Before the anchor had even touched bottom, a launch was pushed away from the schooner and rowing madly towards the French fishing vessel working the waters of Noddy Bay, where France still retained some rights to the Newfoundland coast after the French and Indian War.As the little shuttle approached, an English officer seated precariously on the bow raised a copper speaking-trumpet to his mouth and excitedly called out to the crewmen now gathering at the rail.
“Have you a surgeon aboard?!”
It was another hour before the surgeon stepped over the gunnel of the HMS Grenville. A crowd of sailors surrounded him and rushed him below towards the captain’s cabin. “His powder horn exploded,” they repeatedly told him.
As the doctor opened the door, he was greeted with moans of agony. A man lay drenched in sweat, all color gone from his face. He was being held down by the First Mate and his right arm was stretched out over the edge of the bed. It was wrapped in a crimson-stained sheet that was still dripping into a wooden bucket.
The doctor knelt by the arm and slowly peeled away the wrapping until a hand was revealed. A giant gash was ripped open at the base of the forefinger that stretched nearly to the wrist; the thumb dangled by a tendon.
“I think I can save it,” he told the Mate, “but the scarring will be terrific...”
Fifteen years later, on February 20th, 1779, a small boat was launched from an English vessel and rowed into another remote bay; this one in the Sandwich Islands. There it retrieved a small bag, full of body parts.
It was in this way that the dismembered body of the slain Captain James Cook was identified. By the scar on his right hand.
4 comments:
Should have said this awhile ago - this is one of the most interesting blogs I've ever come across. :)
While looking over your reading interests I was reminded of writers I haven't read for quite some time and should be revisited, like Malachi Martin and William Carroll.
By the way, Blue Latitudes by Tony Horwitz is a great read if you like writing on travel and exploration and are interested in Captain Cook, I really enjoyed it.
Thanks Charles, nice words coming from someone whose blog I'd say the same about (I think I did, no? LOL)
I'll look up Blue Latitudes tonight.
Yes you did! Thank you. Your comment went unnoticed for awhile because it was to an older post. I noticed it when I went back to listen to that Junior Brown song. If blogger provides a way to know a comment has been made, I don't know what it is.
That's one of the reasons I use the comment moderation, but unfortunately it still doesn't tell you which post the comment goes to. Sometimes I have to really search in order to find an unspecific comment made.
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