Back in March this year we met with visitor Barry Guttridge (pictured) visiting
with his Cameron Park Probus Group. Barry most kindly provided us with a copy
of a letter written by his great, great, grandfather’s brother, Arthur Moreland
White. In 1875 Arthur was a 22 year old Second Mate in the merchant navy on
board the British ship the Khandeish when
it was shipwrecked off the coast of Oeno Island, one of the Pitcairns Islands.
Arthur’s letter was written to his sister Laura Phoebe White while on board the
Ennerdale, the vessel that eventually
took them back to San Francisco after spending 6
weeks marooned on Pitcairn Island. The letter
provides a wonderful insight into life on Pitcairn including the abundance of
fresh fruit and vegetables and, in particular, the musicality of the islanders.
After describing the luck of the crew to make it to their
longboats immediately following the shipwrecking, and after 3 days sailing to find
Pitcairn, he describes their welcome by the islanders: “indeed such kindness as
we received on that island would put miserably to shame our own Countrymen at
home”.
Over their six week stay the sailors became involved with
the work of the island. White describes that his usual day included “to get up
at 6 o’clock in the morning, and go up the mountain and get a load of wood,
come down again with the Barrow, and after breakfast go up and plant yams or,
Oval potatoes, or Indian Corn or else go fishing down the Rocks. We very seldom
had any dinner on the island indeed there was such quantities of fruit growing
that we did not want any. The oranges especially grow so thick, that they are a
regular nuisance and fall down and we could not consume half of them, tho’ I
think we used to go through about 1,000 per day among us. There are also
Cocoa-nuts, Bread-Fruit plantations, Jack-Fruits, guavas, Rose-apples and many
other fruits in abundance, tho I think the Cocoanut is the most indispensable
Tree on the Island as they make Oil to burn and cook with, food for Fowls out
of the refuse, thatch for their houses, and Brooms fro the Leaves and the wood
for their building purposes”.
Further on White describes the inhabitants of the island:
“There are 73 inhabitants at present on the island. Simon Young is looked up to
and respected as the chief man among them; he is about 56 years old and has had
14 children, one of them was killed with Bishop Patterson on one of the South Sea Islands. He conducts the Service in Church on
Sundays and teaches singing and also keeps school every day for the younger
people from 10 till 2, he is the most unaffected, pious, simple man I ever came
across. He has 3 grown up daughters viz Rossalind, Mary Ann and Johanna; they
are all very pretty, with beautiful hair.
It is Rosey that composed the Poetry I am sending, she is a
very clever Girl and has the sweetest voice I have ever heard, in fact all the
people on the Island are splendid singers, they are all taught and sing in
parts according to their voices, they have a singing School at Simon Young’s
House every Sunday night for sacred Music. And such melody I never heard before
in my life. They do not sing anything but sacred music. They have an accordion,
two fiddles, and a Concertina on the island, and some of them can play them
very well….”
“…The Islanders are just like goats, they go anywhere, they
all go barefooted. I never had a pair of boots while I was there, except on
Sundays, and they were lent to me, as I did not save any from the wreck….There
are plenty of fowls, pigs, sand goats, on the island, also a few sheep. There
are no cows, as the do not require them, they make excellent butter and milk
out of the cocoanut…On Sundays they have a Sunday School from 7 till 9 in the morning,
Church begins at ½ past 10, they use the English Church Service, and read a
sermon afterwards. The Church is like one of their houses, but better furnish’d
and is used for a School on Weekdays. Church again in the afternoon and at ½
past 2, and after Church
School again till about
5. They then get supper, and after Supper the singing School till about 10. I
wish you could have heard them singing. It was like being in Heaven, I never
heard anything like it before. The Women dress vey simply “in white generally”
with their hair in nets…The men are very good carpenters on the Island and I think can do anything they lay their hands
to”.
When the time came to leave the Island White records the
sorrow they all felt: ”…[Our last night] was a sorrowful night for all of us,
as the people on the island had become like Brothers and Sisters and even
dearer still to some of us. I never felt leaving home even as I felt leaving
that loved Rock for it is no world “it is paradise” on earth, and I believe the
people live as pure lives as it is possible for poor humanity to lead…I went in
the last boat and then such crying and weeping as there was on the Boat they
made a Baby of me ‘altho I am not much given to that sort of thing. I believe
it is the first time any one cared for me”.
After arriving in San
Francisco the Captain, Officers and crew of the
Khandish told of their time on Pitcairn and of the needs of the islanders. Rosalind
Amelia Young records in her book “The
Mutiny of the Bounty and Story of Pitcairn Island 1790-1894 by a Native Daughter”, that “the
generous citizens of San Francisco responded with such heartiness that
contributions kept pouring in, and every useful and necessary article that was
thought of,—cooking utensils, tinware of almost every description, cups,
plates, spoons, etc., etc., wooden pails and tin pails,—testified to their
large-hearted liberality. Clothing made and unmade, buttons, pins, needles,
etc., almost enough to stock a respectable haberdasher's shop, were contributed
to the immense stock of goods collected in response to the call of charity and
benevolence. A good supply of flour, a luxury to the islanders, was sent by
Captain Skelly of the Khandish, as his contribution to the general stock. As a
crowning gift to the whole, a beautifully-toned organ, of the Mason &
Hamlin Organ Company, was sent”.
Another of the crew of the Khandish Peter Butler, returned to Pitcairn and married the poetry
writer “Rosey” - Rossalind Eliza Young. Our sincere thanks to Barry for the
copy of this fabulous letter written by his common ancestor, Arthur Moreland
White.
