Pirate Boy of Sydney Town

by Jackie French

  We don’t think of Sydney as a pirate port, but for several years it did provision ‘privateers’ to such an extent that Governor Macquarie requested assistance from England to defend the colony from French attack in retaliation.

  I have been unable to find any record, however, of which or how many ships were captured. The best estimate is ‘some’, as British ships wouldn’t have persisted in the practice if none had succeeded. But neither would they have advertised what they’d captured or where, especially as they were expected to give a percentage to the Crown. It is possible that there are records in the Netherlands of ships that were taken by privateers off the Australian coast, but if they exist, I have been unable to track them down.

  There was still great honour in 1810 in getting a naval ‘prize’ from a ship captured in war (see Jane Austen’s novel Persuasion). But riches won as a privateer weren’t quite so honourable, especially when it might turn out that the war had ceased a year before your plunder.

  The armed forces of most nations today fight for wages, not plunder. This was not the case in 1810. The high risk of death and the appalling living conditions meant that rewards had to be high to entice men of quality to enlist. Crew, on the other hand, might be picked up drunk at a port and wake up at sea; and young criminals were often sent to sea instead of to the gallows.

  In these days of radio, satellites and mobile phones, it is difficult to imagine a time when one in four ships would eventually be shipwrecked, often vanishing without trace. Unless they travelled in a fleet, or survivors were picked up by another ship — unlikely along the vast coast of Western Australia, where ships tried to keep well out to sea to avoid being wrecked — a ship might vanish and not be missed for months or even years, especially if no one expected it at the port it was heading to. Australia has many old wrecks along its coastlines, and probably far more are yet to be found.

  THE DUTCH EAST INDIA COMPANY

  There is another major factor that made privateering possible during these years. The Dutch East India Company (the VOC), which had been trading with various ports in the Netherlands East Indies, including Batavia (present-day Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia), was declared bankrupt and dissolved in 1800. The government of the Netherlands took over what the VOC had controlled, including Batavia.

  In 1808, the Napoleonic regime of the Netherlands sent Marshal Herman Willem Daendels to be Governor-General of Batavia. He was there between 1808 and 1811, when he was replaced as Governor-General by Jan Willem Janssens. In August 1811, that command was taken over by the famous Sir Stamford Raffles, who went on to become the Lieutenant-Governor of Java, Governor-General of Bencoolen and founder of modern-day Singapore.

  This was a time of confusion both politically and commercially, with different trading patterns from those that had operated in the 1780s and 1790s.

  THE ROUTE OF THE GOLDEN GIRL

  I based this on voyages made by similar ships of the time. The passage east using the Roaring Forties — the strong, almost constant westerly winds at the fortieth parallel or latitude — had been for centuries a convenient way for sailing ships to quickly cross the Southern Ocean, and was used by the Portuguese and Dutch as well as the English to reach ‘New Holland’. But these strong winds made it difficult, and usually impossible, to sail west on this route.

  THE MULGU

  Ship design has changed dramatically since 1810, but sailing techniques have not, except for modern and more automated watercraft. The Mulgu would have been a small open ship’s boat: a fore-and-aft gaff-rigged, single-masted cutter. A cutter could be handled by a couple of men and rowed ashore when needed. Those sailing it could tack into the wind if need be, and wouldn’t be caught on a lee shore quite as easily as in a square-rigged ship. The Mulgu wouldn’t have had a keel, so couldn’t point as high into the wind as a keeled boat, but it could be hauled up onto a beach — essential in a place and time with no wharves and an almost unknown coast.

  In a craft like this, Guwara could tack and catch the wind even if there were local offshore winds. The winds close to the coast are much more variable than those in the open ocean as they are affected by features on the land as well as offshore islands.

  The Mulgu almost certainly wouldn’t have withstood a major storm; nor could Ben have sailed Bucky’s boat by himself except in calm weather. The journey that Ben, Higgins and Guwara made in the Mulgu is possible, but only with Guwara’s understanding of tides and winds, and a large amount of luck.

  INDIGENOUS SAILORS

  I’ve written before about Nanberry White, one of the first Indigenous sailors to serve as crew on ships sailing from Sydney. (There was already a long history of Indigenous sailors employed by various countries north of Australia.) By 1810, an unknown number of young Indigenous men were crewing on ships, from English merchant vessels to sealing or whaling boats based in the United States and elsewhere, or on voyages across the ocean in tiny (to our eyes) sailing ships. They braved the storms and vast waves of the Southern Ocean, and the mountainous seas by the Cape, sailed past ice floes and through the doldrums, where you could die of thirst when there was no wind to fill your ship’s sails. These young men were respected and valued crew members, and were usually paid regular wages and given regular rations on the same basis as white sailors.

  From a modern perspective, the question is: why on earth would they want to? Despite colonial incursion into the lands of the Indigenous nations, in 1810 a comfortable Indigenous life was still possible, though nowhere near as secure as it had been. Sea voyages were dangerous and often deadly, conditions were appalling, and scurvy almost inevitable. Wages might have been an incentive, but at that time in the colony Indigenous fishermen could make far more money, and with far less danger, selling fish to the colonists who didn’t have their knowledge of when and where fish might be caught.

