The Enderby Settlement

by The Enderby Settlement (epub)

  Dundas and Preston’s initial findings were that £30,000 had been spent on buildings and improvements, while the proceeds of the first year’s fishing amounted to less than £3000. Financial collapse and failure seemed inevitable.4 Accordingly, they began to flex their authority. On Christmas Day the Chieftain was finally discharged of the stores that had arrived with them, and the Earl of Hardwicke, which had been ready to go to sea before the Chieftain had even dropped anchor, was allowed to make its final preparations for departure. But at the last moment it was delayed from sailing by their objection to it doing so without a carpenter on board – a stipulation which Enderby considered an unnecessary interference and a challenge to his better judgement and authority.5

  Two days later, when the Chieftain left for Wellington with the Countess of Minto’s officers and crew, and the Earl of Hardwicke finally sailed for the southern fishery, Munce noted that it was the Special Commissioners who placed the remaining seamen in port aboard the undermanned Lord Duncan; and with Reuben Bishop ‘refusing to go to Sea again, the Chief Comr was directed to employ him no longer in the Coy Service’.

  On New Year’s Eve Enderby, who no doubt shared the colonists’ disquiet at the tense situation, delivered a lengthy letter addressed to ‘Messrs Dundas & Preston, Special Commissioners’, in which he defended his choice of the Auckland Islands as a whaling base and settlement. The harbours were good and safe, he wrote, and the climate was milder than expected. Sheep and cattle were thriving, and potatoes, cabbages, and turnips could be grown to great advantage, as well as lettuces, peas, celery, radishes, &c. The site for a town had been well chosen, and had settlers been permitted to occupy town sites and prosecute their respective trades, a considerable settlement would have been established, but this was objected to.6

  The letter went on to point out the benefits of the Auckland Islands’ location: seamen being easily controlled as there was nowhere for a man refusing duty to go. Finally, the cost of setting up a station elsewhere would be considerable, whereas wharf, buildings, cooperage, smithy, accommodation and administration were already in place at Port Ross. By the time the Special Commissioners arrived, 20 acres of land had in fact been cleared, with 5 acres enclosed and under cultivation.7

  Shortly after delivering his letter Enderby arrived at the Munces’ home with two bottles of champagne, to see the New Year in with the Munce family and Dr and Mrs Ewington. He learnt that Munce had been instructed to give notice to ‘nine individuals’, including the surveyor George Bond and chief medical officer, Dr Rodd, whose professional services could hardly be dispensed with. The Special Commissioners had also relieved George Cook of his duties as ships’ husband, entering into some unspecified arrangement with him.8 The fact that Enderby was not involved could only be seen as a deliberate snub.

  However, on 3 January he did, as Lieutenant Governor, conduct the first civil trial in the colony. James Bell, the blacksmith who had been drunk and abusive to the Special Commissioners on Boxing Day, was up for slander against Isaac Brown, landsman. The trial lasted four hours before a jury of seven, who cleared Bell, and the case was dismissed. Enderby, who had no legal qualifications, was probably out of his depth, as the Special Commissioners might have expected. When R.E. Malone of HMS Fantome visited the colony some time later, he commented: ‘Some trials that took place with this Mr Enderby as judge, prosecutor, law adviser of the court, and executor of the sentence, were very rich …’ and added: ‘The case of a woman trying another for libel in accusing her of crim. con. [criminal conversation] was ludicrously amusing.’9

  Four days later came the last substantial entry in Munce’s diary. The day before, he had spent the afternoon signing articles for the crew of the Lord Duncan, under pressure from the Special Commissioners, who were ‘straining every point to complete her crew’ – no easy task as the best of her regular crew was still on Macquarie Island. ‘The Duncan’s crew will be composed of Raw hands and Boys rated as O.S. – the ABs are very few and of these 3 have stipulated that they are not to go in boats! Pretty whalers!’10

  Munce’s other entry for 7 January was more openly critical of the Special Commissioners: ‘they took the Govr’s Servant, Crozier, without consulting His Excy and thus left him without a Cook. This Measure I look upon (as do all others) as most ungentlemanly (to give it a mild term) and one that the Circumstances do not in any Measure justify.’

