compelled me to send to Port Jackson. But the recollection of past
+sufferings reminds me of that time when I found it necessary to make use
+of every possible method to encourage the minds of the people under my
+command, and at such time, considering how great the difference might
+be between a free man struggling for life and him who perhaps might
+consider death as not much superior to a life of ignominy and disgrace
+I publicly declared that not one of them, so far as depended on myself,
+should ever be convicts. And I may with undeniable truth say that, had
+it not been for their assistance and support, the _Guardian_ would never
+have arrived to where she is. Their conduct prior to the melancholy
+accident that happened on December 23rd last was always such as may be
+commended, and from their first entrance into the ship at Spithead they
+ever assisted and did their duty in like manner as the crew. I have
+taken the liberty to recommend them to the notice of Governor Phillip;
+but I humbly hope, sir, their Lordships will consider the service done
+by these men as meriting their Lordships' favour and protection, and I
+make no doubt that should I have been so fortunate as to represent
+this in proper colours, that they will experience the benefit of their
+Lordships' interest."
+
+The prisoners were pardoned, and the Secretary of the Admiralty wrote to
+Riou--
+
+"I have their Lordships' commands to acquaint you that their concern
+on the receipt of the melancholy contents of the first-mentioned letter
+could only be exceeded by the satisfaction they received from the
+account of your miraculous escape, which they attribute to your skilful
+and judicious exertions under the favour of Divine Providence....
+Their Lordships have communicated to Mr. Secretary Grenville, for his
+Majesty's information, your recommendation of the surviving convicts
+whose conduct, as it has so deservedly met with your approbation, will,
+there is every reason to hope, entitle them to his Majesty's clemency."
+
+[This story of the gallant behaviour of these twenty prisoners does not
+stand alone in the convict annals of Australia. There were many other
+instances in which convicts behaved with the greatest heroism. Many of
+the earlier explorers, such as Sturt, received most valuable aid from
+prisoners who were members of their expeditions; and in the first
+days of the colony both Phillip and Hunter were quick to recognise
+and personally reward or recommend for pardon to the Home Government
+convicts who had distinguished themselves by acts of bravery.]
+
+When Riou returned to England he was promoted to post-captain's rank,
+and at Copenhagen, in 1801, he commanded the _Amazon_. Perhaps we may
+be forgiven for reprinting from Southey's "Nelson" an account of what he
+did there. "The signal" (that famous one which Nelson looked at with his
+blind eye), "the signal, however, saved Riou's little squadron, but
+did not save its heroic leader. The squadron, which was nearest the
+commander-in-chief, obeyed and hauled off. It had suffered severely in
+its most unequal contest. For a long time the _Amazon_ had been firing
+enveloped in smoke, when Riou desired his men to stand fast, and let
+the smoke clear off, that they might see what they were about. A fatal
+order, for the Danes then got clear sight of her from the batteries,
+and pointed their guns with such tremendous effect that nothing but
+the signal for retreat saved this frigate from destruction. 'What will
+Nelson think of us!' was Riou's mournful exclamation when he unwillingly
+drew off. He had been wounded in the head by a splinter, and was sitting
+on a gun, encouraging his men, when, just as the _Amazon_ showed her
+stern to the Trekroner Battery, his clerk was killed by his side,
+and another shot swept away several marines who were hauling in
+the main-brace. 'Come, then, my boys!' cried Riou, 'let us die all
+together!' The words had scarcely been uttered before a raking shot cut
+him in two. Except it had been Nelson himself, the British Navy could
+not have suffered a severer loss."
+
+
+
+
+
+JACK RENTON
+
+Some yarns of an exceedingly tough and Munchausen-like character have
+been spun and printed by men of their adventures in Australian waters
+or the South Seas, but an examination of such stories by any one with
+personal knowledge of the Pacific and Australasia has soon, and very
+deservedly so, knocked the bottom out of a considerable number of them.
+Yet there are stories of South Sea adventure well authenticated, which
+I are not a whit less wonderful than the most marvellous falsehoods that
+any man has yet told, and the story of what befell John Renton is one
+of these. A file of the _Queenslander_ (the leading Queensland weekly
+newspaper) for 1875 will corroborate his story; for that paper gave the
+best account of his adventures in one of their November (1875) numbers,
+and the story was copied into nearly every paper in Australasia.
+
+
+Like Harry Bluff, John Renton "when a boy left his friends and his home,
+o'er the wild ocean waves all his life for to roam." Renton's home was
+in Stromness, in the Orkneys, and he shipped on board a vessel bound to
+Sydney, in 1867, as an ordinary seaman, he then being a lad of eighteen.
+When in Sydney he got about among the boarding-houses, in sailor-town,
+and one morning woke up on the forecastle of the _Reynard_ of Boston,
+bound on a cruise for guano among the South Pacific Islands.
+
+Renton had been crimped, and finding himself where he was, bothered no
+more about it, but went cheerfully to work, not altogether displeased at
+the prospect of new adventures, which would enable him to by and by go
+back to the old folks with plenty of dollars, and a stock of startling
+yarns to reel off. He was a steady, straightforward lad, though somewhat
+thoughtless at times, and resolved to be a steady, straightforward man.
+The vessel first called into the Sandwich Islands, and there shipped a
+gang of Hawaiian natives to help load the guano, then she sailed away
+to the southward for McKean's Island, one of the Phoenix Group, situated
+about lat. 3? 35' S. and long. 174? 20' W.
+
+On board the _Reynard_ was an old salt known to all hands as "Boston
+Ned." He had been a whaler in his time, had deserted, and spent some
+years beachcombing among the islands of the South Seas, and very soon,
+through his specious tongue, he had all hands wishing themselves clear
+of the "old hooker" and enjoying life in the islands instead of
+cruising about, hazed here and there and everywhere by the mates of the
+_Reynard_, whose main purpose in life was to knock a man down in order
+to make him "sit up." Presently three or four of the hands became
+infatuated with the idea of settling on an island, and old Ned, nothing
+loth, undertook to take charge of the party if they would make an
+attempt to clear from the ship. The old man had taken a fancy to young
+Renton, and the youngster, when the idea was imparted to him, fell in
+with it enthusiastically; for he was exasperated with the treatment he
+had received on board the guanoman--the afterguard of an American guano
+ship are usually a rough lot The ship was lying on and off the land,
+there being no anchorage, and before the plan had been discussed more
+than a few hours, the men, five in all, determined to put it into
+execution.
+
+A small whaleboat was towing astern of the vessel in case the wind
+should fall light and the ship drift in too close to the shore. It was
+a fine night, with a light breeze, and there was, they thought, a good
+chance of getting to the southward, to one of the Samoan group, where
+they could settle, or by shipping on board a trading schooner they might
+later on strike some other island to their fancy.
+
+By stealth they managed to stow in the boat a couple of small breakers
+of water, holding together sixteen gallons, and the forecastle bread
+barge with biscuits enough for three meals a day per man for ten days.
+They managed also to steal four hams, and each man brought pipes,
+tobacco, and matches. A harpoon with some line, an old galley
+frying-pan, mast, sail and oars, and some blankets completed the
+equipment For they took no compass, though they made several attempts to
+get at one slung in the cabin, and tried at first to take one out of the
+poop binnacle; but the officer of the watch on deck was too wide awake
+for them to risk that, and the cabin compass was screwed to the roof
+close to the skipper's berth; and so the old man who was their leader,
+old sailor and whaler as he was, actually gave up the idea of taking a
+compass, and these people without more ado, one night slipped over the
+side into the whaleboat, cut the painter, and by daylight the boat was
+out of sight of land and of the ship. They were afloat upon the Pacific,
+running six or seven miles before a north-east breeze and expecting
+to sight land in less than a week, and were already anticipating the
+freedom and luxury of island life in store for them.
+
+Three days later it fell calm, and they had to take to the oars. The sun
+was intensely hot, the water a sheet of glass reflecting back upon them
+the ball of fire overhead. Now and again a cats-paw would ripple across
+the plain of water, but there were no clouds, there was no sight of
+land. They kept on pulling. For three, for four days--a week--for ten
+days--they tugged at the oars, except when a favouring breeze came. The
+water was reduced to a few pints, the food to a few days' half-rations.
+Their limbs were cramped so that they could not move from their places
+in the boat, their bodies were becoming covered with sores; and the wind
+had now died away entirely, the sea was without a ripple, and for ever
+shone above them the fierce, relentless sun.
+
+Gradually it had dawned upon them that they were lost--that perhaps they
+had run past Samoa. The first eagerness of their adventure gave place
+to despair, and by degrees their despair grew to madness of a more awful
+kind.
+
+On the fifteenth day there appeared to the south and east a low,
+dark-grey cloud. "Land at last!" was the unspoken thought in each man's
+heart as he looked at his comrade, but feared to voice his hope. And
+presently the cloud grew darker and more clearly defined, and one of the
+men--the next oldest to the author of all their miseries--fell upon
+his weak and trembling knees, and raised his hands in thankfulness
+and prayer to the Almighty. Alas! it was not land, but the ominous
+forerunner of the fierce and sweeping mid-equatorial gale which lay
+veiled behind. In less than half an hour it came upon and smote them
+with savage fury, and the little boat was running before a howling gale
+and a maddened, foam-whipped sea.
