MEMORIES
The things time does not take away
Some memories remain long after the sails have been furled and the crew has gone their separate ways. A moment on deck, a familiar voice, a difficult passage or a quiet evening at sea can become part of a person’s life forever.
This collection is a place for personal recollections, reflections and moments connected with Bounty and the people whose lives crossed hers. These are individual memories, preserved in the words of those who experienced them.
Each memory offers another glimpse into the life of the ship.
They say "truth is stranger than fiction"; my Dad's sister, Lorna, married Richard Snell, who was from Norfolk Island. After spending a year in Bounty, I sailed there in 1990 in the brigantine Søren Larsen. Dad had suggested I look up Richard's brother, Hess Snell, who still lived on the island. When we anchored off Kingston I asked the customs officials to send Hess a message, and he came out in a boat to see me later that day. I invited him aboard, but we were rolling so heavily he responded to that invitation with a look of utter horror - and said he would meet me ashore the next day.
So, I went ashore, and he showed me around the island. After a look at Kingston, he took me to the nearby cemetery, where there were graves from many of his ancestors. He started pointing them out. The names were familiar to me; Christian, Adams, Quintal, McCoy etc. I was astonished. These were the names of the mutineers of the Bounty. Although I had already spent a year sailing in the 1978 replica, I had never heard of this family connection until now. Hess explained to me that the Snells were an American whaling family that settled on Norfolk Island around the same time the descendents of the mutineers were moved there from Pitcairn Island in 1856. The Snells intermarried with all the descendents of the mutineers.
Some years later I was visiting Uncle Richard and Aunty Lorna in Bega (on the south coast of New South Wales) and was sitting across the table from Richard. He was starting to go a little bald, and was leaning back in his chair - when I suddenly realised that he was almost the splitting image - and striking exactly the same pose - as an etching I had seen of John Adams, the last surviving mutineer. Richard had a slightly darker, swarthy look, from his partly Tahitian heritage, but the resemblance was striking.
When I sailed to Twofold Bay in Bounty in 1997 (which is not far from Bega) I invited Richard to visit the ship. I also invited the local press, the Eden Magnet, down to meet him, and they published a story on Richard's Bounty connection.
James Parbery
THE MAN ACROSS THE TABLE
James Parbery — A family connection, a portrait and an unexpected discovery.