  On reflection, Munce may have regretted such a forthright entry. Whatever the reason, his diary ends a day later without explanation, at a time when his mature observations on subsequent events would have been of great value. The final entry for Thursday 8 January was domestic and brief: ‘Wet morning. Baby very uneasy all night – bad rest in consequence – Epongi fetching the Wood I bought of Rodd.’

  As soon as the Lord Duncan’s crew was settled, Dundas had taken a break and sailed in the cutter for the Southern Harbour.11 On the way, he would have passed Dundas Island, the most southerly of the islands on the approaches to Port Ross, which had been named – by Enderby as it happened – in honour of Rear Admiral Sir James Dundas. The island has the Auckland Islands’ largest colony of sea lions, three times the number at Sandy Bay on Enderby Island.12

  Dundas was not away long, and the week or so following his return passed without incident. No acknowledgement was made of Enderby’s letter in defence of his choice of the Auckland Islands, leaving Enderby in a state of continued suspense. Then on 22 January the Earl of Hardwicke returned from a voyage that had lasted less than a month, apparently on the Special Commissioners’ orders.13 The voyage was too short for much hope of success, and the ship’s return precipitated the first of several unpleasant incidents.

  As usual Dr Rodd, accompanied by Dr Ewington, had gone on board to check that all was well. Captain Young was probably upset that such a restricted voyage had given him little chance to do any serious whaling. Whatever their discussion, the two doctors came off the ship intoxicated. The following morning, each received a brief note from Dundas: that they were not to go on board ships without the Special Commissioners’ authority. Dundas later recorded that:

  this prohibition gave them great offence, and they called on us in turn to remonstrate against it. Dr. Ewington was so extremely insolent in his manner and behaviour, and so manifestly disposed to set our authority at naught, that we were compelled to assert it by sending him his dismissal: he appears to have entirely misconceived his position.14

  In a later statement, Dr Ewington gave his side of the incident:

  I demanded the reason why they should send me such an order, [and] Preston said, ‘Simply because we think proper;’ I then said, ‘You have no right to interfere with my medical duties, besides which I am a gentleman, and will be treated as such.’ Preston made answer, ‘I do not think you are’, thereby trying to make me commit a breach of the peace. I ought to have knocked him down, and might have done so, had we not all had orders from the Lieutenant-governor to keep order.15

  Dr Rodd was seen next. Already under three months’ notice, he was received with unexpected civility. Having just sacked Dr Ewington, the Special Commissioners would have realised they were in danger of leaving the colony without a doctor. They ‘found that a great improvement had taken place in him since yesterday. Of his colleague we have not seen or heard anything.’ The Special Commissioners had Dr Rodd where they wanted him: his job depended on them; and although nothing was formulated as yet, they would soon find him a useful agent against Enderby.

  The incidents were closed with a more conciliatory note delivered later in the day: ‘Gentlemen, – We request that you will, either collectively or individually, report to us daily, in writing, for the future, the names of all parties under medical treatment, stating at the time the nature of their disorder.’16

  Four days later, on 27 January, with his position by now untenable and his authority constantly undermined, Charles Enderby gave notice to the Special Commissioners of his intention to resign as Chief Commissioner of the
Company. If their attitude had not been so arrogant and overbearing from the outset, he might have been ‘prepared to act in concert with them’,17 as it was plain the Company was in severe financial trouble. But from the moment of their arrival, ‘instead of entering upon their duties with a friendly spirit’, they had set out to be confrontational, and had ‘never consulted me or even asked my opinion on any subject of the least importance’. Enderby was convinced they had stepped ashore ‘predetermined to break up the settlement at Port Ross’.18 From the Special Commissioners’ point of view, the distance and isolation from London gave them no option but to carry out their orders from the Company’s directors.19

