Matthew Flinders' Cat

by Bryce Courtenay

  But the young Lieutenant Flinders, so very much in awe of his older brother, did not share his brother’s affection for the ship’s cat. At best he was ambivalent, relegating Master Trim to the status of just another member of the two shipwrecked crews. Although this may have been his deliberate intention, a part of his carefully contrived calm, Trim found it most disconcerting. The young naval lieutenant took scant notice of Trim’s presence and completely ignored him when, endeavouring to follow his master’s orders, Trim rubbed his fur against his ankles. On two separate occasions the young lieutenant had brushed him impatiently from his lap after Trim thought to bring him some softness and comfort. Trim was forced to conclude that while ‘fire in the belly’ was not to be found in his master’s brother, the even stronger emotion of affection was also missing. A lack of imagination was indeed the true nature of the man and there was nothing much Trim could do to alter his disposition.

  Trim soon realised that his time was better spent among the men who needed his cheerfulness and who responded as they always had with their affection returned. They would later tell how Trim kept their spirits up and how his antics at chasing seagulls and catching soldier crabs (a lively variation of his famous cockroach act on board ship) kept them all entertained. ‘Aye, it were Master Trim who kept us all together and saved our minds from sinking into despondency and despair during them weeks wrecked upon the desert island,’ they would say in later years, having transferred, for the better entertainment of the story, the sandbank to the status of a desert island. ‘Though only a ship’s cat, he were a true leader of men,’ they would conclude. Although Trim was sad that he couldn’t follow his master’s orders and enliven the bland nature of his younger brother, he was a ship’s cat, a master mariner and, above all, a pragmatist. He knew to get on with life when things didn’t work out as planned.

  We shall skip here the first part of the rescue journey of Matthew Flinders in the newly rigged six-oared cutter. Most of this time was spent out at sea and, though hard work in the extreme which required great character and resourcefulness against the elements, it was nevertheless uneventful. We take up the story when the little cutter was only fifty miles from Port Jackson, in the proximity of Port Hunter. The seas were high and the weather squally and it was decided to go ashore for the night, being already four in the afternoon.

  The crew spent an uncomfortable night in the rain, sheltering under the sails of the ship, and in the morning, with some difficulty, they got a fire going. They were out of ship’s biscuits but what flour remained they baked into small cakes for the rest of their journey. At eleven o’clock, having filled the ship’s water barrel and with the rain finally ceased, they sailed, staying as close to the coastline as possible.

  This last effort to reach their destination was not easy sailing and for a great deal of the time they manned the oars. By the following morning the north head of Broken Bay was in sight. They were fortunate that a sea breeze blowing E.N.E. finally enabled them to hoist all the sail they had and by two o’clock in the afternoon they entered the heads and sailed up the harbour to Sydney Town, arriving in the early evening nearly two weeks after they had departed Wreck Reef.

  Matthew Flinders, having sailed two hundred and fifty leagues from the sandbank in an open boat, was in great need of a razor for his chin, and a pair of scissors would have made hard work of his matted hair. His clothes were rank-smelling and his boots still soaked from the constant rain when he stepped ashore with Captain Park. Rather than first seeking the services of a barber and purchasing a change of linen, they made directly for Government House, where Governor King was found at dinner with his family. The surprise of the governor could not be contained when he was presented with two thoroughly bedraggled gentlemen whom he supposed to be many hundred leagues away on their journey to England.

  ‘My dear Flinders,’ he cried, embracing Matthew Flinders despite his hirsute and ragged appearance, ‘what circumstance brings you back to us?’ When he heard the melancholy tale, an involuntary tear ran down his cheek for he was a good man who could well imagine the effort it had taken to return in an open boat along a strange coast inhabited by savages.

  Matthew Flinders and Captain Park were made to sit down at once and partake of a fine meal of stew and boiled potatoes after Governor King, not without kindness, asked his family if they might complete their meal in the kitchen while he listened to the report by the two honourable seagoing gentlemen. At the conclusion of their story, the governor promised his every endeavour and all the aid possible in the task of rescuing the men on Wreck Reef.

