- Author
- A.N. Other and NHSA Webmaster
- Subjects
- Ship histories and stories
- Tags
- None noted.
- RAN Ships
- None noted.
- Publication
- September 1978 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)
Governor Macquarie also received many complaints from merchants and shipowners who had suffered loss from Captain Case forcibly taking boats, seamen and carpenters from their ships and from private dockyards.
Garnham Blaxcell was to suffer more than most, for he had unwelcome visits to both his yard and to one of his ships, which was lying in the cove at the time. To the dockyard Case sent a party of armed marines as a Press Gang to take by force two carpenters working there – surely the first case of the Press Gang at work in Sydney?
The depths of Captain Case’s infamous conduct were plumbed when, not content with pressing men from Blaxcell’s yard and so denying him the use of whaleboats they were building for his ship’s next sealing voyage, he also took by force the ship’s launch which was then being used to ferry stores out to the Governor Macquarie, his sealing brig. Furthermore, on the 8th August, when the brig had been regularly cleared out by the Governor’s authority to proceed on a voyage to ‘Otaheite’, she was repeatedly fired on at Captain Case’s orders and was then seized and detained by an armed party of his men.
The facts of this latest outrage appear to be as follows. On the morning of the day in question, Robert Campbell, in his capacity of Assistant Naval Officer of the Colony went on board the brig Governor Macquarie, then lying in Sydney Cove, to clear her out for a voyage to Otaheite. The brig was soon under weigh, and while Campbell was mustering the crew, two musket shots were fired at her by a marine standing on Campbell & Co’s Middle Wharf. One shot passed through the main topgallant sail within a yard of a seaman. Campbell directed Robert Watson, who, as well as being Harbour Master was also the official pilot, to heave the vessel to as soon as he could do so with safety. This was done, but not before several more shots were fired at her from the Samarang.
After about ten minutes Lieutenant Butcher, a midshipman and six seamen, all armed, came aboard the brig, the lieutenant saying that his orders were to detain her, and to send the Master with his papers to Captain Case. Campbell told Watson to anchor the brig. Robert Stewart Walker, the master, protested that he had no papers except the ship’s register which he was not allowed to take out of the vessel.
An argument now took place between the master of the brig and her owner, Garnham Blaxcell, on the one hand, and Lieutenant Butcher of the Samarang on the other. At one stage Blaxcell asked Campbell if he had any authority to detain the brig, to which Campbell replied that on the contrary he was authorised by the government to clear her out on her voyage. The Master and the owner then told Pilot Watson to get the brig under weigh again. Lieutenant Butcher put two of his men at the helm, and told Watson to drop the anchor.
At this stage, Campbell left the brig to report on these untoward happenings, and on his way to the landing passed three boats manned with men armed with muskets and cutlasses on their way to the poor little brig, which was soon brought up by them and anchored close to the Samarang. Not unreasonably, all things considered, the master of the brig abandoned her to the charge of Lieutenant Butcher. These events quite mystified the Governor. In a letter to Captain Case he expressed unwillingness to believe that the seizure of the brig could have been made by his command.
Captain Case expressed indignation and surprise in his turn. His reply was to the effect that he meant to control the commerce of the colony as he saw fit, assuming a paramount authority over the Governor in matters maritime. He conceived it as his duty, as senior naval officer in New South Wales, to ‘afford every assistance to the commercial interests of the colony in protecting the trade, and supporting due order in the harbour. The brig Governor Macquarie had had the temerity to get under weigh without his permission, and had passed the Samarang’s bows without her colours flying’ – a gross insult. He alleged that the brig had ignored the warning shots and had made sail until she was out of range, only then showing her colours, and that she would have got away had the breeze held. Captain Case expressed some surprise that the battery at Dawes Point did not open fire on the ship to aid and assist in bringing her to, particularly as she did not have her colours flying.
In justification of his high-handed actions, Captain Case brought forward the matter of the desertion often of his men from the Samarang, and it probably was his concern that they might be escaping on board the Governor Macquarie that really prompted him to send Butcher to search the ship. At the time of her seizure, the brig was manned by ten British sailors and two or three Otaheitians. Out of this small number Case promptly pressed six men, including one of the mates. Captain Case later became convinced that the deserters had made for the George’s River, and were waiting for a chance to escape through Botany Bay. He did not think much of Governor Macquarie’s efforts to apprehend these men, and said as much.
In a final letter to the Captain on this sad business, Governor Macquarie wrote:
You may rest assured, Sir, I am not so unacquainted with my own duty and authority as to attempt the assumption of a command over any of His Majesty’s ships on the High Seas, or even in the Harbours; but I shall maintain that I am bound by my duty to endeavour to prevent such ships injuring or interrupting the Commerce of the Port and Territory, and to protect the property and lives of His Majesty’s subjects under by Government from such violent and wanton abuse of power as that alluded to. Whilst you are so tenacious of your power and privileges afloat, it becomes equally incumbent on me to assert and maintain my authority and privileges on shore which you have in various instances presumed to insult and usurp. Such, for instance, has been your conduct in impressing free inhabitants on shore without having obtained any sanction from me, whilst it is well known that the Law requires such authority to be first obtained in all British settlements . . .’
Governor Macquarie submitted a lengthy report to London, enclosing copies of all correspondence and depositions, for reference to their Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. Garnham Blaxcell, the owner of the brig, in theory had his remedy at Law for illegal seizure. No doubt there are records somewhere in the archives to show if he was successful in receiving damages ‘ample in proportion to the injuries he sustained.’ When Macquarie’s despatch was received in London, it was referred to the Admiralty for comment.
On June 6th 1814, John Barren, Secretary at the Admiralty, wrote:
‘My Lords are much inclined to Consider Captain Case’s conduct as highly reprehensible, but until he can be heard in his own defence, they cannot take any decided step against that officer. I am further to acquaint you that Orders are given to Prevent the impressment of convicts, or their entry on board His Majesty’s Ships . . .’
And there, officially, the matter seems to rest. As the fate of the impressed men, and of the deserters from the Samarang who presumably were left behind when the ship finally sailed away, the records are silent. The Samarang made her departure from Port Jackson some time in November 1813 bound for Bengal, after another false start on 14th October. How relieved the colony must have been to see the last of Captain Case and his awkward squad of officers and gentlemen.