H.M.S Dreadful- part the third.

Citizen Thomas Cock (left) and Citizen Rowley Rowley (centre).

The story of H.M.S Dreadful: A month after setting sail from Tamba- Tamba Jeffries and his men were intercepted by a French squadron. Dreadful was sunk by a broadside. Bould was the only survivor. He spent ten years as a prisoner in Guadeloupe. He escaped and made his way to the United States. He was granted a Royal Pardon in 1798 and returned to Portsmouth the following year. He lived to the age of 96 in quiet retirement in Bath Spa.

Cock and his followers set about creating their Utopia. Class distinctions were broken down. Cock dressed as a common sailor and everyone bore the title 'Citizen'. On September 1st 1777 the first Council was formed.
The derelict Tome- Tome village of the Portuguese was restored and named Cocktown. The population of the island at the foundation of the first council stood at 18 Citizens , 12 women, 4 'blacks' (sic)- (the language of the day was indelicate by modern standards-this is the first reference to these people, and historians assume that they came with the crew from some other part of the archipelago).
Private property was abolished and the society was based on the primitive communism that the men had observed on Wessel's Island.

The Tiger Woods

Despite never being a major tourist destination over the years Tamba - Tamba has received many distinguished visitors.
This year we were pleased to welcome the champion golfer Mr The Tiger Woods.
The Tiger needed to get away from the spotlight for a few weeks, and got in some valuable practice with our local pro John Cox over at the Plantation Nine.

The Plantation Nine.

John Cox.

'He's not much of a drinker. Shit hot player though' said John fondly 'he got whacked on the noggin by his missus, he's been sleeping with hookers and stuff. Good bloke though, great swing...'

During his stay The Tiger displayed impressive modesty. Instead of staying at The May 15th International Hotel he was happy to stay in the boarding house of Mrs. Rowley.

Mrs. Rowley.

H.M.S Dreadful- part the second.

Lieutenant Summers was at first a competent and respected leader. His popularity, however, was eroded by the uncertainty over the future. Return to Britain or any of its possessions was out of the question, but they couldn't simply sail around for ever hoping to evade capture and retribution.
H.M.S Dreadful landed at Tome- Tome on May 15th 1777. Now, for the first time the men were faced with the option of forming their own settlement.
Of the original 71 mutineers only 50 now remained, disease, malnutrition and desertion having accounted for the others. There were new additions however, in the form of 20 or so women who the crew had picked up from Wessel's Island at the northernmost end of the archipelago. Within a week of their arrival at Tome- Tome the first signs of the notorious Island Malaise that had so badly effected the earlier Portuguese settlement began to appear amongst the crew. By June 20th there had been 30 fatalities, including Lieutenant Summers and a number of the women.Two factions now formed.

Mister Jeffries

Mister Jeffries, the First Mate, was in favour of remaining at sea and petitioning the crown for a pardon.

Midshipman Cock

Midshipman Cock, on the other hand, wanted to found a settlement on Tome- Tome based on libertarian principles. He put forward a convincing case for the sustainability of such a project. The land, he noted, was fertile and the fishing was good.
Two accounts remain of the parting of the ways- Cocks' report, written years later, is very damning of Jeffries' motives, saying that he was 'hellbent on pursuing a career in piracy'. A more balanced account came from Midshipman Bould, who reluctantly sided with Jeffries in the hope of somehow returning to England. Bould eventually achieved his aim 22 years later, and was the sole participant in the mutiny to be granted a Royal Pardon (1798).

Citizen Thomas Cock (left) and his Council.

Eventually after much debate and one minor skirmish (described by Bould as 'little more than an ale-house brawl...') Jeffries put to sea with a skeleton crew of 20 supporters. Cock and those loyal to him ( including the women) remained. Tamba- Tamba had come into being...

H.M.S Dreadful- part the first.

Following the Portuguese abandonment of Tome- Tome in 1689 there was very little activity on the island. It was an occasional stopping off point for shipping, but there were no permanent inhabitants.
Early in 1776 H.M.S Dreadful, a three masted bark mounted with twelve light 6-pounder guns and twelve swivel guns, was sent on a mission to survey the coast of Chile.
For this fateful voyage The Dreadful was manned by 83, (71 ship's company,12 Royal Marines) and also carried 5 civilians.
The captain, Harvey Stokes R.N, was a notoriously ineffectual man who was inconsistent in his approach to discipline, protocol and the day to day running of the ship and was reportedly prone to mood swings and periods of high excitement.
Stokes baulked at the prospect of rounding Cape Horn, and took the ship on a futile three month circuit of the South Atlantic before turning East.

