R E King & Co Ltd
106 to 110 Tabernacle Street EC
LONDON 1902
My copy of this text may be one of few that are left or even, though unlikely, the only one we have left. The book bears no ISBN number, it carries no date (but from within the text we can work out the approximate date of publication being 1902) and as a source has to be treated with quite a lot of academic rigour. The story starts in September 1831 when, “...we proceeded to the West India Dock, where the good ship “Susan” was fitting out for a voyage to Calcutta.”
As far as can be told the child Holmes was about 12 to 13 years old when he enlisted on a trial voyage and that would put him in his eighties when writing of his adventures. Immediately we can see a major problem in the veracity of this text because the reminiscences of a man of such an age are invariably coloured by time's romantic pen, subject to the process of story telling which reinforces often repeated fictional narrative as “memory” and even the possibility that this work in itself is simply a fiction.
However, there is one claim which could account for the detail of the story of this man's first sea voyage in 1831 as recalled seventy years later. This claim is the revelation that he kept a diary of the events of his first sea voyage and that it detailed almost everything that fascinated the young boy. He called this diary “Beauty's Log” and that is the very title which the first part of this remarkable text is set against.
“And now in the year of our Lord 1902, I have drawn my log out of my poke to see what changes have taken place in 72 years.”
p.137
These claims however are not enough for an historian to simply accept the text as an accurate source, we still have to counter the romantic tendency of memory especially when allied to the landscape of the ocean and a sense of adventure. But as an insight into the world of sailing ships, long voyages and conditions on board ship this text is powerfully persuasive. At every point it would appear that this young boy had an eye for detail.
“The “Susan” was teak built, copper-bottomed, about 600 tons, with figure head, and quarter barges. She mounted four guns on each side, the two on the quarter deck being brass; she had a full poop, a top-gallant forecastle, and was fitted to carry cabin passengers. She was commanded by captain Giles, a Scotchman; Mr Hunter, her chief officer, was an Irishman; while Mr Edwards, the second officer, was every inch a sailor, and as smart a man as ever trod a ship's deck.”
p. 7
This first part of the text covers all of the stages of the voyage to Calcutta, out from the Thames, down around Africa and back up towards India. There is much in the text which brings alive the experience of being on a sailing ship trading on a regular route back and forth from Britain to India.
“On one occasion we find that a large shark is under the stern. The hook is quickly baited with a piece of salt pork. The brute soon eyes it and makes a grab. Its first attempt is a failure, but it soonreturns and takes the tasty bite. It feels the iron pierce its jaw and makes a dart, but is eventually brought up by a strong rope. The monster has great power in the water, and before being taken on board the seamen try to exhaust it by dipping its head in and out of the water, large quantities of which it swallows. At length the line is hoisted on board. A monster it proved. The blows from its tail made the decks ring and sent pitch from the seams flying in all directions. “Stand clear or you will have your leg broken,” is the order. A capstan bar is rammed down its throat which keeps it quiet. The butcher puts his knife into it, greatly to the satisfaction of the sailors, who say, “there is an enemy gone.” Yet it dies hard. We afterwards found it to measure 15 feet and a half from nose to tip of tail.
The doctor having little occupation, and wishing to keep his hand in, undertakes to dissect the monster for the sake of its jaw and backbone. He is soon at work in his dissecting room. Peter Diggins, the boatswain's mate, standing by, volunteers to clean the parts required, on condition that the Doctor will deal gently with him if he should come under his dissecting knife.”
P 49-50
There is an authenticity about the writing which works to convince the reader of the veracity of the text but this could be imaginary for the simple reason that none of us have ever had the experience of being on a 19th century sailing vessel trading in the 19th century! In other words we may be over emotional in our acceptance of the “truths” we perceive in the text. However there are some indications which surprisingly mitigate in favour of the author when considering the reliability of the stories he tells.
“I have tried the Royal navy, being out on a station for three and a half years. It is not my object to give you an account of that long cruise...
