Arriving in Rio on the 14th January 1884 David Thomas, because of the much earlier colonisation of South America by European “adventurers” in the 15th century, came to a nation which had gradually become an integral part of the chain of commodity exchange. Unlike the business of the Aberdeen built schooner the intention of the Spanish and Portuguese was, apart from bringing Christianity to indigenous peoples, seeking wealth, particularly silver and gold, taken by force: this looting, tribute and cultural imperialism brought parts of the continent into the European orbit.
David Thomas’s world of trade was quite different from that of “conquistadors”. The charters that he and his fellow merchant captains entered into were contractual agreements governed by the restraints of property, the movement of commodity prices, supply and demand, in other words, the competitive relations of capitalism.
January 1884, close on four hundred years since the arrival of Europeans in the so-called New World and many years before the impact of the recent nightmare of Brazilian President Bolsanaro overseeing the deaths of hundreds of thousands in the Covid-19 epidemic, David Thomas in his modest vessel once again faced the necessity of filling his holds with something that would turn a profit. Conquistador he was not.
Before sailing from London Thomas had seen to replacing chain plates, fore-staysail, jib and main gaff-sail as well as loading 550 tons of cement in barrels. Provisions taken on for the lengthy passage included port, brandy, whisky and lime juice. Nine new men had been signed on as crew with bonuses ranging from £1-19 shillings to £5-19 shillings awarded to John Meakin, the man replacing Galashan as Mate. Finding a second in command took 2 days of the captain’s time with potential candidates asking £8 or £9 monthly wages. John Meakin agreed to sign on at £6 with the rest of the crew at £3.
There had been various offers made for return charters from South America, such as carrying sugar and phosphate, but the master decided better deals could be made on the other side of the Atlantic. Thus prepared, Mercury left London on the 3rd December 1883. Forty three days later the ship arrived at Rio where the captain found “there is a little sickness here now but I can only hope we may keep clear of it”. His vessel, like others, could not tie up at the quayside having to stand-off for quarantine reasons. Nonetheless, by the end of January the 3667 barrels of cement had been discharged and having secured a charter to take 361 tons of sugar from Bahia to New York Mercury was made ready by loading 260 tons of ballast.
It was all very well having ballast aboard what he lacked was a full compliment of a crew. In early February 2 men deserted the ship and David was saying of his sailors: “a rough lot some has already gone and I think they will all go before we are finished discharging”. By the 15th of the month he told James Elsmie “I have much trouble with the crew” and at he beginning of March he wrote to Aberdeen that “I had to go on board in a hurry as there was trouble on board almost amounting to murder. Capt. Pearson of Newcastle came on board with me and stopped overnight”. There was no murder and the captain managed to discipline his men sufficient to sail for Bahia which was fourteen days from Rio. As said in a previous chapter having men in port was the moment of weakness in a chain of command whereas at sea the need for an efficient and safe running of a vessel could and did act as a self-disciplining force in the management of men. Not that crewmen necessarily felt any less animosity working for a ship and master simply the realities of a passage demanded seamanship and some degree of discipline. David Thomas recognised this but also knew that once in port men could just as easily resort to desertion: “this fortnight at sea has straightened them out but they are a bad treacherous lot”. Hoping to ease the situation, remove what he saw as troublesome elements the captain discharged the cook and the bosun, writing that “he had no trouble since. I hope to finish the voyage in peace”. Peace in the crew was not reflected in the conditions at anchor off Bahia: “the weather is very disagreeable here heat rain and musketoes [sic] so there is very little peace”. Eventually loaded with 361 tons of sugar the ship sailed for New York arriving there on 18th March 1884. Some damage was found in his cargo of sugar; ninety one of the 8000 bags loaded had to be replaced at the ship’s expense. Yet more frustration and a small drain on profits.
Brazil’s sugar industry was another example of the global reach of Europe as merchants and monarchs looked further and further afield for precious metals and raw materials. Brazilian sugar plantations, led by Portuguese power, emerged in the early 16th century, beginning with a mixture of wage and slave labour. Attempting to develop indigenous peoples as the pool of potential workers the colonisers found that locals with their knowledge of the region, family and tribal ties and very different patterns work and leisure refused to be disciplined. So slave labour from Africa became the staple. Tens of thousands of Africans were taken by traders and shipped to South America with an estimated 60,000 in Brazil before the mid 17th century. The country became one of the key users of African slaves and saw its sugar industry rise to become an attractive commodity for European investment, especially Dutch capital. As is the way with global competition new producers entered the market in sugar and the Brazilian industry went into relative decline; this decline was also apparent in its share of the local economy and the country’s exports, falling from 30% in 1810 to 10% by the 1880s, with coffee supplanting the sweet stuff as leading export.