  The answer is probably that these young men wanted adventure and a chance to see the world. This doesn’t seem enough to someone like me, who gets seasick on a calm river and likes a comfortable bed and the least danger possible, but it’s been a motive for many people in many places and of many races, so it is the only one I can give.

  THE KANGARUH ISLAND SLAVE TRADE

  Sealing and whaling ships often kidnapped Indigenous women, and in some places large numbers of people were slaughtered in the process. At other times and in other places, Indigenous women willingly married sailors, including those from sealing and whaling ships, and seem to have led happy and fulfilled lives, either on board the ships or in comfortable cottages, waiting, as wives did, for the times their husbands came home.

  Kangaroo Island seems to have been a place where women were held for sealing ships to pick up — essentially, a slave trade. Governor Macquarie twice sent detachments to ‘restore order’ on the island, though gave no details in his reports back home. Slavery was by then illegal in England, and possibly he wanted to avoid a major outcry by abolitionists there. His second detachment to Kangaroo Island appears to have been successful.

  Bucky and his ‘kingdom’ are fictitious, but based on rumours about conditions on the island at various times. Another word for ‘rumour’ can be oral history: no one wrote down what happened, but the stories were reliably passed down the generations. I don’t have enough information, or knowledge of the people involved, to judge whether the stories I have heard are true, but given Macquarie’s actions, at a time when he was also worried about the war with France, and the more certain histories of Indigenous women captured in other areas, the rumours almost certainly have at least a basis in fact. It is possible that the true history is far worse than I have described here.

  INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES

  At the time of the novel’s setting, Australia had over three hundred Indigenous nations and at least two hundred languages. Most Indigenous people were at least bilingual, and some spoke between six and twenty languages and acted as translators. In places where there were regular trading routes, languages tended to have some words in comm
on, or words that were similar enough to enable communication.

  Guwara wouldn’t have been able to speak to the Indigenous people of Western Australia, but there are records of Indigenous sailors from the Sydney region being able to talk to people in South Australia. There seems to be no record of whether they were using just a few terms or had a wider vocabulary in common, but it does mean that Guwara would have been able to communicate with the women held on Kangaruh Island.

  GUWARA’S SPEARS

  Guwara would have used several different kinds of spears: fighting spears, spears for hunting kangaroos, spears for fishing, two-metre-long spears for use from a canoe and shorter stumpy spears for animals like seals. He wouldn’t necessarily have carried all types with him at the same time.

  Spear-making was a difficult craft to learn; the spear had to be perfectly straight to be accurate. Some trees gave long, straight saplings and could be used as they were; others had to be straightened using a variety of techniques, including straightening green wood in hot damp sand or over a fire.

  The shafts were bound by kangaroo sinews that tightened as they dried and were waterproof, and a variety of saps, such as that from the xanthorrhoea or grass tree.

  The spearhead might be ‘Darwin glass’ or ‘meteor glass’, or other stones that could be chipped to a sharp point and were traded over thousands of kilometres; or the nasal bones of a kangaroo, certain fish bones and many other substances.

  A woomera, or spear-thrower, was often used to make the spear travel faster, harder and more accurately. An axe or cutting blade could also be attached to the woomera, making it a multi-purpose tool, but as a sailor Guwara would probably have had a metal knife and access to a metal axe, if not one of his own.

  WATER CARRIERS

  Many different forms of vessels to carry water were used by Indigenous Australians circa 1810. These included the waterbags described in this book: the skin from the leg of a large kangaroo would be carefully removed and tanned, and made waterproof by oiling, then the ends would be sealed with cords made of kangaroo sinew.

  ENGLISH AND AUSTRALIAN ‘BADGERS’

  While Ben would have called his new home after the one in England, wombats were commonly called badgers back then, and his farm would have had many wombats.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  I would never have attempted Pirate Boy of Sydney Town if I hadn’t had the assistance and advice of Angela Marshall. Angela not only turns my scribbles into readable text, but has a wide, rich and eclectic knowledge of history. For much of our lives, both of us have relied on the skills of our forebears to build our own houses, create gardens, fences, water and power systems, and much else, from homemade paint to home-grown string.

  Angela and her partner, Pete, are also experienced sailors. (I get seasick even on a pontoon waiting to board.) This book would have been impossible without them, and once again I owe them more thanks than I can say.

  About the Author

  JACKIE FRENCH AM is an award-winning writer, wombat negotiator, the 2014–2015 Australian Children’s Laureate and the 2015 Senior Australian of the Year. In 2016 Jackie became a Member of the Order of Australia for her contribution to children’s literature and her advocacy for youth literacy. She is regarded as one of Australia’s most popular children’s authors and writes across all genres — from picture books, history, fantasy, ecology and sci-fi to her much loved historical fiction for a variety of age groups. ‘Share a Story’ was the primary philosophy behind Jackie’s two-year term as Laureate.