  In his letter, Enderby said he intended ‘calling together the officers and servants of the Company for the purpose of addressing them; the meeting to take place on Saturday next, at 3 p.m., at which I shall be glad to see you, but request to be informed … if you propose to attend?’ He went on to say he was also anxious about the arrears of almost two years’ pay, which he would need to draw on to tide him over the coming 12 months, this being the agreed time in his contract before any resignation could take effect. Regarding his office as Lieutenant Governor, his letter asked whether the Special Commissioners held any power or authority from the Queen or the British government.20 As with his letter defending his choice of the Auckland Islands, his queries were never answered. He then posted a notice requesting the attendance of the officers and servants of the Southern Whale Fishery Company at the office on Saturday 31 January, at 3 p.m.

  Dundas and Preston promptly demanded Enderby call on them:

  when an angry discussion ensued, and they informed me that I had no right to convene any meeting of the Company’s officers or servants, and that they would dismiss any one so attending. This was a sufficient intimation that I was without power, unless I had subjected the Company’s servants to dismissal; I therefore consented to withdraw the notice … They then informed me they were empowered to accept my resignation as Commissioner, and … urged that it would greatly facilitate their communications with me if I would write out and send a tender of my resignation as Lieutenant-governor, to bear the same date as that of Commissioner of the Company; they did not, however, allude to the payment of my salary.

  Nor did they intimate whether they held any power or authority from the Queen or the British government to demote him.21

  The staff meeting was cancelled, and a spate of letters exchanged. In the absence of Mackworth, who took on the task on his return, these letters were usually carried by Munce, who had Enderby’s trust and was also valued by the Special Commissioners: he had already dined with them twice.22

  In his first letter,23 Enderby enclosed his resignation as Commissioner of the Company, to take effect in 12 months’ time.24 Knowing that questions would be asked about his resignation as Lieutenant Governor, he agreed to do so as proof of his willingness to cooperate, if they would specify their complaints against him. He therefore enclosed a letter addressed to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, asking that his resignation as Lieutenant Governor be passed on to Her Majesty.25

  The Special Commissioners replied the same day, saying they would forward Enderby’s resignation as Lieutenant Governor ‘at a future opportunity’, and pointing out that the period of 12 months’ notice for his resignation as the Company’s Commissioner was not applicable as they were already here on the Company’s behalf, so the time allotted for a successor to be chosen and sent out was irrelevant.

  Three days later26 Enderby received their charges, or causes of complaint, in a letter which they must have been working on for some time.27 It acknowledged his resignation as Commissioner and pointed out, in a tone he found offensive, that they would have considered it their duty to dismiss him anyway, had he not first agreed to resign.

  In brief, they had 10 charges:

  1 disregard of the instructions of the Court of Directors, especially as to the stores and accounts

  2 absence from the settlement without sufficient cause

  3 ruinous expenditure, for want of proper measures for procuring supplies

  4 long detention of ships in harbour … breaking up crews, as with that of the Lord Duncan, and withdrawing parties from ships for the purpose of establishing them on shore

  5 allowing parties to incur debts to the Company

  6 wasteful and reckless expenditure of stores, as instanced by no account of rations having been kept; and indifferent care of the Company’s property

  7 conveying erroneous information respecting soil, climate, productions, &c.

  8 constant vacillation of purpose

  9 challenging and questioning the Special Commissioners’ authority

  10 justifying every act complained of.

  They warned that ‘to the above category may yet probably be added further details of your mismanagement, incompetency, and disobedience of positive instructions’, and their letter ended: ‘As the above-named facts are patent and irrefutable, we must decline to enter into any discussion or correspondence respecting them, the more especially as our time here is too valuable to be so employed.’