  ‘You must stay a few days before we get this task under way, Mr Flinders,’ he suggested.

  ‘With the greatest respect, Your Excellency, I shall only rest when I am back at Wreck Reef. I should like to leave tomorrow if this were possible.’

  ‘It will take a few days to prepare such an operation so that you will all return safely here.’Matthew Flinders paused sufficiently for the governor to look up. ‘Sir, it is my earnest desire to sail on from the sandbank to England.’

  ‘Oh, but I don’t think that is possible, Captain Flinders,’ the governor said, not concealing his surprise. ‘I have no vessel that can sail you safely to England.’ He thought for a moment. ‘Of course, if you must be homeward bound, there is the Rolla, lying at present in port and bound for China. She is under the command of Mr Robert Cumming and I dare say, being an Englishman, he will readily agree to sail via Wreck Reef and take on board those of the men who wish to sail with him to China and thereafter to England. For the remainder, I have two schooners which can make the voyage to rescue those men who wish to return here. I am sure Mr Cumming will agree to have you on board as well.’

  ‘Your Excellency, I cannot afford the time to take the long route back to England by way of China. Is there no other way you might accommodate me?’ Flinders asked.

  The governor sucked on his tobacco pipe, thinking. Finally he said, ‘No, my dear Flinders, I think not, unless of course you take one of the schooners?’

  It was not an offer to be leapt at, a schooner is a small vessel and by no means ideal for sailing such a distance. But Matthew Flinders did not reject the offer outright and asked to see the better of the two vessels. When the schooner was examined the following day, the Cumberland proved to be something less than a Gravesend passage boat, Gravesend being the English port used on the Channel crossing to the French port of Calais.

  However, it wasn’t the unsuitable nature of the ship for such a long voyage that concerned Matthew Flinders but rather its size. So small a vessel would create a good deal of turbulence when she sailed. Flinders would have a great amount of work to do on board. He needed to replace some of the charts he had lost when the Porpoise had been wrecked and had others to complete. He also needed to prepare his journal from the volumes of notes he had kept. The lack of suitable accommodation and the quick, frenetic movements of the ship would make these tasks difficult to accomplish.

  As his superior officer, Governor King would discuss the voyage and the route Matthew Flinders proposed to take to reach England. While King knew better than to interfere with a navigator of Flinders’ reputation, of one thing he was certain in his orders, they were not to call in at Mauritius.

  This was decided on two counts, it was hurricane time for that neighbourhood and the island was a French colony. With England poised for war with France, it was not considered judicious to make contact, especially with Port Jackson undefended and Sydney Town a small and vulnerable settlement should the French decide to act as the aggressor in the Antipodes.

  Thirteen days after Matthew Flinders had arrived in Sydney Town, the three ships set out on the return rescue mission. The news of the rescue attempt had spread throughout the community, with many of the citizens of Sydney Town and Parramatta coming down to the harbour to wish them well. They brought with them gifts of produce from their gardens and small farms, squealing p
igs, ducks and hens, some brought wine and others fresh vegetables, which they offered with a generosity of spirit for the delectation of the poor starving souls wrecked on the reef.

  Sydney, with its large convict population, was not known to be a generous town, more a taker than a giver and with no reason to be concerned with the affairs of government or navy, so Governor King was quick to express his gratitude and to congratulate them for their kindness, never having witnessed anything to approximate such open-hearted generosity in the colony.

  On the day of sailing, the governor once again expressed his concern as to the seaworthiness of the Cumberland, ‘Mr Flinders, will you not reconsider? The Cumberland is not built for such a voyage whereas the Rolla will see you safely home via China and not more than three months later.’ In a final plea he added, ‘Your navigational charts are of the utmost importance to the realm, it would be a tragedy should they be lost at sea.’

  Matthew Flinders possessed all the qualities that had allowed him to succeed as a great explorer and navigator. Courage, determination and perseverance were an abundant part of his character but so too was stubbornness and he thanked the governor for his concern while declining passage on the Rolla.