+
+And then it happened that, ill and suffering as he was from the agonies
+of hunger and thirst, the heroic nature of old "Boston Ned" came
+out, and his bold sailor's heart cheered and encouraged his wretched,
+despairing companions. All that night, and for the greater part of
+the following day, he stood in the stern-sheets, grasping the bending
+steer-oar as the boat swayed and surged along before the gale, and
+constantly watching lest she should broach to and smother in the
+roaring seas; the others lay in the bottom, feebly baling out the
+water, encouraged, urged, and driven to that exertion by the gallant old
+American seaman.
+
+Towards noon the wind moderated, in the afternoon it died away
+altogether, and again the boat lay rising and falling to the long
+Pacific swell, and "Boston Ned" flung his exhausted frame down in the
+stern-sheets and slept.
+
+Again the blood-red sun leapt from a sea of glassy smoothness--for the
+swell had subsided during the night--and again the wretched men locked
+into each other's dreadful faces and mutely asked what was to be done.
+How should they head the boat? Without a compass they might as well
+steer one way as another, for none of them knew even approximately the
+course for the nearest land; search the cloudless vault of blue above,
+or scan the shimmering sea-rim till their aching eyes dropped from out
+their hollowing sockets, there was no clue.
+
+Twenty days out the last particle of food and water had been consumed,
+and though the boat was now steering as near westward as old Ned could
+judge, before a gentle south-east trade, madness and despair were coming
+quickly upon them, and on the twenty-third day two of the five miserable
+creatures began to drink copiously of salt water--the drink of Death.
+
+Renton, though he had suffered to the bitter full from the agonies
+of body and mind endured by his shipmates, did not yield to this
+temptation; and by a merciful providence remained sane enough to turn
+his face away from the water. But as he lay crouched in a heap in the
+bottom of the boat, with a silent prayer in his heart to his Creator to
+quickly end his sufferings, he heard "Boston Ned" and the only remaining
+sane man except himself muttering hoarsely together and looking
+sometimes at him and sometimes at the two almost dying men who lay
+moaning beside him. Presently the man who was talking to Ned pulled out
+of his blanket--which lay in the stern-sheets--a razor, and turning his
+back to Renton began stropping it upon the sole of his boot, and even
+"Boston Ned" himself looked with awful eyes and blood-baked twitching
+lips upon the youngster.
+
+The lad saw what was coming, and as quickly as possible made his way
+forward and sat there, with his eyes fixed upon the two men aft, waiting
+for the struggle which he thought must soon begin. All that day and the
+night he sat and watched, determined to make a fight for the little life
+which remained in him, and Ned and the other man at times still muttered
+and eyed him wolfishly.
+
+And so, on and on, these seeming outcasts of God's mercy sailed before
+the warm breath of the south-east trade wind, above them the blazing
+tropic sun, around them the wide, sailless expanse of the blue Pacific
+unbroken in its dreadful loneliness except for a wandering grey-winged
+booby or flocks of whale-birds floating upon its gentle swell, and
+within their all but deadened hearts naught but grim despair and a
+dulled sense of coming dissolution.
+
+As he sat thus, supporting his swollen head upon his skeleton hands,
+Renton saw something astern, moving slowly after the boat--something
+that he knew was waiting and following for the awful deed to be done, so
+that _it_ too might share in the dreadful feast.
+
+Raising his bony arm, he pointed towards the moving fin. To him a
+shark meant no added horror or danger to their position, but possibly
+deliverance. "Boston Ned" and the other man first looked at the coming
+shark, and then with sunken eyes again turned to Renton. Voices none of
+them had, and the lad's parched tongue could not articulate, but with
+signs and lip movements he tried to make the other two men understand.
+
+No shark hook had they; nor, if they had had one, had they anything
+with which to bait it. But Renton, crawling aft, picked up the harpoon,
+placed it in "Boston Ned's" hands, and motioned to him to stand by.
+Then with eager, trembling hands he stripped from his legs the shreds
+of trousers which remained on them, and, sitting upon the gunwale of the
+boat, hung one limb over and let it trail in the water.
+
+Three times the shark came up, and thrice Ned prepared to strike, but
+each time the grim ranger of the seas turned aside as it caught sight
+of the waiting figure with weapon poised above. But at last hunger
+prevailed, and, swimming slowly up till within a few yards of the boat,
+it made a sudden rush for the human bait, missed it, and the harpoon,
+deftly darted by the old ex-whaler, clove through its tough skin and
+buried itself deep into its body between the shoulders.
+
+It took the worn-out, exhausted men a long time to haul alongside and
+despatch the struggling monster, which, says Renton, was ten feet in
+length.
+
+Then followed shark's flesh and shark's blood, some of the former, after
+the first raw meal, being cooked on a fire made of the biscuit barge
+upon a wet blanket spread in the bottom of the boat. The hot weather,
+however, soon turned the remaining portion putrid, but two or three days
+later came God's blessed rain, and gave them hope and life again.
+They managed to save a considerable quantity of water, and, though the
+shark's flesh was in a horrible condition, they continued to feed upon
+it _until the thirty-fifth_ day.
+
+On this day they saw land, high and well wooded; but now the trade-wind
+failed them, and for the following two days the unfortunate men
+contended with baffling light airs, calms, and strong currents. At
+last they got within a short distance of the shore, and sought for a
+landing-place through the surrounding surf.
+
+Suddenly four or five canoes darted out from the shore. They were filled
+with armed savages, whose aspect and demeanour warned old Ned that he
+and his comrades were among cannibals. Sweeping alongside the boat, the
+savages seized the white men, who were all too feeble to resist, or even
+move, put them into their canoes, and conveyed them on shore, fed them,
+and treated them with much apparent kindness. Crowds of natives
+from that part of the island--which was Malayta, one of the Solomon
+Group--came to look at them, and one man, a chief, took a fancy to
+Renton, and claimed him as his own especial property.
+
+Renton never saw the rest of his companions again, for they were removed
+to the interior of the Island--probably sold to some of the bush tribes,
+the "man-a-bush," as the coastal natives called them. Their fate is not
+difficult to guess, for the people of Malayta were then, as they are
+now, cannibals.
+
+On August 7, 1875, the Queensland labour recruiting schooner _Bobtail
+Nag_ was cruising off the island, trading for yams, and her captain
+heard from some natives who came alongside that there was a white man
+living ashore in a village about ten miles distant. The skipper of the
+_Bobtail Nag_ at once offered to pay a handsome price if the man was
+brought on board, and at the cost of several dozen Birmingham steel
+axes and some tobacco poor Renton's release was effected. He told his
+rescuers that the people among whom he had lived had taken a great fancy
+to him, and had treated him with great kindness.
+
+If the reader will look at a chart of the South Pacific, he will see,
+among the Phoenix Group, the position of McKean's Island; two thousand
+miles distant, westward and southward, is the island of Malayta, upon
+which Renton and his companions in misery drifted.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of "The Gallant, Good Riou", and Jack
+Renton, by Louis Becke
+
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+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      'The Gallant, Good Riou', and Jack Renton, by Louis Becke
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+    
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+    
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+Project Gutenberg's "The Gallant, Good Riou", and Jack Renton, by Louis Becke
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: "The Gallant, Good Riou", and Jack Renton
+       1901
+
+Author: Louis Becke
+
+Release Date: April 19, 2008 [EBook #25106]
+Last Updated: January 8, 2013
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK "THE GALLANT, GOOD RIOU" ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      "THE GALLANT, GOOD RIOU",<br /> and JACK RENTON
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      From "The Tapu Of Banderah and Other Stories"
+    </h3>
+    <h2>
+      By Louis Becke
+    </h2>
+    <h5>
+      C. Arthur Pearson Ltd. <br /> <br /> 1901
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      Contents
+    </h2>
+    <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto">
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> "THE GALLANT, GOOD RIOU" </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> JACK RENTON </a>
+          </p>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      "THE GALLANT, GOOD RIOU"
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      This is a true story of one of Nelson's captains, he of whom Nelson wrote
+      as "the gallant and good Riou"&mdash;high meed of praise gloriously won at
+      Copenhagen&mdash;but Riou, eleven years before that day, performed a deed,
+      now almost forgotten, which, for unselfish heroism, ranks among the
+      brightest in our brilliant naval annals, and in the sea story of Australia
+      in particular.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In September, 1789, the <i>Guardian</i>, a forty-gun ship, under the
+      command of Riou, then a lieutenant, left England for the one-year-old
+      penal settlement in New South Wales. The little colony was in sore need of
+      food&mdash;almost starving, in fact&mdash;and Riou's orders were to make
+      all haste to his destination, calling at the Cape on the way to embark
+      live stock and other supplies. All the ship's guns had been removed to
+      make room for the stores, which included a "plant cabin"&mdash;a temporary
+      compartment built on deck for the purpose of conveying to Sydney, in pots
+      of earth, trees and plants selected by Sir Joseph Banks as likely to be
+      useful to the young colony&mdash;making her deck "a complete garden," says
+      a newspaper of the time. Friends of the officers stationed in New South
+      Wales sent on board the Guardian great quantities of private goods, and
+      these were stored in the gun-room, which it was thought would be a safer
+      place than the hold, but, as the event proved, it was the most insecure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ship arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in November, and there filled
+      her decks with cattle and provisions, then sailed again, her cargo being
+      equal in value to about £70,000. On December 23rd&mdash;twelve days after
+      leaving the Cape&mdash;what is described as "an island of ice" was seen.