...The good Frigate I was aboard (if my memory is correct), arrived at Spithead the day King George the Fourth died, for the Royal Standard was hoisted half mast....”
p113
Here we have several matters to consider and our conclusions may not be the obvious jump we are invited to make at first. In this extract Holmes makes a glaring error in stating that he sailed into Spithead “the day King George the Fourth died,”.
George died on the 26th June 1830 and that 15 months before Holmes begins his first “trial voyage” on the good ship Susan. Not only is this factually incorrect but as Holmes also qualifies his words by stating “(if my memory is correct)” he also appears to question his own veracity in this case.
When we consider the claim that he is narrating the story of Beauty's Log from the diary he kept at the time, then the fact he inserts an aside concerning a matter outside of the diary, which is factually incorrect doesn't necessarily undermine his value as testimony of the times in sailing ships. Such an error of memory is reasonable in an octogenarian and could actually be seen as supporting the value of Holmes' book in so much as the mistake is a very human one.
This humanity of error is quite an important indicator as when a text is contrived, constructed or even deceitful, the creator usually works especially hard not to leave doorways to doubt through factual inaccuracy. Such a simple mistake, one so easily corrected or checked, can actually add credibility where we would naturally expect it to devalue.
Yet the wrong identification of a monarch, surely this is almost incredible coming from a period of history where the identity of the monarch was a matter of everyday national and social identity. There is the chance to suggest a mitigating factor here which makes such an error more naturally credible. George the Fourth is succeeded by William the Fourth who then dies on the 20th June 1837 which is six years after the first voyage on Susan.
This confusion of names can be explained by the connection of the numerical sequencing, both being the fourth, and when we allow for the longevity of Queen Victoria's reign and her dominant presence through the memory of Holmes' life, then error about her predecessor becomes comprehensible.
The consequence of this analysis is that we can suggest that it is possible for a factual error, even one of seemingly great importance, to actually be the basis for conferring credibility on an author rather than doubt. Holmes is an old man, working from a diary, no doubt embellishing the tale or repeating in text the formulated constructions of memory often told as “tales of the sea” to any willing audience.
Such re-construction of memory is not to be treated as a deceit but rather as part of the human process. This working of memory, this sculpting of story, the shaping of a narrative which when told and re-told actually becomes a real memory in the mind of its author, tells us more about the reliability of our own memory and therefore questions the veracity of all history. In the case of Holmes though, we have something which looks to be a solid piece of evidence supporting his stories, for there remains within the physical landscape a feature bearing his name; Holmes' Reef.
“Holmes' Reefs are situated off the east coast of Australia. They are named after me, Henry Holmes, who, being part Owner and captain of the barque “Thomasine,” was shipwrecked on these reefs nearly fifty years ago.
At that time, the reefs were not shown on the Admiralty Chart. The present official description of them is as follows;-
'Holmes' Reef are two detached groups of reefs covering a space of 15 miles East and West, and 10 miles North and South, and separated by an unexamined passage two miles wide.
The Eastern portion is awash at low water, and is crescent shaped with the points to the westward enclosing a space of apparently shallow water. There is anchorage close to the North-West point, and about a mile Northward of the South-West point. The western portion of the reefs is broken into three parts which are dry in places at low water; in the middle of the centre part is a sandy cay, 6 ft high in lat. 16 degrees 29 minutes South, long. 147 degrees 53 minutes East. Anchorage is found close to the reef; on this reef a sand cay is reported to have formed.
The water is very deep off the north and South Ends and other parts appear steep to.”
Preface to “The sailing of the Barque Thomasine- Port Isabella, Labuan, Hong Kong, Sydney.
image source: http://www.oceandots.com/pacific/coralsea/holmes.php
The story of the wrecking of the barque Thomasine on the reef forms the second part of Holmes' book. The tale begins with his journey from Hong Kong to Sydney and describes not only the perils of the sea but the problems in finding a crew. These insights tell us that such trading vessels sailed from port to port, unloading merchandise, losing crew to bars and brothels, negotiating with local merchants to take on a fresh cargo of goods and hunting a crew to man the vessel out to sea.
