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| December
4th, 1873
Table Bay
Since I last wrote from Simon's Bay, a good deal has been done to
the ship; has been newly rigged throughout, caulked inside & out,
& fresh painted. We have also filled up with 6 months provisions,,
coaled, & c, & fitted up stoves in all parts of the ship against
cold weather. As soon as we get to sea, each man will have issued
to him gratuitously—1 Pea Jacket, 1 pr Pilot Trousers, 1 pr
Mitts, & 1 pr Flannel Drawers. |
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Challenger visits Table Bay and Cape Town after
all, 60 miles from Simon's Town. Some development underway there provides
alternative opportunities for crewmembers, some of whom take advantage
thereof; this leads Matkin to describe the crew's growing dissatisfaction
in this letter home:
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is a Breakwater under construction being made by convicts & prisoners;
4 or 5 of our Seamen are working on it, who preferred going to Gaol
(jail) for a month, & afterwards to a fresh ship, instead of going
further in the Challenger, 5 or 7 have gone to Hospital, and 3 have
deserted to the Diamond Fields, but we shall fill up from the Guard
Ship before leaving. Many will desert in Australia & New Zealand,
as the men are very dissatisfied at not getting extra pay for this
cold weather trip, & the work is so much harder for every one, than
in an ordinary man of war, when the ship is in harbour six months
at a time. Men who were in this ship last commission say she used
to lie in Sydney for months at a time, & was a very happy ship then,
but now when we go in harbour it's to refit, coal, or provision,
& the men get scarcely any leave. Several of the Officers are great
bullies, the most popular of the lot is Lord Campbell.
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Sub-lieutenant Lord George Campbell was the youngest son
of the eighth duke of Argyll, and was noted for his sardonic sense of
humor. He published Log-Letters from the Challenger in
1877
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