+      Riou gave orders to stand towards it in order to renew, by collecting
+      lumps of ice, the supply of water, the stock of fresh water having run
+      very low in consequence of the quantity consumed by the cattle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Public Advertiser of April 30, 1790, describes what now happened. As
+      the ship approached the island, the boats were hoisted out and manned, and
+      several lumps collected. During this time the ship lay to, and on the ice
+      being brought on board she attempted to stand away. Very little
+      apprehension was at this time entertained of her safety, although the
+      enormous bulk of the island occasioned an unfavourable current, and in
+      some measure gave a partial direction to the wind. On a sudden, the base
+      of the island, which projected under water considerably beyond the limits
+      of the visible parts, struck the bow of the ship; she instantly swung
+      round, and her head cleared, but her stern, coming on the shoal, struck
+      repeatedly, and the sea being very heavy, her rudder broke away, and all
+      her works abaft were shivered. The ship in this situation became, in a
+      degree, embayed under the terrific bulk of ice, for its height was twice
+      that of the mainmast of a ship of the line, and the prominent head of the
+      berg was every moment expected to break away and overwhelm the ship. At
+      length, after every practicable exertion, she was got off the shoal, and
+      the ice floated past her. It was soon perceived that the <i>Guardian</i>
+      had six feet of water in her hold, and it was increasing very fast The
+      hands were set to the pumps, others to find out the leaks, and they
+      occasionally relieved each other. Thus they continued labouring
+      unceasingly on the 24th, although on the 23rd not one of them had had the
+      least rest The ship was at one period so much relieved that she had only
+      two feet of water in the hold; but at this time, when their distress wore
+      the best aspect, the water "increased in a moment to ten feet." Then the
+      ship was discovered to be strained in all her works, and the sea running
+      high, every endeavour to check the progress of a particular leak proved
+      ineffectual. To lighten the ship, the cows, horses, sheep, and all the
+      other live stock for the colony were, with their fodder, committed to the
+      deep to perish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John Williams, boatswain of the <i>Guardian</i>, wrote to his parents in
+      London, and told them about the disaster, and although we have no doubt he
+      was handier with the marline-spike than with his pen, some of his badly
+      spelled letter reads well:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This axident happened on the 23rd of December, and on the 25th the boats
+      left us with moast of the officers and a great part of the seamen. The
+      master-gunner, purser, one master's mate, one midshipman, and a parson,
+      with nine seamen, was got into the longboat and cleared the ship. The
+      doctor and four or five men got into a cutter and was upset close to the
+      ship, and all of them was drowned. As for the rest of the boats, I believe
+      they must be lost and all in them perished, for wee was about six hundred
+      leagues from any land. There was about fifty-six men missing; a number
+      drowned jumping into the boats; the sea ran so high that the boats could
+      scarce live. The commander had a strong resulution, for he said he would
+      sooner go down in the ship than he wold quid her. All the officers left in
+      the ship was the commander, the carpenter, one midshipman, and myself.
+      After the boats left us we had two chances&mdash;either to jump or sink.
+      We cold just get into the sailroom and got up a new forecourse and stuck
+      it full of oakum and rags, and put itt under the ship's bottom; this is
+      called fothering the ship. We found some benefit by itt for pumping and
+      bailing we gained on hur; that gave us a little hope of saving our lives.
+      We was in this terable situation for nine weeks before we got to the Cape
+      of Good Hope. Sometimes our upper-deck scuppers was under water outside,
+      and the ship leying like a log on the water, and the sea breaking over her
+      as if she was a rock. Sixteen foot of water was the common run for the
+      nine weeks in the hold. I am not certain what we are to doo with the ship
+      as yet. We have got moast of our cargo out; it is all dammaged but the
+      beef and pork, which is in good order. I have lost a great dele of my
+      cloaths, and I am thinking of drawing of about six pound, wich I think I
+      can make shift with. If this axident had not hapned I shold not have had
+      aney call for aney. As for my stores, there is a great part of them thrown
+      overboard; likewise all the officers stores in the ship is gone the same
+      way, for evry thing that came to hand was thrown ovarboard to lighten the
+      ship. I think that we must wait till ordars comes from England to know
+      what we are to do with the ship."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The chronicles of the time also relate how at daylight on Christmas
+      morning, when the water was reported as being up to the orlop deck and
+      gaining two feet an hour, many of the people desponded and gave themselves
+      up for lost. A part of those who had any strength left, seeing that their
+      utmost efforts to save the ship were likely to be in vain, applied to the
+      officers for the boats, which were promised to be in readiness for them,
+      and the boatswain was directly ordered to put the masts, sails, and
+      compasses in each. The cooper was also set to work to fill a few
+      quarter-casks of water out of some of the butts on deck, and provisions
+      and other necessaries were got up from the hold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Many hours previous to this, Lieutenant Riou had privately declared to his
+      officers that he saw the final loss of the ship was inevitable, and he
+      could not help regretting the loss of so many brave fellows. "As for me,"
+      said he, "I have determined to remain in the ship, and shall endeavour to
+      make my presence useful as long as there is any occasion for it." He was
+      entreated, and even supplicated, to give up this fatal resolution, and try
+      for safety in the boats. It was even hinted to him how highly criminal it
+      was to persevere in such a determination; but he was not to be moved by
+      any entreaties. He was, notwithstanding, as active in providing for the
+      safety of the boats as if he intended to take the opportunity of securing
+      his own escape. He was throughout as calm and collected as in the happier
+      moments of his life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At seven o'clock the <i>Guardian</i> had settled considerably abaft, and
+      the water was coming in at the rudder-case in great quantities. At
+      half-past seven the water in the hold obliged the people below to come
+      upon deck; the ship appeared to be in a sinking state, and settling bodily
+      down; it was, therefore, almost immediately agreed to have recourse to the
+      boats. While engaged in consultation on this melancholy business, Riou
+      wrote a letter to the Admiralty, which he delivered to Mr. Clements, the
+      master. It was as follows:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     "H.M.S. Guardian, Dec. 25, 1789.
+
+     "If any part of the officers or crew of the <i>Guardian</i>
+     should ever survive to get home, I have only to say their
+     conduct, after the fatal stroke against an island of ice,
+     was admirable and wonderful in everything that relates to
+     their duty, considered either as private men, or in His
+     Majesty's service. As there seems to be no possibility of my
+     remaining many hours in this world, I beg leave to recommend
+     to the considération of the Admiralty a sister, who, if my
+     conduct or service should be found deserving any memory,
+     their favour might be shown to, together with a widowed
+     mother.
+
+     "I am, &amp;c,
+
+     "Phil. Stephens, Esq."
+
+     "E. RIOU.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      With the utmost difficulty the boats were launched. After they were got
+      afloat and had cleared the ship, with the exception of the launch they
+      were never afterwards heard of; the launch with nine survivors was picked
+      up by a passing vessel ten days after she left the wreck, her people
+      reduced to the last extremity for want of food and water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the survivors was the parson mentioned by the boatswain. This was
+      the Rev. Mr. Crowther, who was on his way as a missionary to the penal
+      settlement. The Rev. John Newton, of Olney (poet Cowper's Newton), had got
+      Crowther the appointment, at "eight shillings per diem, of assistant
+      chaplain of the settlement," and Newton, writing to the Rev. R. Johnson,
+      chaplain of Sydney, tells how he heard of the loss of the Guardian, "and
+      the very next morning Mr. Crowther knocked at my door himself." Then Mr.
+      Newton writes a letter which shows that Mr. Crowther had had enough of the
+      sea. "It is not a service for mere flesh and blood to undertake. A man
+      without that apostolic spirit and peculiar call which the Lord alone can
+      give would hardly be able to maintain his ground. Mr. Crowther, though a
+      sincere, humble, good man, seems not to have had those qualifications, and
+      therefore he has been partly intimidated by what he met with abroad, and
+      partly influenced by nearer personal considerations at home, to stay with
+      us and sleep in a whole skin." But after his experience it was not to be
+      wondered at that he preferred to stay at home and sleep in a whole skin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile Riou, in spite of a ship without a rudder, and with the water in
+      her up to the orlop deck, succeeded, as the boatswain's letter shows,
+      after a voyage of nine weeks, in bringing his command to the Cape. A
+      letter from Capetown, written on March 1, 1790, tells us she arrived there
+      "eight days ago in a situation not to be credited without ocular proofs.
+      She had, I think, nine feet of water in her when she anchored. The lower
+      gun-deck served as a second bottom; it was stowed with a very great weight
+      equally fore and aft. To this, and to the uncommon strength of it, Captain
+      Riou ascribes his safety. Seeing an English ship with a signal of
+      distress, four of us went on board, scarcely hoping but with busy fancy
+      still pointing her out to be the <i>Guardian</i>, and, to our
+      inexpressible joy, we found it was her. We stood in silent admiration of
+      her heroic commander (whose supposed fate had drawn tears from us before),
+      shining through the rags of the meanest sailor. The fortitude of this man
+      is a glorious example for British officers to emulate. Since that time we
+      have gone on board again to see him. He is affable in his manners, and of
+      most commanding presence.... Perhaps we, under the influence of that
+      attraction which great sufferings always produce, may, in the enthusiasm
+      of our commendation, be too lavish in his praise; were it not for this
+      fear I would at once pronounce him the most God-like mortal I ever viewed.
