The Commissioners must have been dismayed that Sir Everard had duly visited Enderby. He would have been told of Dundas and Preston’s attitude to Enderby’s position as Lieutenant Governor, of their unlawful taking of the register of births, marriages and deaths after Downs’ death, their refusal to let Enderby see the death certificate, and of Downs’ hurried burial. Sir Everard and Enderby agreed that Enderby should put the gist of what they had discussed in a letter to Sir Everard, to which he would formally reply.24
Hooker’s or New Zealand sea lions, with dark bulls, blonde females and nursery ‘pods’ of pups on Sandy Beach, Enderby Island. Looking SW towards the island’s basalt cliffs and the distant main island.
Enderby’s letter concentrated on the Special Commissioners’ insults to his rank as Lieutenant Governor, and referred to the letter he had written to Earl Grey, which had asked that no action be taken until he wrote again, after conferring with Sir George Grey in Wellington.
Sir Everard’s reply, addressed to ‘His Excellency Chas. Enderby, &c. &c. &c.’, was that, in his opinion, Enderby was indeed the Lieutenant Governor, ‘and that you must remain so until the resignation of that office, which you have tendered, is accepted by Her Majesty, or until such time as you quit the island’; but that, ‘from the peculiarity of the circumstances … the islands being the property of [the] Company, you can do no act in any of these islands without in some way interfering with the affairs and interests of the Company, from which I should most carefully abstain …’25
The following evening, Sir Everard Home and two of his officers dined ashore with Dundas, Mackworth and Munce; Preston was unwell and could not join them. This was almost certainly when Dundas made the very serious threat to take Enderby aboard the Black Dog in irons if he resisted going to Wellington with them. In a letter to Enderby after he had left the Auckland Islands, Munce confirmed that the threat was made on at least two occasions, and that if Dundas and Preston should try to deny it, he would know what to call such swearing – it would, in effect, be perjury.26 Enderby also later confirmed that Sir Everard Home knew of the threat, and that:
all the officers of Her Majesty’s ship ‘Calliope’ were under a like impression that such a threat had been used, but of which I was ignorant until after the ‘Calliope’ had quitted Port Ross, when a young man, in the Company’s service, informed me he had overheard either Mr. Dundas or Mr. Preston tell Sir Everard Home that they had intended putting me in irons had I refused accompanying them to New Zealand.27
A note from Sir Everard delivered at half past eight the next morning announced, to the Special Commissioners’ consternation, that HMS Calliope would be departing at noon. Although almost worn out with fatigue, they had to press on with what needed to be done in the few hours remaining.28
The Special Commissioners first wrote to Sir Everard to ‘afford us whatever protection you are able, by abstaining from recognising in Mr. Enderby the possession of any power or authority here’. They pointed out that Mr Enderby ‘was no longer a fit person to administer [his office], inasmuch as he had threatened the life of one of the chief officers of the Company’; and they concluded: ‘We have only to impress upon you the necessity … of your sending without delay, in fulfilment of your promise, a vessel of war to this place, to remain here until the removal of the Southern Whale Fishing Company’s establishment, in order that proper protection may be insured.’29
Sir Everard promptly replied, pointing out that he could ‘in no way be a judge as to the propriety of Mr. Enderby’s conduct or the reverse, so far as to his being a fit person to administer the office in which he had been placed’. He posed the question, that if Mr Enderby had put his resignation as Lieutenant Governor into the Special Commissioners’ hands, would they have had the power to receive it? His conclusion was that Enderby still held the position of Lieutenant Governor,30 and his letter ended with a very clear warning, that
acting upon the idea that the tender of a resignation of the office of Governor is the resignation itself, without waiting until it has been accepted by the authority which gave it, or until the officer has quitted his government, is, in my opinion, to strike a violent blow at the Royal prerogative, and would be a most dangerous precedent to be acted upon.
