166 FIVE OF THE CREW DESERT. 



It is usual in port, during the night, to stand what 

 is called the " anchor watch," consisting of two men ; 

 the members of the crew, fore and aft, participating 

 in it. In this port, which was considered so out of 

 the way as to present no inducements for desertion, 

 to allow the officers the whole of the night undis- 

 turbed, the watches w^ere all imposed upon the boat- 

 steerers and foremast hands. On the night of the 

 22d, the watches were set as usual. Everything was 

 quiet until morning, when the whole of us were 

 aroused by the first officer awaking, and finding 

 nobody on deck, and the starboard boat gone, which 

 had been allowed to remain alongside. On mus- 

 tering all hands, five of the foremast men were 

 discovered to be araouo'st the missino;. Their names 

 were Joseph Riley, of Patterson, New Jersey ; Charles 

 W. Baylis, of Rochester, New York; Harvej- "W". 

 ]\Iiller, of Weymark, Weymouth Count}', Pennsyl- 

 vania ; John Roberts, an Englishman, and David 

 Jones, a Welshman. The three former had sailed 

 from the United States with us ; tlie two latter were 

 British convicts — Roberts, whom we shipped in 

 Vasse, and Jones, who had joined the ship at King 

 George's Sound. They had taken the boat, furnished 

 with oars and sails, and all the other furniture belong- 

 ing to her ; also a tub of tow-line and the ship's spy- 

 glass ; and from the appearance of our bread and 

 harness casks, had liberally supplied themselves with 

 provisions. The absence of any officer on deckaflbrded 

 them time to safely convey their clothes and bedding 

 oflF; and so equipped, they left us, in an obscure bay, 

 hundreds of miles from any settlement, on a stormy 

 coast, in an open whale-boat. No one ever expected 