+      They were two months from the time the accident happened until they
+      reached this place. Every man shared alike in the labour; and not having
+      at all attended to their persons during the whole of that dismal period
+      they looked like men of another world&mdash;long beards, dirt, and rags
+      covered them. Mr. Riou got one of his hands crushed and one of his legs
+      hurt, but all are getting well. None of his people died during their
+      fatigues. He says his principal attention was to keep up their spirits and
+      to watch over their health. He never allowed himself to hope until the day
+      before he got in here, when he made the land. Destitute of that support,
+      how superior must his fortitude be! He has this morning, for the first
+      time, come on shore, having been employed getting stores, &amp;c., out to
+      lighten the ship. He wavers what to do with her&mdash;whether to put
+      Government to the expense of repairing her here (which would almost equal
+      her first cost, perhaps exceed it) or burn her. Most likely the last will
+      be resolved on."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ship was in such a state that she was condemned by the experts at the
+      Cape, but Riou, bearing in mind the distressed state of the colony of New
+      South Wales, did not rest until he had sent on in other vessels all the
+      stores he could collect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Neither did he forget the behaviour of certain convicts. In a letter to
+      the Admiralty he wrote: "Permit me, sir, to address you on a subject which
+      I hope their Lordships will not consider to be unworthy their notice. It
+      is to recommend as much as is in my power to their Lordships' favour and
+      interest the case of the twenty convicts which my duty compelled me to
+      send to Port Jackson. But the recollection of past sufferings reminds me
+      of that time when I found it necessary to make use of every possible
+      method to encourage the minds of the people under my command, and at such
+      time, considering how great the difference might be between a free man
+      struggling for life and him who perhaps might consider death as not much
+      superior to a life of ignominy and disgrace I publicly declared that not
+      one of them, so far as depended on myself, should ever be convicts. And I
+      may with undeniable truth say that, had it not been for their assistance
+      and support, the <i>Guardian</i> would never have arrived to where she is.
+      Their conduct prior to the melancholy accident that happened on December
+      23rd last was always such as may be commended, and from their first
+      entrance into the ship at Spithead they ever assisted and did their duty
+      in like manner as the crew. I have taken the liberty to recommend them to
+      the notice of Governor Phillip; but I humbly hope, sir, their Lordships
+      will consider the service done by these men as meriting their Lordships'
+      favour and protection, and I make no doubt that should I have been so
+      fortunate as to represent this in proper colours, that they will
+      experience the benefit of their Lordships' interest."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The prisoners were pardoned, and the Secretary of the Admiralty wrote to
+      Riou&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have their Lordships' commands to acquaint you that their concern on
+      the receipt of the melancholy contents of the first-mentioned letter could
+      only be exceeded by the satisfaction they received from the account of
+      your miraculous escape, which they attribute to your skilful and judicious
+      exertions under the favour of Divine Providence.... Their Lordships have
+      communicated to Mr. Secretary Grenville, for his Majesty's information,
+      your recommendation of the surviving convicts whose conduct, as it has so
+      deservedly met with your approbation, will, there is every reason to hope,
+      entitle them to his Majesty's clemency."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [This story of the gallant behaviour of these twenty prisoners does not
+      stand alone in the convict annals of Australia. There were many other
+      instances in which convicts behaved with the greatest heroism. Many of the
+      earlier explorers, such as Sturt, received most valuable aid from
+      prisoners who were members of their expeditions; and in the first days of
+      the colony both Phillip and Hunter were quick to recognise and personally
+      reward or recommend for pardon to the Home Government convicts who had
+      distinguished themselves by acts of bravery.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Riou returned to England he was promoted to post-captain's rank, and
+      at Copenhagen, in 1801, he commanded the <i>Amazon</i>. Perhaps we may be
+      forgiven for reprinting from Southey's "Nelson" an account of what he did
+      there. "The signal" (that famous one which Nelson looked at with his blind
+      eye), "the signal, however, saved Riou's little squadron, but did not save
+      its heroic leader. The squadron, which was nearest the commander-in-chief,
+      obeyed and hauled off. It had suffered severely in its most unequal
+      contest. For a long time the <i>Amazon</i> had been firing enveloped in
+      smoke, when Riou desired his men to stand fast, and let the smoke clear
+      off, that they might see what they were about. A fatal order, for the
+      Danes then got clear sight of her from the batteries, and pointed their
+      guns with such tremendous effect that nothing but the signal for retreat
+      saved this frigate from destruction. 'What will Nelson think of us!' was
+      Riou's mournful exclamation when he unwillingly drew off. He had been
+      wounded in the head by a splinter, and was sitting on a gun, encouraging
+      his men, when, just as the <i>Amazon</i> showed her stern to the Trekroner
+      Battery, his clerk was killed by his side, and another shot swept away
+      several marines who were hauling in the main-brace. 'Come, then, my boys!'
+      cried Riou, 'let us die all together!' The words had scarcely been uttered
+      before a raking shot cut him in two. Except it had been Nelson himself,
+      the British Navy could not have suffered a severer loss."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      JACK RENTON
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Some yarns of an exceedingly tough and Munchausen-like character have been
+      spun and printed by men of their adventures in Australian waters or the
+      South Seas, but an examination of such stories by any one with personal
+      knowledge of the Pacific and Australasia has soon, and very deservedly so,
+      knocked the bottom out of a considerable number of them. Yet there are
+      stories of South Sea adventure well authenticated, which I are not a whit
+      less wonderful than the most marvellous falsehoods that any man has yet
+      told, and the story of what befell John Renton is one of these. A file of
+      the <i>Queenslander</i> (the leading Queensland weekly newspaper) for 1875
+      will corroborate his story; for that paper gave the best account of his
+      adventures in one of their November (1875) numbers, and the story was
+      copied into nearly every paper in Australasia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Like Harry Bluff, John Renton "when a boy left his friends and his home,
+      o'er the wild ocean waves all his life for to roam." Renton's home was in
+      Stromness, in the Orkneys, and he shipped on board a vessel bound to
+      Sydney, in 1867, as an ordinary seaman, he then being a lad of eighteen.
+      When in Sydney he got about among the boarding-houses, in sailor-town, and
+      one morning woke up on the forecastle of the <i>Reynard</i> of Boston,
+      bound on a cruise for guano among the South Pacific Islands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Renton had been crimped, and finding himself where he was, bothered no
+      more about it, but went cheerfully to work, not altogether displeased at
+      the prospect of new adventures, which would enable him to by and by go
+      back to the old folks with plenty of dollars, and a stock of startling
+      yarns to reel off. He was a steady, straightforward lad, though somewhat
+      thoughtless at times, and resolved to be a steady, straightforward man.
+      The vessel first called into the Sandwich Islands, and there shipped a
+      gang of Hawaiian natives to help load the guano, then she sailed away to
+      the southward for McKean's Island, one of the Phoenix Group, situated
+      about lat. 3? 35' S. and long. 174? 20' W.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On board the <i>Reynard</i> was an old salt known to all hands as "Boston
+      Ned." He had been a whaler in his time, had deserted, and spent some years
+      beachcombing among the islands of the South Seas, and very soon, through
+      his specious tongue, he had all hands wishing themselves clear of the "old
+      hooker" and enjoying life in the islands instead of cruising about, hazed
+      here and there and everywhere by the mates of the <i>Reynard</i>, whose
+      main purpose in life was to knock a man down in order to make him "sit
+      up." Presently three or four of the hands became infatuated with the idea
+      of settling on an island, and old Ned, nothing loth, undertook to take
+      charge of the party if they would make an attempt to clear from the ship.
+      The old man had taken a fancy to young Renton, and the youngster, when the
+      idea was imparted to him, fell in with it enthusiastically; for he was
+      exasperated with the treatment he had received on board the guanoman&mdash;the
+      afterguard of an American guano ship are usually a rough lot The ship was
+      lying on and off the land, there being no anchorage, and before the plan
+      had been discussed more than a few hours, the men, five in all, determined
+      to put it into execution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A small whaleboat was towing astern of the vessel in case the wind should
+      fall light and the ship drift in too close to the shore. It was a fine
+      night, with a light breeze, and there was, they thought, a good chance of
+      getting to the southward, to one of the Samoan group, where they could
+      settle, or by shipping on board a trading schooner they might later on
+      strike some other island to their fancy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By stealth they managed to stow in the boat a couple of small breakers of
+      water, holding together sixteen gallons, and the forecastle bread barge
+      with biscuits enough for three meals a day per man for ten days. They
+      managed also to steal four hams, and each man brought pipes, tobacco, and
+      matches. A harpoon with some line, an old galley frying-pan, mast, sail
+      and oars, and some blankets completed the equipment For they took no
+      compass, though they made several attempts to get at one slung in the
+      cabin, and tried at first to take one out of the poop binnacle; but the
+      officer of the watch on deck was too wide awake for them to risk that, and
+      the cabin compass was screwed to the roof close to the skipper's berth;
+      and so the old man who was their leader, old sailor and whaler as he was,
+      actually gave up the idea of taking a compass, and these people without
+      more ado, one night slipped over the side into the whaleboat, cut the
+      painter, and by daylight the boat was out of sight of land and of the
+      ship. They were afloat upon the Pacific, running six or seven miles before
+      a north-east breeze and expecting to sight land in less than a week, and
+      were already anticipating the freedom and luxury of island life in store
+      for them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Three days later it fell calm, and they had to take to the oars. The sun
+      was intensely hot, the water a sheet of glass reflecting back upon them
+      the ball of fire overhead. Now and again a cats-paw would ripple across
+      the plain of water, but there were no clouds, there was no sight of land.