Capt. Stokes

The crew had by now lost faith in his leadership, and proposed to mutiny and replace him with the popular Lieutenant Summers. The final straw came when Stokes insisted on the daily craft group being held even in the most exacting circumstances. The sailors resented the enforced basket weaving and knitting, and the marines were sympathetic to their cause. Stokes and a dozen sympathisers were set down in an open boat. Remarkably Stokes and three other survivors reached Dahomey 3 months later, only to become prisoners of the Sultan for a further few months.
The Dreadful was presumed lost, but in fact had undertaken a remarkable voyage, finally reaching Tome- Tome six months later.
Tome- Tome would have been known to some of those on board, as ships of the line often stopped there to stock up on fresh water, turtles and other provisions.
It was only on arrival at Tamba- Tamba (as the island was known in the argot of the British sailors) that the real drama began to unfold.

The Hargreaves Bandicoot

Unsurprisingly many of the species of animals on the archipelago are named after Hargreaves, the ground breaking naturalist who catalogued these animals in his revolutionary work on evolution.
Probably the best known of the animals native to Tamba- Tamba is the Hargreaves Bandicoot (Microperoryctes Hargreavsia). It featured on the pre- revolutionary coat of arms, and is as much of a national symbol as the kangaroo is to Australia.
Incredibly, the Hargie as it is affectionately known, was almost hunted to extinction, largely due to the traditional Easter culls that dated back to the earliest settlements.
These culls developed into highly effective sporting events during which thousands of Hargies would be bagged.

Thankfully the practice was outlawed after the revolution and the Hargreaves Bandicoot now thrives on the island once more.

The Hargie cull circa 1910...

The Easter Cull of 1963.

Pigafetta's Map

Although Pigafetta's map is very rudimentary he has captured the shape of Long Tamba and Round Tamba quite convincingly. As you can see he has depicted the customary rough seas and the two prominent peaks, as well as the reef off the north coast and the spring on what is now the site of Cock's Plantation.

Tamba- Tamba timeline...

Briefly, here are some key dates and events in the history of Tamba- Tamba.
We will look at some of these important events at greater length in the future...

1525- The Archipelago is depicted in Antonio Pigafetta's Primo Viaggio Interno al Globo Terraqueo
1615- Caetano do Tristao claims the island for Portugal and names it Tome- Tome.
1630- Dutch settlement of the northern chain of the Archipelago.
1688- The Dutch abandon the Archipelago.
1689- The Portuguese abandon Tome- Tome.
1777- Mutinous sailors from HMS Dreadful settle on the island. After initial infighting midshipman Thomas Cock emerges as the dominant figure. The abandoned Tome- Tome village is resettled and is named Cocktown.
1794- In the face of harassment from the French, Tamba- Tamba allies itself with the British Empire.
1800- The Slave Rebellion.
1828- Sir Hugh Horton Hargreaves spends a year in the Archipelago studying the fauna. The publication of his Theory of Selective Evolution leads to his incarceration in Bedlam.
1854- The San Luisitano incident which leads to British interest in Tamba- Tamba ending. Cocktown renamed Palmerston, foundation of the Rajah Dynasty of Tamba- Tamba, Sir Brougham Sleight assumes the title of Brougham Kakoy.
1941- German U-boat U45 docks in Palmerston, which is otherwise unaffected by the war.
1959- Volcano erupts on Round Tamba.
1979- The Revolution of May 15th.
1983- The US blockade of Tamba- Tamba.
1984- Palmerston man Johnson Cox unofficially beats the mens' 100 metres world record.
1999- Visit of Dalai Lama.
2009- Visit of Sir Elton John.

Caetano do Tristao

Although the islands were known to the earliest explorers they remained uninhabited until 1615.
Caetano do Tristao, a Portuguese sardine trader, spent three months on the island when his carrack, the Sao Paulo , ran aground in a storm.
During the time it took them to repair their vessel Tristao and his company of twelve found the island most hospitable, with an abundance of fruit, nuts and birds.Consequently Tristao claimed the island for Portugal, naming it Tome- Tome. This was a rather frivolous name as it referred to the plaintive call of the now extinct Hargreaves Hornbill.

Welcome

Tamba- Tamba ( The Peoples Republic of Tamba - Tamba) is an island in the Hargreaves Archipelago.
Long Tamba is 163.6 km², the smallest of the inhabited Hargreaves Islands. In 2010 the population stood at 4,888.