  Later, on his return to Wreck Reef, he privately confessed to Trim, ‘Though she (the Cumberland) is too small and as frisky as a well-bred pony and not suitable to our purpose, I confess I was finally tempted to accept her for the most vainglorious and unworthy reasons.’ Matthew Flinders paused and stroked Trim’s back, finally pulling gently at his tail. ‘You see, I like the idea that I will be the first to undertake so long a voyage in so small a vessel, it will serve my reputation well.’

  As a Master Mariner Cat, Trim thought this a ridiculous and foolhardy vanity. ‘Had they not been wrecked once already?’ he asked himself.

  ‘You see, Trim, I am at the mercy of the Admiralty who prepare for war with France. If we should arrive in England by means of the generosity of Mr Cumming, master of the Rolla, we would be mere passengers on his trading vessel. Can you not see how this would seem to my masters? I have already wrecked one of His Majesty’s precious men o’ war and have returned to England to lick my wounds. Ha, I see it clearly! They would regard me in a singularly dispassionate manner and, with war approaching and the realm in danger, they’d rule me quite unworthy to command another precious ship for the unimportant reasons of exploration.’

  ‘That’s a joke, sir!’ Trim meowingly protested. ‘The Porpoise was an old tub and no part of the British fleet. She would have served as cannon fodder should the Admiralty have been stupid enough to take her against the French!’

  ‘Be that as it may, she is no longer a fighting ship on their manifest and I am the disgraced one who must vindicate myself. Now, if we should arrive in a Gravesend schooner, a vessel built and plainly intended for short passage and, at the same time, I have completely charted the Torres Strait, I shall be regarded as somewhat less than a hero and something better than a nautical vagabond.’

  ‘If we arrive!’ Trim meowed. ‘Dead, drowned, it will not matter if you are prince or vagabond or I a humble ship’s cat or related to the cat that visited the Queen in the company of Dick Whittington!’

  Matthew Flinders ignored this feline outburst. ‘With the Cumberland safely sailed across the treacherous seas, my seamanship will not be in question and, with a quicker passage to England discovered through the Strait, my credentials for the task of exploration will remain intact. Furthermore, when I have related the perfidious tale of the notorious Captain Palmer of the Bridgewater, they will be further obliged to grant me a ship so that we might continue our important work. Fairness, my dear Trim, is at the heart and soul of Englishmen of good breeding.’

  Aye, and stupidity owns a fair portion of their nature as well, Trim thought to himself. ‘You have told me when you’d not yet reached Port Stephens in this tub and were not much more than spitting distance from Port Jackson, how in a sudden squall and rising sea you were set to man the pumps as water poured into the hold of the Cumberland. The pumps proved all but useless and you might well have sunk had you not entered the safety of a small coastal bight. Moreover, you admit that the Cumberland can scarcely bear a close-reefed mainsail and jib without threatening to overset. How then, sir, do you propose to reach England?’

  Matthew Flinders gave the anxious Trim a patronising smile. ‘My dear Master Trim, she is not as bad as you make her sound and although she promises hard sailing we shall endure, and this voyage will be a small hardship compared to the one in the open boat from Wreck Reef to Port Jackson.’

  All this speculation by Trim was purely academic. The decision had been made by his master, and the Cumberland had arrived together with the Rolla and the second schooner, Francis, at Wreck Reef. There was no turning back, commonsense having long since been thrown out of the porthole. Trim flicked his tail with annoyance at his master’s stubborn and romantic nature and thought to himself that a little of his younger brother’s pessimism would not have gone amiss in the elder.

  As might be expected, there was great joy among the shipwrecked crews when Flinders returned, and the men on the sandbank immediately fired a salute of eleven guns from the cannonades salvaged from the wreck of the Porpoise. On seeing his master return, Trim was overjoyed, though also somewhat concerned at the prospect of telling him that he had failed miserably in the task of enlivening the emotions of his younger brother.

