The mystery of the ‘Silver schooner’
Service at sea has always been closely associated with story telling: Accidents, amusement, drama, suspense and horror.
Today I came across a story that contained all these elements. The story of the ‘Silver schooner’ in Kleven, a small harbour just outside Mandal.
I had been stranded in Mandal because we decided yesterday to expend a day of waiting on a bus trip to the nearest large town. And then back to Lindesnes to visit the lighthouse at the southernmost point of Norway.
When the bus arrived at Mandal, I decided to go my own ways. With the prospect of six weeks in the company of 64 doughty sea stallions and sea mares, there seemed to be no reason to be rubbing thighs with each other on a day off.
Coffee, cake and a good book. The rain was pouring down. It had been doing this more or less all the time since we passed Kulhuse in Roskilde Fiord so I had got used to it by now. But when the rain finally began to look more like the Flood in the bible than a summer shower, I decided to seek shelter in the Merchant’s House Hotel, which has an inviting café in the basement. Armed with a cup of coffee and a cake, I settled down in a basket chair and stretched out more or less at random to pick up a book from the piano behind me.
In advance I expected that the book would tell me some sleep-inducing local cock-and-bull stories but in no time I had become absorbed in it...so the four hours in Mandal simply flew by.
On 13. August 1816 the fore-and-aft schooner ‘Platzburg’ put in at Kleven Harbour just east of Mandal.
‘Platzburg’ came from Baltimore, USA. With the hold full of coffee the ship was on its way to Bremen but it put in unexpectedly at Kleven to have a repair done. The town authorities noticed nothing suspicious about the ship, its papers or the crew.
On account of the necessary repair-work Captain Hacquet asked permission to sell the cargo of coffee in Mandal. The captain could produce a letter from the shipowners giving permission to sell in other harbours. Hacquet also said that out in the North Sea he had been hailed by another ship. The captain on this ship had told him that coffee prices were low in Bremen at the moment.
Hacquet received permission and sold the coffee cheap in Mandal from a stall at the harbour. Mandal was soon swamped in cheap coffee, although this was usually very expensive: 33 shilllings per pound. Not quite so officially the captain and his crew were now earning more money by smuggling. At least 25 of the local inhabitants let themselves become involved in these shady transactions.
There were silver coins everywhere. Something or other seemed wrong, however. The crew of ‘Platzburg’ had a remarkably careless attitude to piastres, Spanish silver coins.
The natives were quite willing to accept the silver coins...that was not so much the problem. The careless attitude to the valuable coins, however, attracted attention. A plate of fish was paid for with a silver dollar. So was a glass of beer, a dram or a cup of coffee. And the crew never asked for any change.
Suspicion was aroused in earnest among the local merchants when all the ships in the harbour set out with a favourable wind from the east...all except ‘Platzburg’, which had been given the nickname the ‘Silver schooner’. According to the book the crew sensed the suspicions of the local population and began to build the sacks of silver coins in behind the walls of the house where they had taken up their quarters.
“They’re the scum of the earth"
The consul in the town went to see Captain Hacquet. He explained that his crew were really just the scum of the earth and had got hold of a lot of money by engaging in some doubtful transactions. He complained that he had not any control at all over the men.
He had, however, got rid of three men, who had signed on to sail with a ship to Denmark. He said that they had taken an indispensable document with them and asked Consul Gjertsen for help to go to Denmark to get hold of the scoundrels.
On 22. August, however, the American consul Isaachsen in Kristiansand came to Mandal to attend to the interests of the owners of ‘Platzburg’. He had a meeting with Consul Gjertsen and Captain Hacquet.
Isaachsen found it difficult to believe Captain Hacquet, althought he really couldn’t point to errors in the ship’s papers. Isaachsen did not allow his suspicions to rest, however. Back in Kristiansand he decided to have the captain arrested. Too late! Hacquet was namely on his way to Denmark. Helped on his way by Consul Gjertsen in Mandal.
Mutiny on ‘Platzburg’
Here the matter came to a turning point. The three seamen who had sailed to Denmark were arrested in Copenhagen without papers. In the course of the police enquiry they revealed what had really taken place on board ‘Platzburg’ before the ship came to Norway.
The crew knew that the barrels in the hold contained silver and gold. 42,000 piastres in all. The seamen descided to kill the captain and two officers. And take control of the ship.
When the ship was near the Azores, the wind blew op from the south-west. The sails were taken in.
The lookout man gave the signal for a broken stay. One of the officers ran forward in the ship and leant over the edge to examine the damage. At that very moment two of the seamen toppled him overboard. After that all the men stormed astern with axes, marlinespikes and bowie knives. “We have come to kill you”. The captain fled all around the ship and sought refuge with the helmsman but he kicked the captain forward and he was knocked unconscious and thrown overboard.
At last the crew went to the cabin of the other officer, who was lying in his bunk because of seasickness. “In the name of the Blessed Virgin Mary, what do you want here?”, shouted the officer, “Oh, we have just come to kill you. We need the silver”, replied the seamen.
Without a navigator the mutineers steered northward and after a couple of weeks they passed Shetland. They were short of water and put in at a bay and were told by a fisherman where they were. They dared not stay in an area under British control and having got hold of supplies, they put to sea again towards the north-east.
A sleeping potion in the wine
On the evening of the fourth day they came to a mountainous country. They sailed boldly into a fiord but could not find anchorage so put out to sea again – convinced that there might be bears and wolves here. They therefore made southwards. At last they felt sure that they could here lead a life in peace and quiet and they put in to Lindesnes with the pilot flag at the mast.
The leader, who pretended to be the captain, was actually called Stürmer. He had very skilfully doctored the ship’s papers. The authorities had accepted the papers as genuine and they had not demanded to see the crew list.
The mutineers were thorough and gradually allowed themselves to get involved in smuggling. This had taken place even though there had been 4 or 5 visits from customs officers. Stürmer had namely but a sleeping potion in the wine that he served lavishly to men in authority when they came on board ship.
It was not until the three seamen deserted from the ship after a quarrel with Stürmer that he and the rest of the crew became nervous and took flight.
According to the book on the piano in the Merchant’s House Hotel, the whole of the crew was imprisoned and condemned to death in Baltimore. Betrayed by the Spanish silver dollars, wherever it was the mutineers actually came from.