‘The man I would recommend — and fearing today’s decision, I have already taken the liberty of speaking to him on your behalf — is Arthur Collins. You will not, I think, find a more able advocate of your cause in the whole of the West of England. He was called to the bar at Gray’s Inn twenty-four years ago and has been a Queen’s Counsel these last seven years and the recorder of Exeter the last five.’ He smiled. ‘He has two other things to recommend him: he’s a West Countryman and a keen yachtsman.’
‘But the fees such an eminent gentleman must command would be well beyond our reach.’
‘We shall see,’ Tilly said. ‘I know that moves are afoot to raise funds for your defence and Mr Collins is very eager to take the case. Meet him at least, and meanwhile we shall see what can be done to help meet your costs.’
‘And your own bill?’
‘A small matter and one that is far from pressing. The good folk of Falmouth have already contributed a part of it. We will talk of it in good time. Let us first concentrate our minds on securing your acquittal.’
Tom again felt tears welling in his eyes. ‘Mr Tilly, all three—’ He checked himself. ‘Stephens and I are more grateful to you than I can say. You have worked hard in our cause and it is through no failing of yours that we are not already free men.’
Tilly gestured with his hand as if to brush away Tom’s words. ‘I shall forward all the papers on the case to Arthur Collins. He has chambers in London and I shall instruct his clerk to arrange an appointment there later this week, if that is convenient?
‘Then I shall bid you good-day and good luck, Captain Dudley. I trust this business will soon be behind you and please do me the honour of calling on me when next you put into Falmouth.’ He shook Tom’s hand and walked away.
The late conclusion to the court proceedings meant that both Tom and Stephens had to spend the night in Falmouth and leave for home the next morning. Stephens returned to Southampton by boat after being offered free passage home on the Lady Wodehouse by J. E. le Feuvre, another Southampton magistrate and a prominent member of Stephens’s masonic lodge.
Tom left Falmouth on the first train the next morning. Despite the early hour, Cheesman was again there to see him off. Tom spent the night at home in Sutton, then travelled up to Tollesbury to see his sister. His father remained on his ship in the Americas, though he would almost certainly have heard of Tom’s plight from reports in the American newspapers.
Chapter 17
Tom’s financial situation was every bit as desperate as he had painted it to Tilly. The Newtown School Board had already told Philippa that she would be obliged to resign her post as mistress if he was committed for trial. The Dudleys now faced a rapidly rising legal bill with no income other than sporadic hardship grants from Andrew Thompson’s Thames Yacht Agency.
The following week, Thompson wrote to The Times, announcing a public subscription to defray the expenses of the men’s defence, pointing out that they were unable to earn their living while facing court proceedings and were unable to meet the costs.
At first Tom had refused to consider the idea, but the entreaties of his wife and the parlous state of his finances eventually persuaded him to accept, on the condition that any money over and above the cost of the defence should be used to pay for the education of Richard Parker’s sister Edith.
Financial aid also began to arrive from other sources. Broadsheet ballads were published and sold on the streets to raise funds and several yacht clubs also launched appeals and took collections for Tom and Stephens.
The Mignonette’s dinghy was still in Mr Buckingham’s warehouse at Upton Slip and the Falmouth News Slip urged readers to ‘see the Boat of the Yacht Mignonette at Buckingham’s and leave some coppers for the men’.
The Falmouth & Penryn Weekly Times also enlisted the support of its readers:
It appears that the seamen castaways are destitute and our friend Mr John Buckingham who has charge of the boat is prepared to show her to all people who will pay a small contribution for the benefit of these unfortunate men.
We are further gratified to find that Mr R. D. Patterson, a great New Zealand showman, will give a benefit night on Wednesday next at the Polytechnic Hall, so that the inhabitants of Falmouth will have an opportunity of showing their practical sympathy for distress, for which Falmouth has always been justly renowned. We have no doubt that an assembly of sympathizers will be present at the hall waiting to give ovation in the remembrance of the deliverance of these men whose sufferings are almost without a parallel and whose fortitude belongs to the men of the sea.
Mr Patterson’s attraction was a ‘Grand Diorama’ containing fifty scenes of New Zealand life on a canvas two thousand yards long. The paper later revealed that the benefit night ‘has resulted in a handsome donation for the benefit of the sufferers of the Mignonette’.
Another West Country paper reported:
The small mahogany boat in which the men were drifting is still at Falmouth and during the last day or two has been visited by hundred of persons including many experienced mariners, all of whom expressed the greatest surprise that so many men could have existed at all in so frail a craft tossed about on the stormy billows, and how they could have lived at all in such weather as Captain Dudley and his companions experienced.
The boat has been very minutely examined but no traces of blood are discoverable. There are plenty of indications however that the boat was sadly knocked about. The public feeling at Falmouth and indeed throughout the rest of England is one of deep sympathy for the unhappy men.
Jack Want, the Mignonette’s owner in Sydney, also sent a donation to the defence fund. Although unable to forward the report he had prepared, which had been impounded as evidence, Tom had written to him outlining the events and hinting at some suitable reward for Captain Simonsen.
We were able to tell Captain Simonsen our sad tale but not before himself learning a little by his crew having the remainder of the body to throw out of the boat. I begged him to save the boat for me and am thankful he did so.
We were on board Moctezuma 38 days during the passage to Falmouth during which time Captain Simonsen gave us every possible attention. We were nothing but skin and bone at the time we came on board, but thanks to the treatment and kindness we received from that gentleman, we all have him to thank so much for recovering so far to our general health and the kindness we received, no words can express. Nothing we could ever do and give could repay him for past kindness. However I trust something may be done to keep him in remembrance of the poor souls he saved.
In addition to sending Simonsen a token of his appreciation, Want also sent Tom the hundred pounds he would have received had the Mignonette been safely delivered to Sydney. Want had the yacht insured for more than he had paid for it and was not out of pocket by the gesture, but it was still a generous act.
Tom and Stephens also sought to take the first steps towards earning their own living again by applying for the renewal of their Board of Trade certificates of competence. They had been lost with the Mignonette and without them they could find employment on a ship only as ordinary seamen.
Two Board of Trade officials approved the request, noting on the file, ‘I suppose they should have them,’ and ‘I see no reason for withholding them,’ but the request was referred to the Home Office for a final decision,