Independently of the Calliope’s imminent departure, the Samuel Enderby sailed for Sydney during the morning, taking 18 settlers: Thomas Clarke and his wife, who had been cooking for Munce and his family for the past 16 months, and their small son; George Crane, builder, who had on several occasions helped Munce with jobs around the house, with his wife and two children; Isaac Brown, discharged from the Company’s service earlier in the month,31 with his wife; the Ewingtons; and nine other Company servants.32
For Enderby there must have been something very final about the Samuel Enderby leaving. It had been his flagship: the first of the original three ships to arrive at Port Ross. Although it was larger than his ideal for a whaler because of the settlers and stores it had been required to bring out, it was nevertheless the pride of his whaling fleet. So it must have been a bitter experience to see it receding across the harbour and finally disappearing from sight. Captain Henderson, although he was young like most whaling captains, had been a reliable friend; but his job had meant he was seldom in port, and Enderby had not seen as much of him as he no doubt would have liked.
The Special Commissioners had decided the Samuel Enderby should continue whaling out of Sydney until the Company’s future was known; and in fact its third and last voyage in 1854 from Sydney, on the whaling grounds around Lord Howe Island, was highly successful, yielding 1000 barrels of bowhead whale oil, 90 barrels of sperm oil and 8 tons of whalebone, estimated at a total value of £7000.33
Sir Everard was aware that Enderby had been forestalled in posting letters or packages with the Samuel Enderby. He therefore sent Lieutenant Morgan to Enderby’s apartment with the offer to have his mail made up into a bag, which he would then take care to pass on, on Enderby’s behalf 34 – a kindness that would have lifted Enderby’s spirits.
During the morning, HMS Calliope’s chaplain, the Reverend Carwithen, baptised Mary Jane Mann, born on 26 October 1850; Harriet Sophia Cripps, born on 4 April 1851; George Edward Munce, born on 11 December 1851; Mary Louisa Thornley Barton, born on 14 February 1852; and James Hindsley Bromley, born on 9 March 1852 – just three weeks old.35
Sir Everard later wrote to his friend Sir George Grey:
I was much put out when at the Auckland Islands where I wanted to get about and collect [specimens],36 but was detained the whole time in discussion with the two commissioners and their mate Mr Mackworth, [as to] whether Mr Enderby, who held the Queen’s commission under her own hand, which I saw, was the Lieut Governor or not after he had tendered his resignation. I wrote to him my opinion on the subject and I told it to them also, and said that a more violent blow could not be struck at the Royal prerogative, than by denying it, and that it would be a most dangerous precedent if admitted to be right.
And then, presumably referring to Dundas, Preston and Mackworth, he added: ‘I do trust that something will be formed as an administration that will stand. Many of those mentioned are without experience.’37
HMS Calliope sailed at two that afternoon to a seven-gun salute,38 and with it went Enderby’s last real hope of fair treatment at Port Ross. Sir Everard Home would have left believing he had given Enderby the support he needed to re-establish his authority. But as soon as he was gone, Dundas and Preston ignored his advice – and Enderby’s rightful status as Lieutenant Governor. Enderby claims they even ‘convened a meeting of the officers or servants of the Company, and designated me a murderer’39 – a far-fetched accusation, because in spite of the threat made there was never a body!
Rumours had been gaining strength that there might be a revolt on the part of the New Zealand Maori in protest at Enderby’s enforced departure, after he had sailed with the Special Commissioners. Mackworth did not think it likely, but decided precautions wou
ld have to be taken. Arms were drawn from the store and distributed among the Company’s servants.40 To placate the Chiefs, the Special Commissioners offered them two of the now vacant houses. Mackworth records that ‘Nanaterri [Ngatere] declined accepting his, trying to appear very knowing – the Wife of Mateoro accepted the other for her husband without much appearance of thankfulness – These poor creatures do not feel, think, or act as we do and it is very difficult to know how to deal with them.’41
Three days later, one of the vacant houses was dismantled for shipping out on the Black Dog. The next day was Good Friday: ‘General holiday – incessant rain.’42 On the Sunday Mackworth records with some irritation: ‘Some of the Company’s servants went to Enderby Island yesterday for recreation and returned this afternoon. Mr Enderby accompanied them, without my knowledge.’ Enderby might well have wondered if he was now a virtual prisoner, and under house arrest. He could have done with a confidant. Mackworth had failed him, and it would not have been fair to take advantage of Munce’s obvious sympathies, and put him in a compromising position.