+      They kept on pulling. For three, for four days&mdash;a week&mdash;for ten
+      days&mdash;they tugged at the oars, except when a favouring breeze came.
+      The water was reduced to a few pints, the food to a few days'
+      half-rations. Their limbs were cramped so that they could not move from
+      their places in the boat, their bodies were becoming covered with sores;
+      and the wind had now died away entirely, the sea was without a ripple, and
+      for ever shone above them the fierce, relentless sun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gradually it had dawned upon them that they were lost&mdash;that perhaps
+      they had run past Samoa. The first eagerness of their adventure gave place
+      to despair, and by degrees their despair grew to madness of a more awful
+      kind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the fifteenth day there appeared to the south and east a low, dark-grey
+      cloud. "Land at last!" was the unspoken thought in each man's heart as he
+      looked at his comrade, but feared to voice his hope. And presently the
+      cloud grew darker and more clearly defined, and one of the men&mdash;the
+      next oldest to the author of all their miseries&mdash;fell upon his weak
+      and trembling knees, and raised his hands in thankfulness and prayer to
+      the Almighty. Alas! it was not land, but the ominous forerunner of the
+      fierce and sweeping mid-equatorial gale which lay veiled behind. In less
+      than half an hour it came upon and smote them with savage fury, and the
+      little boat was running before a howling gale and a maddened, foam-whipped
+      sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And then it happened that, ill and suffering as he was from the agonies of
+      hunger and thirst, the heroic nature of old "Boston Ned" came out, and his
+      bold sailor's heart cheered and encouraged his wretched, despairing
+      companions. All that night, and for the greater part of the following day,
+      he stood in the stern-sheets, grasping the bending steer-oar as the boat
+      swayed and surged along before the gale, and constantly watching lest she
+      should broach to and smother in the roaring seas; the others lay in the
+      bottom, feebly baling out the water, encouraged, urged, and driven to that
+      exertion by the gallant old American seaman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Towards noon the wind moderated, in the afternoon it died away altogether,
+      and again the boat lay rising and falling to the long Pacific swell, and
+      "Boston Ned" flung his exhausted frame down in the stern-sheets and slept.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again the blood-red sun leapt from a sea of glassy smoothness&mdash;for
+      the swell had subsided during the night&mdash;and again the wretched men
+      locked into each other's dreadful faces and mutely asked what was to be
+      done. How should they head the boat? Without a compass they might as well
+      steer one way as another, for none of them knew even approximately the
+      course for the nearest land; search the cloudless vault of blue above, or
+      scan the shimmering sea-rim till their aching eyes dropped from out their
+      hollowing sockets, there was no clue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Twenty days out the last particle of food and water had been consumed, and
+      though the boat was now steering as near westward as old Ned could judge,
+      before a gentle south-east trade, madness and despair were coming quickly
+      upon them, and on the twenty-third day two of the five miserable creatures
+      began to drink copiously of salt water&mdash;the drink of Death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Renton, though he had suffered to the bitter full from the agonies of body
+      and mind endured by his shipmates, did not yield to this temptation; and
+      by a merciful providence remained sane enough to turn his face away from
+      the water. But as he lay crouched in a heap in the bottom of the boat,
+      with a silent prayer in his heart to his Creator to quickly end his
+      sufferings, he heard "Boston Ned" and the only remaining sane man except
+      himself muttering hoarsely together and looking sometimes at him and
+      sometimes at the two almost dying men who lay moaning beside him.
+      Presently the man who was talking to Ned pulled out of his blanket&mdash;which
+      lay in the stern-sheets&mdash;a razor, and turning his back to Renton
+      began stropping it upon the sole of his boot, and even "Boston Ned"
+      himself looked with awful eyes and blood-baked twitching lips upon the
+      youngster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lad saw what was coming, and as quickly as possible made his way
+      forward and sat there, with his eyes fixed upon the two men aft, waiting
+      for the struggle which he thought must soon begin. All that day and the
+      night he sat and watched, determined to make a fight for the little life
+      which remained in him, and Ned and the other man at times still muttered
+      and eyed him wolfishly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And so, on and on, these seeming outcasts of God's mercy sailed before the
+      warm breath of the south-east trade wind, above them the blazing tropic
+      sun, around them the wide, sailless expanse of the blue Pacific unbroken
+      in its dreadful loneliness except for a wandering grey-winged booby or
+      flocks of whale-birds floating upon its gentle swell, and within their all
+      but deadened hearts naught but grim despair and a dulled sense of coming
+      dissolution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he sat thus, supporting his swollen head upon his skeleton hands,
+      Renton saw something astern, moving slowly after the boat&mdash;something
+      that he knew was waiting and following for the awful deed to be done, so
+      that <i>it</i> too might share in the dreadful feast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Raising his bony arm, he pointed towards the moving fin. To him a shark
+      meant no added horror or danger to their position, but possibly
+      deliverance. "Boston Ned" and the other man first looked at the coming
+      shark, and then with sunken eyes again turned to Renton. Voices none of
+      them had, and the lad's parched tongue could not articulate, but with
+      signs and lip movements he tried to make the other two men understand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No shark hook had they; nor, if they had had one, had they anything with
+      which to bait it. But Renton, crawling aft, picked up the harpoon, placed
+      it in "Boston Ned's" hands, and motioned to him to stand by. Then with
+      eager, trembling hands he stripped from his legs the shreds of trousers
+      which remained on them, and, sitting upon the gunwale of the boat, hung
+      one limb over and let it trail in the water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Three times the shark came up, and thrice Ned prepared to strike, but each
+      time the grim ranger of the seas turned aside as it caught sight of the
+      waiting figure with weapon poised above. But at last hunger prevailed,
+      and, swimming slowly up till within a few yards of the boat, it made a
+      sudden rush for the human bait, missed it, and the harpoon, deftly darted
+      by the old ex-whaler, clove through its tough skin and buried itself deep
+      into its body between the shoulders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It took the worn-out, exhausted men a long time to haul alongside and
+      despatch the struggling monster, which, says Renton, was ten feet in
+      length.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then followed shark's flesh and shark's blood, some of the former, after
+      the first raw meal, being cooked on a fire made of the biscuit barge upon
+      a wet blanket spread in the bottom of the boat. The hot weather, however,
+      soon turned the remaining portion putrid, but two or three days later came
+      God's blessed rain, and gave them hope and life again. They managed to
+      save a considerable quantity of water, and, though the shark's flesh was
+      in a horrible condition, they continued to feed upon it <i>until the
+      thirty-fifth</i> day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On this day they saw land, high and well wooded; but now the trade-wind
+      failed them, and for the following two days the unfortunate men contended
+      with baffling light airs, calms, and strong currents. At last they got
+      within a short distance of the shore, and sought for a landing-place
+      through the surrounding surf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly four or five canoes darted out from the shore. They were filled
+      with armed savages, whose aspect and demeanour warned old Ned that he and
+      his comrades were among cannibals. Sweeping alongside the boat, the
+      savages seized the white men, who were all too feeble to resist, or even
+      move, put them into their canoes, and conveyed them on shore, fed them,
+      and treated them with much apparent kindness. Crowds of natives from that
+      part of the island&mdash;which was Malayta, one of the Solomon Group&mdash;came
+      to look at them, and one man, a chief, took a fancy to Renton, and claimed
+      him as his own especial property.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Renton never saw the rest of his companions again, for they were removed
+      to the interior of the Island&mdash;probably sold to some of the bush
+      tribes, the "man-a-bush," as the coastal natives called them. Their fate
+      is not difficult to guess, for the people of Malayta were then, as they
+      are now, cannibals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On August 7, 1875, the Queensland labour recruiting schooner <i>Bobtail
+      Nag</i> was cruising off the island, trading for yams, and her captain
+      heard from some natives who came alongside that there was a white man
+      living ashore in a village about ten miles distant. The skipper of the <i>Bobtail
+      Nag</i> at once offered to pay a handsome price if the man was brought on
+      board, and at the cost of several dozen Birmingham steel axes and some
+      tobacco poor Renton's release was effected. He told his rescuers that the
+      people among whom he had lived had taken a great fancy to him, and had
+      treated him with great kindness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the reader will look at a chart of the South Pacific, he will see,
+      among the Phoenix Group, the position of McKean's Island; two thousand
+      miles distant, westward and southward, is the island of Malayta, upon
+      which Renton and his companions in misery drifted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
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+</pre>
+  </body>
+</html>
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+Project Gutenberg's "The Gallant, Good Riou", and Jack Renton, by Louis Becke
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: "The Gallant, Good Riou", and Jack Renton
+       1901
+
+Author: Louis Becke
+
+Release Date: April 19, 2008 [EBook #25106]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK "THE GALLANT, GOOD RIOU" ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+"THE GALLANT, GOOD RIOU", and JACK RENTON
+
+From "The Tapu Of Banderah and Other Stories"
+
+By Louis Becke
+
+C. Arthur Pearson Ltd.