  However, Trim was completely vindicated by the following incident. The Rolla’s topgallant was first seen by a seaman when they were out at sea testing the new boat they had built to effect their rescue should Matthew Flinders fail to return. ‘Damn my blood, what’s that?’ the man shouted, seeing the topgallant and at first mistaking it for a bird, but, moments after confirming it as a sail, they saw the Rolla and the two accompanying schooners moving towards them. Overjoyed, they hastily returned to inform Lieutenant Flinders of their imminent rescue. At the time he was in his tent, calculating some lunar distances, and even though he must have heard the clear sounds of excitement as the men rushed to give him the news, he didn’t look up from his work.

  ‘Sir, sir, a ship and two schooners in sight!’ the senior man among them shouted, his eyes bright with the joy of being the first to tell of the good news.

  Silence followed as the younger Flinders thought for some time. ‘I suppose it must be my brother returning,’ he said in a dispassionate voice. ‘Please inform me when they anchor.’ Whereupon he dismissed them and calmly resumed his calculations.

  Once out of sight, Trim saw one of the men grunt, then spit to the sand at his feet and say, ‘He be a cold sod, that one. He hath no joy in him.’

  There is just one more thing of interest to talk about before Trim and his master sailed for England. In Matthew Flinders’ absence, the men, not knowing how long they might be stranded on the reef, planted oats, maize and pumpkin seeds. Men who go to sea are not of an agricultural mind so they planted seed in the sand where the salt spray was prevalent. The seeds did come up, especially in the inlet where the soil was of a more nourishing nature, but ultimately all were doomed to die well before harvest time.

  Seeing the attempts to grow sustenance in such poor conditions, Matthew Flinders made a promise to himself: If he should return to the Great Ocean and Indian Sea, he would take aboard ten thousand coconuts and these he would distribute amongst the numerous sandbanks of the two oceans. ‘This will be my gift to all the maritime nations and to every sailor, no matter whether friend or foe or what his colour or creed, whether Malacca captain or Chinee boatman,’ he told Trim, looking up from his journal. ‘If there had been a stand of the coconut on the sandbank we would not have struck Wreck Reef; they are an excellent beacon, the mariner’s guide and friend in these treacherous seas. Moreover, if there is a shipwreck, they will provide a nourishment which will keep a man alive and healthy as a supplement to his fish catch.’

  The
re remained a final task before they sailed. The Cumberland moved to the eastern extremity of the reef to collect seabird eggs and hopefully a turtle for its succulent meat. Such fine fare was rare while in the process of a voyage and it seemed a good omen when they caught a large specimen for the ship’s larder and, with Trim’s help, discovered all the nests they needed to fill a great cabbage-tree basket with eggs.

  At noon on the 20th of October, with the breakers in sight, they fixed their latitude to check their position with respect to Murray’s Islands before entering the Torres Strait on their voyage to England.

  The next thirteen days at sea were without mishap but it was becoming apparent that the indifferent sailing of the schooner was against making a quick passage and Trim had not resolved his apprehension concerning the little vessel. By the time they had sailed through the Timor Strait and reached the Dutch settlement at Coepang Bay, it was clear that the schooner was in trouble. She was leaking badly when the wind caused her to lie over on her side and one of the pumps was by now near useless. Matthew Flinders was hopeful that the pumps might be re-bored and fitted and that pitch could be procured to pay the seams in the upper works after they were caulked. But neither was available in the tiny settlement and he had to settle for fresh water and provisions. The only compensation was that they managed to stop a leak in the bow and were warned that the Malay pirates had become the scourge of the straits between Java and Timor so the Cumberland was fitted with netting to prevent the pirates from boarding.

  Matthew Flinders decided to sail south of the Sundra Islands to make it to the Cape of Good Hope, where he knew they could effect the repairs the tiny schooner badly needed. The monsoon weather was already threatening and the winds were changeable, with squalls prevalent, so that several days out of Coepang, the jumble caused by the different movement in the water made the little schooner labour exceedingly. The starboard pump, the only one still effective, was made to work continuously day and night. Flinders’ greatest fear was that it too would soon fall into disrepair from overuse. They sailed on towards the Cape, the little vessel becoming more and more unseaworthy, so that by the 4th of December Flinders knew that they would not make their immediate destination and his only chance was to make for Mauritius, the island he had been expressly forbidden to visit by Governor King.