This was the historical background to the sugar David Thomas loaded in March 1884. As anxious as he might have been about the viability of the charter he would no doubt have been happy at the thought that he did not face the hazards that earlier merchantmen had confronted: between 1589-1591 some 69 ships with cargoes of sugar valued at over £100,000 had been seized by English privateers. Traders countered this danger by travelling in convoy. Thomas finding ninety ones bags of sugar damaged was little compared to capture by privateers although economic cycles and business swings could just as effectively end the career of a merchant ship.
David Thomas’s letters home from New York are full of the oh-so familiar stories of difficult times with the now customary acceptance of a charter of “refined petroleum”, 13000 cases, destined for Port Said, Egypt. Passage to the Mediterranean was chosen as the captain was determined to then make for a home port with the intention of going into dry dock to overhaul the ship’s hull and its copper.
Mercury sailed from New York on the 4th June 1884, arriving at Port Said on 24th July where the captain immediately set about finding a charter home. His preference was to take barley from Cyprus, hoping his “oil people” in the Egyptian port could assist. In the event there was nothing doing from Cyprus but there was barley from Gaza, that land at present, and since 1967, under the military and economic domination of Israel. With Palestinian peoples subject to blockade, oppression and when it suits the Israeli state bombing. As the late Mike Marqusee wrote “it’s the Palestinians, not Israelis, who are besieged, isolated and vulnerable”. Indeed, the words of Captain Thomas as he contemplated the depressed state of trading from Gaza could be said to capture a sense of the present day nightmare for Palestinians: “it is hard times we have come to at last and I doubt better prospect of a change for the better in our time”.
David Thomas had no worries about attack from the air by aircraft built and supplied by the USA, no the merchantman was only bothered by his choice of mate, John Meakin. With barley loaded and sailing with orders to be given at Falmouth he regretted the fact that he was not entering the English port as he was desperate to get rid of his second in command. No reason is given. Thomas was stuck with him at least until making the port of Antwerp as he’d been directed at Falmouth. Antwerp was reached on 1st November, the cargo of 520 tons discharged and two cargoes of glass loaded, one for Dundee and the other for Aberdeen as well as phosphate for the former town.
Ruminating on the sorry state of trade for wooden sailing ships David turned his thoughts to the larger condition of the merchant marine and recognising that the collapse in charter rates for his vessel was born of the tonnage of ships chasing business, especially the number of iron ships available. He was drawn to the subject by his intention to have the ship and cargo insured for the relatively short passage from Belgium to Scotland “as it would be hard now to loose all should anything happen after so long being full insured”. It seems underwriters were showing little enthusiasm and generosity for insuring wooden vessels: as he said,
“I am sorry for all concerned that the wood ships are so little thought of but I think underwriters on Mercury has not had much to complain of as yet. I know the whole leaning of shippers is for iron but the whole trouble is is the amount of tonnage afloat, perhaps before long some owners [will] see they have overdone the thing.”
But to keep the vessel worthy of insurance it had to maintained to a standard acceptable to Lloyd’s surveyors. To this end the the captain had been putting out feelers, looking for builders who could do decent work at prices which were not crippling. John Westacott of Appledore in Devon for example offered to re-class the ship at a reasonable price. But Thomas was determined to make it to Aberdeen rather than sail for Devon which he said was too distant and in winter season “may be long in getting round” and perhaps more importantly the east coast in his opinion gave better work.
Leaving the Belgium port on the 8th December it was another twelve days before the schooner arrived safely in Dundee. A distance of just over 400 nautical miles making a daily average of 35 miles per day. Foul weather had made for a hard passage. Thomas gave a brief description of the passage across, capturing a sense of the buffeting and the way in which sailing vessels could be captive of the weather. He wrote that having left Antwerp, sailed north east to Flushing which took two days; he arrived there on the 10th December, “that night blew a gale from west had to go outside [to open water for safety] . . . I could not get inshore again. Alwise blowing gales from the westward we have been in off Buchan Ness and south again to near Flamborough Head alwise from 50 to 100 miles off. On Thursday night off Girdleness so far as we could see it when the wind went north-west and fetched in” to Dundee on 20th.
Mercury was to lie in the Scottish port, south of Aberdeen for Christmas. Wagons were scarce at quayside so discharging was slow, compounded by customs personnel not normally working on the 25th and asking “too much for extra work” on a holiday. In other words more delay. This was bad enough, made worse when three of his sailors deserted. There was, however, the compensation for the captain that he could, and did, take a steamer from Dundee to Aberdeen and presumably spent some time with family and friends over Christmas.
Wee Bits of History 