  Enderby Island’s columnar basalt cliffs. Beyond them is the flat interior of the island and distant Sandy Bay; the open grassland behind it was used by the settlement’s families for rest and recreation.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  The Downs Crisis

  Enderby reacted to Dundas and Preston’s charges with injury, scorn, bewilderment and indignation.1 Concerning the first charge of ‘Disregard of instructions of the Court of Directors, especially as to the stores and accounts’, he had complete faith in Goodger and Munce’s integrity and reliability, and the Commissioners had already said they were satisfied with any changes Munce had thought necessary.2 With regard to the stores, the warehouse was also the shop, where a variety of small articles taking up valuable space had to be constantly accessible; so larger items that were not likely to be harmed by the weather, such as timber, iron, bricks, grindstones and ploughs, had to be kept outside.

  The second charge of ‘Absence from the settlement without sufficient cause’ was totally unjustified.3 On both occasions he had been fully occupied with official business, building good relations with New Zealand and New South Wales, organising supplies of every sort, and recruiting men and whaling crews. He had always briefed Mackworth, so the administration had never suffered.

  The third charge of ‘Ruinous expenditure, for want of proper measures for procuring supplies’ seemed hard to distinguish from the first, leading him to comment later that the charges were vague and ill defined.4

  As to the fourth charge of ‘Long detention of ships in harbour – breaking up crews, as with that of the Lord Duncan, and withdrawing parties from ships for the purpose of establishing them on shore’ – he had always been keen to get ships away whaling, and crew changes were always carried out in consultation with the ships’ masters. What was more, it was the Special Commissioners who had prevented the Earl of Hardwicke from sailing, for no apparent reason other than to assert their authority, and make the directors back in London ‘believe they had been most active’.5 Sending the Lord Duncan’s oiling gang to Macquarie Island could yet prove a lucrative move, as it had been with the Amazon. And if ‘withdrawing parties from ships to establish them on shore’ referred to his appointment of George Cook as ships’ husband, this had been done to ensure the efficient administration, supply and turnaround of ships in port.

  As to the fifth charge of ‘Allowing parties to incur debts to the Company’ he had never allowed anyone to incur such debts.

  The sixth charge was ‘Wasteful expenditure of stores, as instanced by no account of rations having been kept; and indifferent care of the Company’s property.’ Wasteful expenditure presumably applied to the spirits he had destroyed, which the Special Commissioners had charged to his debit. But this was done ‘in respect to cases of intoxication which had led to insubordination and crime – [it] had the desired effect, for the
men returned to their duty’.6 As to ‘no account of rations having been kept’, supplies had always been husbanded because of the settlement’s isolation, and no complaint had been made by Dundas and Preston against the storekeeper.7

  Enderby’s initial reaction to the seventh charge of ‘Conveying erroneous information respecting soil, climate, productions, &c.’ had been merely to state that ‘No. 7 is wholly untrue.’8 He stubbornly refused to admit he might have been wrong in his early assessments of soil, climate and land resources, and later qualified his ‘wholly untrue’ reaction by pointing out that ‘We had only one season’s experience in cultivation, by no means sufficient to ascertain the peculiarities of either the soil or climate at the Auckland Islands.’9 He seemed to have forgotten his claim that the soil was ‘every where rich beyond description’.10

  The final three charges of ‘Constant vacillation of purpose’, ‘Challenging and questioning the Special Commissioners’ authority’, and ‘Justifying every act complained of’, he lumped together, as ‘containing opinions without any tangible point’ – perhaps conveniently forgetting his tendency to reverse his own and magistrates’ judgements. He concluded: ‘The whole shews the animus of the Special Commissioners, who insinuated that I had other objects in view opposed to the interest of the Company. [But] my interest was with the success of the company – I had a reputation to uphold, [and had] taken infinite trouble, in the formation of the Company, to which I had gratuitously made over a whaling station.’11 Finally, he pointed out that ‘the Directors … must have been satisfied of my peculiar fitness or they would never have intrusted me with such important powers.’12

  Dundas and Preston had arrived