Shortly after the Enderby Island incident, Mr Cadenhead, the chief mate of the Black Dog, was reprimanded for insolent conduct. Mackworth commented in his diary: ‘firmness and forbearance are admirably combined in the acts of the Special Commissioners’.43 He made no mention of the public notice Enderby posted on the door of his apartment, that same day:
NOTICE.
Whereas I, Charles Enderby, Lieutenant-governor of the Auckland Islands, am forcibly compelled to quit my seat of government, I nevertheless retain my appointment as Lieutenant-governor until Her Majesty’s pleasure be known, during which period, and whilst I am absent, I call on all persons resident on, or who may visit the Auckland Islands, to maintain order and conform to the laws and usages of England, as well [as] in obeying the lawful commands of those placed in authority over them, or in whose service or pay they may have engaged, as in other respects; and I hold all persons responsible as well for acts of omission as commission.
(signed) Chas. Enderby,
Port Ross, Auckland Islands,
Lieutenant-governor.
13 April 1852.44
A day later the Brisk arrived back from Macquarie Island with the Lord Duncan’s oiling gang but without the 12–13 tons of oil, which had had to be left behind. The news was received with dismay. Nevertheless, Captain Freeman was commended for his judgement and seamanship, although his crew was received with less enthusiasm – Mackworth commented: ‘It requires a temper of infinite elasticity to deal with the villains.’45
The usual incidents and night-time revelries associated with the Brisk ensued, and on 20 April, sensing the general unrest, Mackworth noted:
The Special Commissioners determined last night on giving a public dinner tomorrow to the Company’s Officers and Servants; it is not an easy undertaking but will be carried through. I am very sanguine as to the effect it will probably have in smoothing matters of disagreement among the people themselves.46
However, as he made no further mention of it, and refrained from making any entry in his diary for the next two days, it is unlikely the dinner ever took place.
The Giant’s Archway, a basalt feature on high ground at 460 metres, halfway down the main island, is like a huge handle from which the island might have been pulled Maui-like from the ocean.
In his final days at Port Ross, Enderby had watched goods being loaded onto the Black Dog for sale by auction in Wellington.47 Some of them had never left the warehouse: wardrobes, bedsteads, ironmongery, glass and glassware, tin and hollow ware, a patent washing machine, a liquid manure hand-pump – complete with brass barrels on wheels, patent hose, gutta percha suction pipe and brass joints – harrows, spades and shovels, glue and malt, as well as a cart and the gig. The gig had seldom been used, as the road was so short and it meant bringing one of the Clydesdales down from the farm. Hardly the right horse for the job, Enderby would have reflected. On the way out from England he had bought a chestnut horse in Hobart Town for the gig and for riding; but after a few days the animal had broken free and become lost in the bush. He had never replaced it.48
On 24 April, Enderby sailed for Wellington with Dundas and Preston. He later commented that the Special Commissioners altered the Black Dog’s log-book, ‘in which the mate had described me as Governor Enderby, by scratching out my name, and subscribing it after their own as Mr Enderby, and then tearing the leaf out of the book. Gave instructions that it should be copied, but with that order the mate refused to comply.’49
It was a dismal departure. Mackworth stayed on board until the ship had weighed anchor. He wrote: ‘The usual “three cheers” were given and returned … By the time we reached the settlement the Black Dog was lost in a dense mist and heavy rain, we being completely saturated.’ It was blowing hard from the northwest and ‘doubtless very rugged outside’.