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  facebook.com/authorjackiefrench

  Also by Jackie French

  Australian Historical

  Somewhere Around the Corner • Dancing with Ben Hall

  Daughter of the Regiment • Soldier on the Hill • Valley of Gold

  Tom Appleby, Convict Boy • A Rose for the Anzac Boys

  The Night They Stormed Eureka • Nanberry: Black Brother White

  Pennies for Hitler

  General Historical

  Hitler’s Daughter • Lady Dance • How the Finnegans Saved the Ship

  The White Ship • They Came on Viking Ships • Macbeth and Son

  Pharaoh • Oracle • Goodbye, Mr Hitler • Just a Girl

  Fiction

  Rain Stones • Walking the Boundaries • The Secret Beach

  Summerland • A Wombat Named Bosco • Beyond the Boundaries

  The Warrior: The Story of a Wombat • The Book of Unicorns

  Tajore Arkle • Missing You, Love Sara • Dark Wind Blowing

  Ride the Wild Wind: The Golden Pony and Other Stories

  Refuge • The Book of Horses and Unicorns

  Non-Fiction

  A Year in the Valley • How the Aliens from Alpha Centauri

  Invaded My Maths Class and Turned Me into a Writer

  How to Guzzle Your Garden • The Book of Challenges

  The Fascinating History of Your Lunch • To the Moon and Back

  The Secret World of Wombats • How High Can a Kangaroo Hop?

  Let the Land Speak: How the Land Created Our Nation

  I Spy a Great Reader

  Miss Lily Series

  1. Miss Lily’s Lovely Ladies • 1.5. With Love from Miss Lily: A Christmas Story

  2. The Lily and the Rose • 2.5. Christmas Lilies • 3. The Lily in the Snow

  The Matilda Saga

  1. A Waltz for Matilda • 2. The Girl from Snowy River

  3. The Road to Gundagai • 4. To Love a Sunburnt Country

  5. The Ghost by the Billabong • 6. If Blood Should Stain the Wattle

  7. Facing the Flame • 8. The Last Dingo Summer

  Shakespeare Series

  I am Juliet • Ophelia: Queen of Denmark

  The Diary of William Shakespeare, Gentleman • Third Witch

  My Name is Not Peaseblossom

  The Animal Stars Series

  The Goat Who Sailed the World • The Dog Who Loved a Queen

  The Camel Who Crossed Australia • The Donkey Who Carried the Wounded

  The Horse Who Bit a Bushranger

  Dingo: The Dog Who Conquered a Continent

  The Secret Histories Series

  1. Birrung the Secret Friend • 2. Barney and the Secret of the Whales

  3. The Secret of the Black Bushranger

  4. Barney and the Secret of the French Spies

  5. The Secret of the Youngest Rebel

  Outlands Trilogy

  In the Blood • Blood Moon • Flesh and Blood

  School for Heroes Series

  Lessons for a Werewolf Warrior • Dance of the Deadly Dinosaurs

  Wacky Families Series

  1. My Dog the Dinosaur • 2. My Mum the Pirate

  3. My Dad the Dragon • 4. My Uncle Gus the Garden Gnome

  5. My Uncle Wal the Werewolf • 6. My Gran the Gorilla

  7. My Auntie Chook the Vampire Chicken • 8. My Pa the Polar Bear

  Phredde Series

  1. A Phaery Named Phredde • 2. Phredde and a Frog Named Bruce

  3. Phredde and the Zombie Librarian • 4. Phredde and the Temple of Gloom

  5. Phredde and the Leopard-Skin Librarian

  6. Phredde and the Purple Pyramid • 7. Phredde and the Vampire Footy Team

  8. Phredde and the Ghostly Underpants

  Picture Books

  Diary of a Wombat (with Bruce Whatley)

  Pete the Sheep (with Bruce Whatley)

  Josephine Wants to Dance (with Bruce Whatley)

  The Shaggy Gully Times (with Bruce Whatley)

  Emily and the Big Bad Bunyip (with Bruce Whatley)

  Baby Wombat’s Week (with Bruce Whatley)

  The Tomorrow Book (with Sue deGennaro)

  Queen Victoria’s Underpants (with Bruce Whatley)

  Christmas Wombat (with Bruce Whatley)

  A Day to Remember (with Mark Wilson)

  Queen Victoria’s Christmas (with Bruce Whatley)

  Dinosaurs Love Cheese (with Nina Rycro
ft)

  Wombat Goes to School (with Bruce Whatley)

  The Hairy-Nosed Wombats Find a New Home (with Sue deGennaro)

  Good Dog Hank (with Nina Rycroft)

  The Beach They Called Gallipoli (with Bruce Whatley)

  Wombat Wins (with Bruce Whatley)

  Grandma Wombat (with Bruce Whatley)

  Millie Loves Ants (with Sue deGennaro)

  Koala Bare (with Matt Shanks)

  Dippy’s Big Day Out (with Bruce Whatley; concept by Ben Smith Whatley)

  When the War is Over (with Anne Spudvilas)

  Happy Birthday Wombat (with Bruce Whatley)

  Copyright

  Angus&Robertson

  An imprint of HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks, Australia

  First published in Australia in 2019

  by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited

  ABN 36 009 913 517

  harpercollins.com.au

  Copyright © Jackie French 2019

  The right of Jackie French to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.

  This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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