NAVY NEWS, JULY 2007 47
Keeping an eye
More than
just a hat...
THE title isn’t a joke. Christian
Lamb, who put together this very
jolly book of Wrens’ stories from
the WW2 – I Only Joined for the
on Captain Bligh
Hat (Bene Factum, £9.99 ISBN
978-1-903071-15-1) really did
choose the service for its splendid
tricorne hat.
But the rather self-deprecating
title sums up these women and
the modest way they approached
their war work. No matter what
skills they acquired (some ended
up training submariners on the
THANKS to Charles
Perisher course, for instance)
Laughton and Hollywood,
The Grove Review
or how crucial their jobs to
the country’s ultimate victory,
and despite the much bet-
there is very little sense of self-
ter, more recent feature importance.
fi lm about the Mutiny on
Of course, expectations then
Professor Roy Schreiber, one of Assistant reluctantly sailed
the Bounty, Vice Admiral
were different; women were not
Bligh’s modern biographers. off westwards in the
brought up to boast about their
of the Blue William Bligh
The text is illustrated middle of July.
careers. Most only wanted to “do
is still thought of nowa-
by original drawings They were
their bit,” whatever it entailed,
by Tobin, who, like fully laden with
days as the model of the
and free a man for the Fleet.
many offi cers of his presents and
tyrannical offi cer of the
All the same, many took on
generation, was provisions and
highly-challenging and diffi cult
old, cruel Royal Navy.
a competent there was genuine
jobs, the most famous of course
The attempts begun by the family
artist. sadness on both
being the Bletchley Park women,
of Fletcher Christian to blacken
Lt Tobin, in sides at the parting.
whom Churchill famously called
Bligh’s name have generally been
his fi rst ship in his Bligh had an excellent
the geese who laid the golden egg
more successful than those of less-
new rank to which he relationship with the King
without a cackle.
biased historians who proclaim
was promoted in 1790, Regent Pomare and his court,
On that note, one can’t help
Bligh’s many virtues, writes Dr Eric
comes over as an observant, who all spent a last night on
Grove, Professor of Naval History at
thoughtful and pleasant young board HMS Providence.
but smile at Daphne Baker’s
Salford University.
man with an eye for detail in his As Tobin put it: “The parting suspicion, but they had passed
remark. A Wren who worked
Another attempt to set the
observations of the places Bligh’s between Captain Bligh and his some months at a South Sea
in intelligence, she recalls how
record straight is the belated
expedition visited. friends was kind and affectionate. Island and in the full swing of
off-putting she found pompous
publication (after 210 years!) of
Having picked up a party of They separated in the heart-felt its indulgencies. They might
(male) naval offi cers at parties
a fi rst-hand account of Bligh’s
Marines at Sheerness (a prudent conviction of having no want of possibly look back to them.
who would say grandly: “Don’t
second, more successful, voyage
security measure given earlier harmony and good will to reproach “All however went on
ask me what I do.”
to Tahiti to carry breadfruit to
events) Providence and her themselves with.” right in the Providence, nor
What shines through this
Jamaica to feed the slaves.
consort sailed from Spithead on Having taken the royal family could any crew, as well as that
collection of memories and letters
Captain Bligh’s Second
August 2 1791. ashore, Tobin was again plied with of her Assistant, have conducted
● The image of Bligh which
is the redoubtable spirit of these
Chance
Stopping at the Canaries to stock fi nal presents. “Captain Bligh themselves better throughout the
has bedevilled historians... A
women, who braved all sorts of
(Chatham, £19.99
up with wine, the two ships were was anxiously waiting our return, whole expedition.”
poster for the 1930s Hollywood
hardships with the greatest of
ISBN 978-1-86176-280-1) took
at Cape Town (still owned by the which made my farewell interview Tobin says not a word against
depiction of the infamous captain
good humour.
place in 1791-93 and involved
Dutch) by November from where with these happy islanders, but Bligh, whom he compliments as
and (above left) a portrait of the
Many found themselves mixing
a new Blackwall-built West
they sailed eastwards across the short, yet it was so distressing a being “so prompt at every kind of
then admiral in later life
with women from completely
Indiaman commissioned as HMS
Indian Ocean to Tasmania which one, I was glad to hurry from the nautic science”.
different backgrounds for the fi rst
Providence accompanied by a brig,
they reached in late February. scene.” He even glosses over Bligh’s The generous Tobin seems to
time in their lives. The author
appropriately named Assistant.
The ships arrived at Tahiti in The local leaders had reason disapproval of an incident in have recognised, as some others
was an admiral’s daughter, and
Bligh, who had only been a
April where they were given a very to be kind to their British visitors. the Torres Straits where Tobin did not, that Bligh’s hot temper
entered the Service with the help
lieutenant in Bounty, was now a
warm welcome by the locals. During his farewell Pomare used musketry to drive off local and remarkable command of the
of a good reference from a colonel
full captain and the Admiralty,
Tobin clearly liked the people of managed to procure another canoes who were acting in a most English language were far from
who played bridge with her
leaning the lesson of the previous
Tahiti, whose society was only in musket from his friend Bligh to threatening manner to the cutter being the whole story of a complex
grandmother.
fi asco, gave him a proper crew
the early stages of being destroyed add to his small but signifi cant under his command. and highly-able sea offi cer.
Jane Fawcett, who was 19, had
with three lieutenants, the third of
by contacts with the west. armoury. Within a few years these A few days later Assistant was The life that Tobin recounts of
come to Bletchley from Sadler’s
which was George Tobin.
The entire ship’s company was would help make him master of attacked and one man killed generally good food and drink,
Wells, where she trained as a
Tobin wrote down his
individually adopted by Tahitians, Tahiti and most of the islands and another injured by arrows. remarkable health for the period
ballet dancer under Ninette de
experiences which he put together
most of the sailors pairing off with nearby. Tobin felt vindicated that this and travel to exotic places with a
Valois; Joy Hale, a particularly
as a memoir while at sea a few years
local women whose society found On the way home it was clear incident had “brought a thorough highly accommodating population bright grammar school girl,
later, ostensibly for his brother
this perfectly acceptable, indeed that the lesson of the Bounty had conviction” to Bligh’s mind “of makes life in the late 18th Century applied herself to her Morse code
James, but with wider publication desirable. been learned. As Tobin put it: the truly desperate people he had seem almost idyllic, especially and exams and became a CPO at
in mind. Laden with 780 large pots of “Shortly after quitting Tahiti, a to deal with in these straits and of when compared with that found in the age of 20.
It never appeared in its breadfruit, as well as 301 small warrant offi cer was added to each his good fortune in no loss having that period ashore. Most of the contributors are
author’s lifetime but has now pots, 35 tubs and 26 boxes of the watch, and, as well as for reefs and attended the boats while distantly The book is another nail in the now in the late 80s and Lamb
been produced by Chatham in an same, as well as many other local shoals, a vigilant eye was kept upon exploring a channel, on which coffi n of the old ‘black legend’ of writes how bereft she felt when
attractive edition, sympathetically plants of possible economic or just the crew. Not that their conduct hazardous service they were so poor food and harsh discipline she tried to contact some of them,
and intelligently edited by botanical interest Providence and created any particular degree of long employed.” – and under Captain Bligh too! only to fi nd they had died.
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