That evening he added: ‘Knowing as I well do what is before me my feelings are by no means pleasant. I have not a man to trust to. “Come what come may[sic]” – however, I am prepared.’50
Hooker’s sea lion pups in rata forest on Figure of Eight Island, in the north arm of Carnley Harbour.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
A Hollow Victory
Charles Enderby and the Special Commissioners reached Wellington on Monday 17 May.1 The following day Enderby delivered a long letter to Sir George Grey, listing the indignities the Special Commissioners had subjected him to, enumerating their charges against him and giving details of Downs’ death, including their overriding his refusal to allow the seaman to be buried until he had ascertained the cause of death.2 He then secured the services of a solicitor, John King, who on 19 May requested Dundas and Preston to inform him upon what authority and for what purpose they had brought Enderby to Wellington.3
Dundas and Preston, having told Enderby through Mackworth that they intended to bring the whole matter to the serious notice of Sir George Grey,4 replied that they had received Mr King’s letter ‘with much surprise’ as Mr Enderby could have answered it himself, and had merely to observe that ‘they gave Mr Enderby a passage hither in the vessel they arrived in, and have nothing now to do with him, he being no longer in the Company’s service, and having also resigned the office which he held of Lieutenant-governor of the Auckland Islands’.5
After all he had been through, such evasion was not good enough for Enderby. The same day, he had been interested to read a report in the Wellington Independent, which passed on information the paper had received from Sydney. The item began with the usual sort of shipping intelligence:
The barque Samuel Enderby, Captain W.H. Henderson, from Port Ross, arrived at Sydney April 24th, with a number of passengers, including Dr. and Mrs. Ewington. Her cargo consisted chiefly of the furniture, implements, and utensils used at the station, consisting of bedsteads, trucks, pumps, pots, &c., together with 106 casks sperm, 7 casks seal, and 6 casks of black oil.
But then came comment of particular significance. The Sydney Empire was quoted as stating that Dundas and Preston’s conduct towards the Lieutenant Governor, Mr Enderby, had been ‘unnecessarily harsh and discourteous, and as it appears to have extended to an actual subversion of his Royal Commission, without any delegated authority in that respect, [would] probably lead to a complicated process of litigation’. The Independent went on to add that if an alternative site for the company’s whaling operations was sought, Wellington would make as good a whaling station as could be found; and agreed that the conduct of the two commissioners towards Enderby, who had accompanied them ‘under a threat of bringing him in irons if he would not consent’, would of course be a subject of inquiry.6
Litigation was already under way. King was demanding an answer to his letter asking Dundas and Preston on what authority they had brought Lieutenant Governor Enderby to Wellington by force, and committed other acts of trespass and indignities towards him.7 He had also written to Sir George Grey, asking what charges Dundas and Preston might have br
ought to his attention against Lieutenant Governor Enderby? Grey’s reply was essentially that he would have nothing to do with any such charges, should they be preferred.8
Adding to the general feeling of support for Enderby was the fortuitous capture of a whale in Wellington harbour by the crew of the Black Dog. Alongside a lengthy article backgrounding the history of the Southern Whale Fishery Company at Port Ross, and asking among other questions whether Enderby had had a fair deal there, was a short report on the captured whale:
A great number of people, including more than a fair sprinkling of the fair sex, as well as children, paid a visit to the Black Dog on Wednesday in order to have an opportunity of seeing this monster of the deep. Its extreme length was found to be 46 feet, and the quantity of oil it will yield is estimated at about 4 tuns.9
Three days later, on the evening of Saturday 22 May, Enderby had Dundas and Preston arrested for forcing him to leave the Auckland Islands and for non-payment of salary due to him as the former Chief Commissioner. For a while it looked as if they would be imprisoned over the weekend, but as Dundas was a British MP and the authorities ‘knew not how to proceed’, the two commissioners were released on bail of £500 until a magistrate could sit on their case.10
The Enderby Settlement Page 18