+
+1901
+
+
+
+
+"THE GALLANT, GOOD RIOU"
+
+This is a true story of one of Nelson's captains, he of whom Nelson
+wrote as "the gallant and good Riou"--high meed of praise gloriously won
+at Copenhagen--but Riou, eleven years before that day, performed a deed,
+now almost forgotten, which, for unselfish heroism, ranks among the
+brightest in our brilliant naval annals, and in the sea story of
+Australia in particular.
+
+In September, 1789, the _Guardian_, a forty-gun ship, under the command
+of Riou, then a lieutenant, left England for the one-year-old penal
+settlement in New South Wales. The little colony was in sore need of
+food--almost starving, in fact--and Riou's orders were to make all haste
+to his destination, calling at the Cape on the way to embark live stock
+and other supplies. All the ship's guns had been removed to make room
+for the stores, which included a "plant cabin"--a temporary compartment
+built on deck for the purpose of conveying to Sydney, in pots of earth,
+trees and plants selected by Sir Joseph Banks as likely to be useful to
+the young colony--making her deck "a complete garden," says a newspaper
+of the time. Friends of the officers stationed in New South Wales sent
+on board the Guardian great quantities of private goods, and these were
+stored in the gun-room, which it was thought would be a safer place than
+the hold, but, as the event proved, it was the most insecure.
+
+The ship arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in November, and there filled
+her decks with cattle and provisions, then sailed again, her cargo being
+equal in value to about L70,000. On December 23rd--twelve days after
+leaving the Cape--what is described as "an island of ice" was seen. Riou
+gave orders to stand towards it in order to renew, by collecting lumps
+of ice, the supply of water, the stock of fresh water having run very
+low in consequence of the quantity consumed by the cattle.
+
+The Public Advertiser of April 30, 1790, describes what now happened. As
+the ship approached the island, the boats were hoisted out and manned,
+and several lumps collected. During this time the ship lay to, and on
+the ice being brought on board she attempted to stand away. Very little
+apprehension was at this time entertained of her safety, although the
+enormous bulk of the island occasioned an unfavourable current, and in
+some measure gave a partial direction to the wind. On a sudden, the
+base of the island, which projected under water considerably beyond the
+limits of the visible parts, struck the bow of the ship; she instantly
+swung round, and her head cleared, but her stern, coming on the shoal,
+struck repeatedly, and the sea being very heavy, her rudder broke
+away, and all her works abaft were shivered. The ship in this situation
+became, in a degree, embayed under the terrific bulk of ice, for its
+height was twice that of the mainmast of a ship of the line, and the
+prominent head of the berg was every moment expected to break away and
+overwhelm the ship. At length, after every practicable exertion, she was
+got off the shoal, and the ice floated past her. It was soon perceived
+that the _Guardian_ had six feet of water in her hold, and it was
+increasing very fast The hands were set to the pumps, others to find
+out the leaks, and they occasionally relieved each other. Thus they
+continued labouring unceasingly on the 24th, although on the 23rd not
+one of them had had the least rest The ship was at one period so much
+relieved that she had only two feet of water in the hold; but at this
+time, when their distress wore the best aspect, the water "increased in
+a moment to ten feet." Then the ship was discovered to be strained in
+all her works, and the sea running high, every endeavour to check the
+progress of a particular leak proved ineffectual. To lighten the ship,
+the cows, horses, sheep, and all the other live stock for the colony
+were, with their fodder, committed to the deep to perish.
+
+John Williams, boatswain of the _Guardian_, wrote to his parents in
+London, and told them about the disaster, and although we have no doubt
+he was handier with the marline-spike than with his pen, some of his
+badly spelled letter reads well:--
+
+"This axident happened on the 23rd of December, and on the 25th the
+boats left us with moast of the officers and a great part of the seamen.
+The master-gunner, purser, one master's mate, one midshipman, and a
+parson, with nine seamen, was got into the longboat and cleared the
+ship. The doctor and four or five men got into a cutter and was upset
+close to the ship, and all of them was drowned. As for the rest of the
+boats, I believe they must be lost and all in them perished, for wee was
+about six hundred leagues from any land. There was about fifty-six men
+missing; a number drowned jumping into the boats; the sea ran so
+high that the boats could scarce live. The commander had a strong
+resulution, for he said he would sooner go down in the ship than he
+wold quid her. All the officers left in the ship was the commander, the
+carpenter, one midshipman, and myself. After the boats left us we had
+two chances--either to jump or sink. We cold just get into the sailroom
+and got up a new forecourse and stuck it full of oakum and rags, and put
+itt under the ship's bottom; this is called fothering the ship. We found
+some benefit by itt for pumping and bailing we gained on hur; that gave
+us a little hope of saving our lives. We was in this terable situation
+for nine weeks before we got to the Cape of Good Hope. Sometimes our
+upper-deck scuppers was under water outside, and the ship leying like
+a log on the water, and the sea breaking over her as if she was a rock.
+Sixteen foot of water was the common run for the nine weeks in the hold.
+I am not certain what we are to doo with the ship as yet. We have got
+moast of our cargo out; it is all dammaged but the beef and pork, which
+is in good order. I have lost a great dele of my cloaths, and I am
+thinking of drawing of about six pound, wich I think I can make shift
+with. If this axident had not hapned I shold not have had aney call for
+aney. As for my stores, there is a great part of them thrown overboard;
+likewise all the officers stores in the ship is gone the same way, for
+evry thing that came to hand was thrown ovarboard to lighten the ship.
+I think that we must wait till ordars comes from England to know what we
+are to do with the ship."
+
+The chronicles of the time also relate how at daylight on Christmas
+morning, when the water was reported as being up to the orlop deck
+and gaining two feet an hour, many of the people desponded and gave
+themselves up for lost. A part of those who had any strength left,
+seeing that their utmost efforts to save the ship were likely to be in
+vain, applied to the officers for the boats, which were promised to be
+in readiness for them, and the boatswain was directly ordered to put the
+masts, sails, and compasses in each. The cooper was also set to work to
+fill a few quarter-casks of water out of some of the butts on deck, and
+provisions and other necessaries were got up from the hold.
+
+Many hours previous to this, Lieutenant Riou had privately declared to
+his officers that he saw the final loss of the ship was inevitable, and
+he could not help regretting the loss of so many brave fellows. "As
+for me," said he, "I have determined to remain in the ship, and shall
+endeavour to make my presence useful as long as there is any occasion
+for it." He was entreated, and even supplicated, to give up this fatal
+resolution, and try for safety in the boats. It was even hinted to him
+how highly criminal it was to persevere in such a determination; but
+he was not to be moved by any entreaties. He was, notwithstanding, as
+active in providing for the safety of the boats as if he intended to
+take the opportunity of securing his own escape. He was throughout as
+calm and collected as in the happier moments of his life.
+
+At seven o'clock the _Guardian_ had settled considerably abaft, and the
+water was coming in at the rudder-case in great quantities. At half-past
+seven the water in the hold obliged the people below to come upon deck;
+the ship appeared to be in a sinking state, and settling bodily down; it
+was, therefore, almost immediately agreed to have recourse to the boats.
+While engaged in consultation on this melancholy business, Riou wrote a
+letter to the Admiralty, which he delivered to Mr. Clements, the master.
+It was as follows:--
+
+     "H.M.S. Guardian, Dec. 25, 1789.
+
+     "If any part of the officers or crew of the _Guardian_
+     should ever survive to get home, I have only to say their
+     conduct, after the fatal stroke against an island of ice,
+     was admirable and wonderful in everything that relates to
+     their duty, considered either as private men, or in His
+     Majesty's service. As there seems to be no possibility of my
+     remaining many hours in this world, I beg leave to recommend
+     to the consideration of the Admiralty a sister, who, if my
+     conduct or service should be found deserving any memory,
+     their favour might be shown to, together with a widowed
+     mother.
+
+     "I am, &c,
+
+     "Phil. Stephens, Esq."
+
+     "E. RIOU.
+
+With the utmost difficulty the boats were launched. After they were got
+afloat and had cleared the ship, with the exception of the launch they
+were never afterwards heard of; the launch with nine survivors was
+picked up by a passing vessel ten days after she left the wreck, her
+people reduced to the last extremity for want of food and water.
+
+Among the survivors was the parson mentioned by the boatswain. This was
+the Rev. Mr. Crowther, who was on his way as a missionary to the penal
+settlement. The Rev. John Newton, of Olney (poet Cowper's Newton), had
+got Crowther the appointment, at "eight shillings per diem, of assistant
+chaplain of the settlement," and Newton, writing to the Rev. R. Johnson,
+chaplain of Sydney, tells how he heard of the loss of the Guardian, "and
+the very next morning Mr. Crowther knocked at my door himself." Then Mr.
+Newton writes a letter which shows that Mr. Crowther had had enough of
+the sea. "It is not a service for mere flesh and blood to undertake. A
+man without that apostolic spirit and peculiar call which the Lord alone
+can give would hardly be able to maintain his ground. Mr. Crowther,
+though a sincere, humble, good man, seems not to have had those
+qualifications, and therefore he has been partly intimidated by what he
+met with abroad, and partly influenced by nearer personal considerations
+at home, to stay with us and sleep in a whole skin." But after his
+experience it was not to be wondered at that he preferred to stay at
+home and sleep in a whole skin.
