Page 38 - Captain William Strike of Porthleven

seaman’s advance from the master, and the inebriated seaman would be carried
aboard. Coming to at sea the seaman would see that he was the victim of forced labour
with very little, if any, recourse against anyone.

More indiscipline

After the events of New York, William Strike’s log book is quiet until May 16, 1872. On
that day, in a position which is indistinct in the log, there is another report of indiscipline,
in this case on the part of William Thomas, an 18 year old able seaman from Penzance.
The log book sets out the incident, as follows:

‘The captain ordered William Thomas to prepare gear to set a big gib [sic] for a
studding sail which was laying [sic] wet; he roov[ed] the gear but he could not hoist the
sail…the captain told him again to reeve the studding sail [but at] the time he was about
it he was giving the captain some sauce and after he came down.’

[A studding sail is a sail set on a small extra yard and boom beyond the perpendicular or
sloping side of a square sail, and deployed when winds are light. To ‘reeve’ means to
thread: in this case to thread the necessary ropes through the structure of the sail in
order to hoist and deploy it.] The declaration above is signed by William Strike and
witnessed by 16 year old ship’s boy, Richard Veal, from St Ives. The witnessing of such
an event by someone as junior as the ship’s boy, who seems to have been able to write,
may have been down to the fact that he was on deck at the time while someone like the
boatswain, Herman Prang, was below deck. Despite this indiscipline, William Thomas
appears to have lasted the voyage back to home waters where he was discharged at
Exeter. However, Charles Beacall, who was signed on in New York might have been
less than happy aboard ‘Ready Rhino’ because when the ship arrived at Lisbon on
March 30 the British Consul in that port makes the following declaration in the log book:

‘…Chas. Beacall has been discharged at this port with my sanction on the
ground of mutual consent…I have sanctioned the engagement of William Morris and
P.E.Anderson [as ordinary seamen]…’

Homecoming?

At this point in what was a very long period away from home, William Strike and his crew
might contemplate a home coming within weeks, although it has been seen previously
that ‘Ready Rhino’ would not arrive at Exeter until the beginning of October. The reality
of sea-going trade for a master like William Strike was that a final port of discharge could
not always be predicted with any certainty. Trade in this context has been described as
being based, often, on the bill of lading – a ship’s certified schedule of cargo – as a
tradable, negotiable item when accompanied by bills of exchange for a prescribed sum
of money. Consequently, a cargo being carried by ‘Ready Rhino’ might pass through a
number of consignees’ hands en route back to Europe, for example. Not untypically
William Strike will have carried many cargoes consigned ‘to order’ making it difficult to
identify a consignee often until the ship had docked. Indeed, the ultimate destination
might not be advised to a master like William Strike until the ship was well into the
English Channel. It was this sort of advice that might be communicated at a port like
Falmouth.

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