By the time he leaves Sydney to make the trip back to Hong Kong he has lost all his Europeans to the Australian gold rush. After much effort he manages to recruit a crew of Malays and a Bengali as well as some Chinese passengers who wish to go back to China. With this collection of men, his two officers and a couple of boys he sets to sea. As if this would not be enough pressure Holmes informs us that he has his wife and three young children also on board. The Thomasine doesn't take too long to find trouble.
By the nineteenth of June 1854 the barque is “some 80 miles from a spot called Bougainville Reef.” Somewhere around here the vessel struck three times on what Holmes describes as a “mushroom reef”, a reef which causes no breakers on the surface of the sea to indicate its presence. That night he spent the hours of darkness turning away in circles from breaking surf.
“I now realised that I was surrounded by dangerous reefs, in a dark night, and unable to see my true position, as I did not know what was ahead; to beat to windward in the direction whence I had come before getting entangled was my only hope, and, with this object in view I made every effort, but, to my mortification, whichever way we went, the terrible reef confronted us , compelling me to “go about” every quarter of an hour.”
p 161
On board the Malays, the Chinese and the Bengali all start to panic, Holmes is obviously doing what any Victorian mind of the day would do; conceding his soul to the Almighty! His wife and children are in terror in the cabin below and the stout captain tells us if fortune had not been with them and they had crashed on to a reef in that dark night all would have certainly perished.
“As day broke, I offered up a prayer of thankfulness to Almighty God. I was now enabled to see my position, and found I was surrounded by two immense reefs, separated by one or two miles, thus forming a gulf ten or twelve miles deep. These were united at the northern end by a thin ridge of coral with narrow openings from which I was about three miles distant. I was thus in a trap with danger on all sides, and to all appearance, with no hope of escape. And yet the scene before me was grand. The deep blue water, the long range of white rolling breakers, and the blue sky above presented a scene unspeakably grand and impressive, though under circumstances terribly dispiriting.”
p 163
After fighting his way from turn to turn every fifteen minutes the Captain perceived what he thought was a gap in the reef.
“Perceiving an opening in the ridge connecting the two main reefs, I determined to try, if I could, by any means, get through the passage. At worst the ship would go on head first, and with a nasty sea running and half a gale of wind blowing, though I could not tell what the upshot, I had no other resource. So I put the ship before the wind. It was only a few minutes before an awful crash came, for the narrow opening I had detected was, alas, only a superficial one. The ship struck heavily, and with an awful crash. This she continued to do, the sea lifting her at every stroke further onto the reef, heaving her broadside on, while all the time the pitiless waves broke heavily over her. Fortunately her broadside being to the sea, the ship formed a breakwater, while on the lee side of the reef the water was smooth. Alas, the “Thomasine” was already a wreck and pieces of her rent bottom came floating to the surface.”
p164/5
So this is the very moment that Captain Henry Holmes “discovered” Holmes reef! The story goes on to tell of a perilous escape in a longboat and cutter, island hopping and heading for the mainland.
Stories of encounters with stone throwing natives, a diet of stewed oysters, and shortage of drinking water colour out the tale until all of the crew and passengers are rescued by a Dutch merchantman.
Now we can see the true wonder of these old lost texts of Victorian literature. For the serious historian, should there be a need, further research can be followed up with the Admiralty records, Lloyds Shipping Register and maybe even the Public Records Office. A book alone, no matter how convincing the tale, no matter who has written it, can never amount to a conclusive proof, it is never the picture of the jigsaw just one piece. When constructing a history you need to make sure that piece fits in every way before you are so bold as to make statements of certainty. It is not until you hit the reef that you know you have a discovery on your hands!