+
+Meanwhile Riou, in spite of a ship without a rudder, and with the water
+in her up to the orlop deck, succeeded, as the boatswain's letter shows,
+after a voyage of nine weeks, in bringing his command to the Cape. A
+letter from Capetown, written on March 1, 1790, tells us she arrived
+there "eight days ago in a situation not to be credited without ocular
+proofs. She had, I think, nine feet of water in her when she anchored.
+The lower gun-deck served as a second bottom; it was stowed with a very
+great weight equally fore and aft. To this, and to the uncommon strength
+of it, Captain Riou ascribes his safety. Seeing an English ship with a
+signal of distress, four of us went on board, scarcely hoping but with
+busy fancy still pointing her out to be the _Guardian_, and, to our
+inexpressible joy, we found it was her. We stood in silent admiration
+of her heroic commander (whose supposed fate had drawn tears from us
+before), shining through the rags of the meanest sailor. The fortitude
+of this man is a glorious example for British officers to emulate. Since
+that time we have gone on board again to see him. He is affable in
+his manners, and of most commanding presence.... Perhaps we, under the
+influence of that attraction which great sufferings always produce, may,
+in the enthusiasm of our commendation, be too lavish in his praise; were
+it not for this fear I would at once pronounce him the most God-like
+mortal I ever viewed. They were two months from the time the accident
+happened until they reached this place. Every man shared alike in the
+labour; and not having at all attended to their persons during the
+whole of that dismal period they looked like men of another world--long
+beards, dirt, and rags covered them. Mr. Riou got one of his hands
+crushed and one of his legs hurt, but all are getting well. None of his
+people died during their fatigues. He says his principal attention
+was to keep up their spirits and to watch over their health. He never
+allowed himself to hope until the day before he got in here, when
+he made the land. Destitute of that support, how superior must his
+fortitude be! He has this morning, for the first time, come on shore,
+having been employed getting stores, &c., out to lighten the ship. He
+wavers what to do with her--whether to put Government to the expense
+of repairing her here (which would almost equal her first cost, perhaps
+exceed it) or burn her. Most likely the last will be resolved on."
+
+The ship was in such a state that she was condemned by the experts at
+the Cape, but Riou, bearing in mind the distressed state of the colony
+of New South Wales, did not rest until he had sent on in other vessels
+all the stores he could collect.
+
+Neither did he forget the behaviour of certain convicts. In a letter
+to the Admiralty he wrote: "Permit me, sir, to address you on a subject
+which I hope their Lordships will not consider to be unworthy their
+notice. It is to recommend as much as is in my power to their Lordships'
+favour and interest the case of the twenty convicts which my duty
+compelled me to send to Port Jackson. But the recollection of past
+sufferings reminds me of that time when I found it necessary to make use
+of every possible method to encourage the minds of the people under my
+command, and at such time, considering how great the difference might
+be between a free man struggling for life and him who perhaps might
+consider death as not much superior to a life of ignominy and disgrace
+I publicly declared that not one of them, so far as depended on myself,
+should ever be convicts. And I may with undeniable truth say that, had
+it not been for their assistance and support, the _Guardian_ would never
+have arrived to where she is. Their conduct prior to the melancholy
+accident that happened on December 23rd last was always such as may be
+commended, and from their first entrance into the ship at Spithead they
+ever assisted and did their duty in like manner as the crew. I have
+taken the liberty to recommend them to the notice of Governor Phillip;
+but I humbly hope, sir, their Lordships will consider the service done
+by these men as meriting their Lordships' favour and protection, and I
+make no doubt that should I have been so fortunate as to represent
+this in proper colours, that they will experience the benefit of their
+Lordships' interest."
+
+The prisoners were pardoned, and the Secretary of the Admiralty wrote to
+Riou--
+
+"I have their Lordships' commands to acquaint you that their concern
+on the receipt of the melancholy contents of the first-mentioned letter
+could only be exceeded by the satisfaction they received from the
+account of your miraculous escape, which they attribute to your skilful
+and judicious exertions under the favour of Divine Providence....
+Their Lordships have communicated to Mr. Secretary Grenville, for his
+Majesty's information, your recommendation of the surviving convicts
+whose conduct, as it has so deservedly met with your approbation, will,
+there is every reason to hope, entitle them to his Majesty's clemency."
+
+[This story of the gallant behaviour of these twenty prisoners does not
+stand alone in the convict annals of Australia. There were many other
+instances in which convicts behaved with the greatest heroism. Many of
+the earlier explorers, such as Sturt, received most valuable aid from
+prisoners who were members of their expeditions; and in the first
+days of the colony both Phillip and Hunter were quick to recognise
+and personally reward or recommend for pardon to the Home Government
+convicts who had distinguished themselves by acts of bravery.]
+
+When Riou returned to England he was promoted to post-captain's rank,
+and at Copenhagen, in 1801, he commanded the _Amazon_. Perhaps we may
+be forgiven for reprinting from Southey's "Nelson" an account of what he
+did there. "The signal" (that famous one which Nelson looked at with his
+blind eye), "the signal, however, saved Riou's little squadron, but
+did not save its heroic leader. The squadron, which was nearest the
+commander-in-chief, obeyed and hauled off. It had suffered severely in
+its most unequal contest. For a long time the _Amazon_ had been firing
+enveloped in smoke, when Riou desired his men to stand fast, and let
+the smoke clear off, that they might see what they were about. A fatal
+order, for the Danes then got clear sight of her from the batteries,
+and pointed their guns with such tremendous effect that nothing but
+the signal for retreat saved this frigate from destruction. 'What will
+Nelson think of us!' was Riou's mournful exclamation when he unwillingly
+drew off. He had been wounded in the head by a splinter, and was sitting
+on a gun, encouraging his men, when, just as the _Amazon_ showed her
+stern to the Trekroner Battery, his clerk was killed by his side,
+and another shot swept away several marines who were hauling in
+the main-brace. 'Come, then, my boys!' cried Riou, 'let us die all
+together!' The words had scarcely been uttered before a raking shot cut
+him in two. Except it had been Nelson himself, the British Navy could
+not have suffered a severer loss."
+
+
+
+
+
+JACK RENTON
+
+Some yarns of an exceedingly tough and Munchausen-like character have
+been spun and printed by men of their adventures in Australian waters
+or the South Seas, but an examination of such stories by any one with
+personal knowledge of the Pacific and Australasia has soon, and very
+deservedly so, knocked the bottom out of a considerable number of them.
+Yet there are stories of South Sea adventure well authenticated, which
+I are not a whit less wonderful than the most marvellous falsehoods that
+any man has yet told, and the story of what befell John Renton is one
+of these. A file of the _Queenslander_ (the leading Queensland weekly
+newspaper) for 1875 will corroborate his story; for that paper gave the
+best account of his adventures in one of their November (1875) numbers,
+and the story was copied into nearly every paper in Australasia.
+
+
+Like Harry Bluff, John Renton "when a boy left his friends and his home,
+o'er the wild ocean waves all his life for to roam." Renton's home was
+in Stromness, in the Orkneys, and he shipped on board a vessel bound to
+Sydney, in 1867, as an ordinary seaman, he then being a lad of eighteen.
+When in Sydney he got about among the boarding-houses, in sailor-town,
+and one morning woke up on the forecastle of the _Reynard_ of Boston,
+bound on a cruise for guano among the South Pacific Islands.
+
+Renton had been crimped, and finding himself where he was, bothered no
+more about it, but went cheerfully to work, not altogether displeased at
+the prospect of new adventures, which would enable him to by and by go
+back to the old folks with plenty of dollars, and a stock of startling
+yarns to reel off. He was a steady, straightforward lad, though somewhat
+thoughtless at times, and resolved to be a steady, straightforward man.
+The vessel first called into the Sandwich Islands, and there shipped a
+gang of Hawaiian natives to help load the guano, then she sailed away
+to the southward for McKean's Island, one of the Phoenix Group, situated
+about lat. 3? 35' S. and long. 174? 20' W.
+
+On board the _Reynard_ was an old salt known to all hands as "Boston
+Ned." He had been a whaler in his time, had deserted, and spent some
+years beachcombing among the islands of the South Seas, and very soon,
+through his specious tongue, he had all hands wishing themselves clear
+of the "old hooker" and enjoying life in the islands instead of
+cruising about, hazed here and there and everywhere by the mates of the
+_Reynard_, whose main purpose in life was to knock a man down in order
+to make him "sit up." Presently three or four of the hands became
+infatuated with the idea of settling on an island, and old Ned, nothing
+loth, undertook to take charge of the party if they would make an
+attempt to clear from the ship. The old man had taken a fancy to young
+Renton, and the youngster, when the idea was imparted to him, fell in
+with it enthusiastically; for he was exasperated with the treatment he
+had received on board the guanoman--the afterguard of an American guano
+ship are usually a rough lot The ship was lying on and off the land,
+there being no anchorage, and before the plan had been discussed more
+than a few hours, the men, five in all, determined to put it into
+execution.
+
+A small whaleboat was towing astern of the vessel in case the wind
+should fall light and the ship drift in too close to the shore. It was
+a fine night, with a light breeze, and there was, they thought, a good
+chance of getting to the southward, to one of the Samoan group, where
+they could settle, or by shipping on board a trading schooner they might
+later on strike some other island to their fancy.
+
+By stealth they managed to stow in the boat a couple of small breakers
+of water, holding together sixteen gallons, and the forecastle bread
+barge with biscuits enough for three meals a day per man for ten days.
+They managed also to steal four hams, and each man brought pipes,
+tobacco, and matches. A harpoon with some line, an old galley
+frying-pan, mast, sail and oars, and some blankets completed the
+equipment For they took no compass, though they made several attempts to
+get at one slung in the cabin, and tried at first to take one out of the
+poop binnacle; but the officer of the watch on deck was too wide awake
+for them to risk that, and the cabin compass was screwed to the roof
+close to the skipper's berth; and so the old man who was their leader,
+old sailor and whaler as he was, actually gave up the idea of taking a
+compass, and these people without more ado, one night slipped over the
+side into the whaleboat, cut the painter, and by daylight the boat was
+out of sight of land and of the ship. They were afloat upon the Pacific,
+running six or seven miles before a north-east breeze and expecting
+to sight land in less than a week, and were already anticipating the
+freedom and luxury of island life in store for them.
+
+Three days later it fell calm, and they had to take to the oars. The sun
+was intensely hot, the water a sheet of glass reflecting back upon them
+the ball of fire overhead. Now and again a cats-paw would ripple across
+the plain of water, but there were no clouds, there was no sight of
+land. They kept on pulling. For three, for four days--a week--for ten
+days--they tugged at the oars, except when a favouring breeze came. The
+water was reduced to a few pints, the food to a few days' half-rations.
+Their limbs were cramped so that they could not move from their places
+in the boat, their bodies were becoming covered with sores; and the wind
+had now died away entirely, the sea was without a ripple, and for ever
+shone above them the fierce, relentless sun.
+
+Gradually it had dawned upon them that they were lost--that perhaps they
+had run past Samoa. The first eagerness of their adventure gave place
+to despair, and by degrees their despair grew to madness of a more awful
+kind.
+
+On the fifteenth day there appeared to the south and east a low,
+dark-grey cloud. "Land at last!" was the unspoken thought in each man's
+heart as he looked at his comrade, but feared to voice his hope. And
+presently the cloud grew darker and more clearly defined, and one of the
+men--the next oldest to the author of all their miseries--fell upon
+his weak and trembling knees, and raised his hands in thankfulness
+and prayer to the Almighty. Alas! it was not land, but the ominous
+forerunner of the fierce and sweeping mid-equatorial gale which lay
+veiled behind. In less than half an hour it came upon and smote them
+with savage fury, and the little boat was running before a howling gale
+and a maddened, foam-whipped sea.
+
+And then it happened that, ill and suffering as he was from the agonies
+of hunger and thirst, the heroic nature of old "Boston Ned" came
+out, and his bold sailor's heart cheered and encouraged his wretched,
+despairing companions. All that night, and for the greater part of
+the following day, he stood in the stern-sheets, grasping the bending
+steer-oar as the boat swayed and surged along before the gale, and
+constantly watching lest she should broach to and smother in the
+roaring seas; the others lay in the bottom, feebly baling out the
+water, encouraged, urged, and driven to that exertion by the gallant old
+American seaman.
+
+Towards noon the wind moderated, in the afternoon it died away
+altogether, and again the boat lay rising and falling to the long
+Pacific swell, and "Boston Ned" flung his exhausted frame down in the
+stern-sheets and slept.
+
+Again the blood-red sun leapt from a sea of glassy smoothness--for the
+swell had subsided during the night--and again the wretched men locked
+into each other's dreadful faces and mutely asked what was to be done.
+How should they head the boat? Without a compass they might as well
+steer one way as another, for none of them knew even approximately the
+course for the nearest land; search the cloudless vault of blue above,
+or scan the shimmering sea-rim till their aching eyes dropped from out
+their hollowing sockets, there was no clue.
+
+Twenty days out the last particle of food and water had been consumed,
+and though the boat was now steering as near westward as old Ned could
+judge, before a gentle south-east trade, madness and despair were coming
+quickly upon them, and on the twenty-third day two of the five miserable
+creatures began to drink copiously of salt water--the drink of Death.
+
+Renton, though he had suffered to the bitter full from the agonies
+of body and mind endured by his shipmates, did not yield to this
+temptation; and by a merciful providence remained sane enough to turn
+his face away from the water. But as he lay crouched in a heap in the
+bottom of the boat, with a silent prayer in his heart to his Creator to
+quickly end his sufferings, he heard "Boston Ned" and the only remaining
+sane man except himself muttering hoarsely together and looking
+sometimes at him and sometimes at the two almost dying men who lay
+moaning beside him. Presently the man who was talking to Ned pulled out
+of his blanket--which lay in the stern-sheets--a razor, and turning his
+back to Renton began stropping it upon the sole of his boot, and even
+"Boston Ned" himself looked with awful eyes and blood-baked twitching
+lips upon the youngster.
+
+The lad saw what was coming, and as quickly as possible made his way
+forward and sat there, with his eyes fixed upon the two men aft, waiting
+for the struggle which he thought must soon begin. All that day and the
+night he sat and watched, determined to make a fight for the little life
+which remained in him, and Ned and the other man at times still muttered
+and eyed him wolfishly.
+
+And so, on and on, these seeming outcasts of God's mercy sailed before
+the warm breath of the south-east trade wind, above them the blazing
+tropic sun, around them the wide, sailless expanse of the blue Pacific
+unbroken in its dreadful loneliness except for a wandering grey-winged
+booby or flocks of whale-birds floating upon its gentle swell, and
+within their all but deadened hearts naught but grim despair and a
+dulled sense of coming dissolution.
+
+As he sat thus, supporting his swollen head upon his skeleton hands,
+Renton saw something astern, moving slowly after the boat--something
+that he knew was waiting and following for the awful deed to be done, so
+that _it_ too might share in the dreadful feast.
+
+Raising his bony arm, he pointed towards the moving fin. To him a
+shark meant no added horror or danger to their position, but possibly
+deliverance. "Boston Ned" and the other man first looked at the coming
+shark, and then with sunken eyes again turned to Renton. Voices none of
+them had, and the lad's parched tongue could not articulate, but with
+signs and lip movements he tried to make the other two men understand.
+
+No shark hook had they; nor, if they had had one, had they anything
+with which to bait it. But Renton, crawling aft, picked up the harpoon,
+placed it in "Boston Ned's" hands, and motioned to him to stand by.
+Then with eager, trembling hands he stripped from his legs the shreds
+of trousers which remained on them, and, sitting upon the gunwale of the
+boat, hung one limb over and let it trail in the water.
+
+Three times the shark came up, and thrice Ned prepared to strike, but
+each time the grim ranger of the seas turned aside as it caught sight
+of the waiting figure with weapon poised above. But at last hunger
+prevailed, and, swimming slowly up till within a few yards of the boat,
+it made a sudden rush for the human bait, missed it, and the harpoon,
+deftly darted by the old ex-whaler, clove through its tough skin and
+buried itself deep into its body between the shoulders.
+
+It took the worn-out, exhausted men a long time to haul alongside and
+despatch the struggling monster, which, says Renton, was ten feet in
+length.
+
+Then followed shark's flesh and shark's blood, some of the former, after
+the first raw meal, being cooked on a fire made of the biscuit barge
+upon a wet blanket spread in the bottom of the boat. The hot weather,
+however, soon turned the remaining portion putrid, but two or three days
+later came God's blessed rain, and gave them hope and life again.
+They managed to save a considerable quantity of water, and, though the
+shark's flesh was in a horrible condition, they continued to feed upon
+it _until the thirty-fifth_ day.
+
+On this day they saw land, high and well wooded; but now the trade-wind
+failed them, and for the following two days the unfortunate men
+contended with baffling light airs, calms, and strong currents. At
+last they got within a short distance of the shore, and sought for a
+landing-place through the surrounding surf.
+
+Suddenly four or five canoes darted out from the shore. They were filled
+with armed savages, whose aspect and demeanour warned old Ned that he
+and his comrades were among cannibals. Sweeping alongside the boat, the
+savages seized the white men, who were all too feeble to resist, or even
+move, put them into their canoes, and conveyed them on shore, fed them,
+and treated them with much apparent kindness. Crowds of natives
+from that part of the island--which was Malayta, one of the Solomon
+Group--came to look at them, and one man, a chief, took a fancy to
+Renton, and claimed him as his own especial property.
+
+Renton never saw the rest of his companions again, for they were removed
+to the interior of the Island--probably sold to some of the bush tribes,
+the "man-a-bush," as the coastal natives called them. Their fate is not
+difficult to guess, for the people of Malayta were then, as they are
+now, cannibals.
+
+On August 7, 1875, the Queensland labour recruiting schooner _Bobtail
+Nag_ was cruising off the island, trading for yams, and her captain
+heard from some natives who came alongside that there was a white man
+living ashore in a village about ten miles distant. The skipper of the
+_Bobtail Nag_ at once offered to pay a handsome price if the man was
+brought on board, and at the cost of several dozen Birmingham steel
+axes and some tobacco poor Renton's release was effected. He told his
+rescuers that the people among whom he had lived had taken a great fancy
+to him, and had treated him with great kindness.
+
+If the reader will look at a chart of the South Pacific, he will see,
+among the Phoenix Group, the position of McKean's Island; two thousand
+miles distant, westward and southward, is the island of Malayta, upon
+which Renton and his companions in misery drifted.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of "The Gallant, Good Riou", and Jack
+Renton, by Louis Becke
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