The Gifts of Frank Cobbold. Arthur W. Upfield

and the grim captain had won. By then, the carpenter had waited through almost two watches for the order that was never given.

      Afterwards, he told Cobbold that it was the worst storm he had ever experienced.

      Expecting to encounter ice at any time, the reliable Swedish sailmaker was entrusted with the keeping of the forecastle head watch during the long and dark nights. His broad figure would be pressed into the lee bulwark, his keen eyes constantly trying to pierce the gloom out of which might spring the ghostly shape of an iceberg. Conscious of his responsibility, he was worthy of it.

      One Sunday, when Francis Cobbold was about to go off watch, the weather was not particularly boisterous but a squall threatened and the Chief Officer sent the lad below to call the Captain. Birnie came on deck to look aloft, first at the sky and then at the full load of canvas that was driving the ship forward. In that instant, as though the sails were a passing cloud, the fore topmast and the fore top gallant mast and the main topmast all went overboard.

      The watch below were called, and the men then had to slave all that day to cut away the gear, to let the spars drift clear of the ship and then recover them. Being the youngest person aboard, Cobbold was listed with the night watch over the deck, during which he had to strike the ship's bell every two hours and call the cook at five o'clock.

      After this delay, affairs went well with the Ann Duthie until, shortly after having crossed the Line, a series of further squalls again brought down the repaired masts. Once again the crew had to slave for hours in cutting away the fouled gear and repairing the damage. From then on, the sea was kind to her and the weather remained fine. Off Dover, she was taken in tow in the company of the Donald McKay, a ship that had left Sydney the same day as the Ann Duthie.

      Thus ended Francis Cobbold's first voyage. And for the crew it was the boardinghouse keeper's cry: "Come in John - let Jack get out, for I see you're homeward bound!"

       10. Flyer advertising a voyage of the Ann Duthie from London to Sydney

      CHAPTER THREE

      1868 to 1869

       'Swallowing the Anchor'

      1.

      During the period the Ann Duthie was in the London docks discharging her cargo, being re-fitted, and taking in cargo for her second voyage to Sydney, Francis Cobbold spent an enjoyable holiday at his family home. His travels had partly drawn aside the curtain shutting off the far Southern World from the Old World, and what had been revealed to him provided food for reflection.

      Though still only 15 years old, the decision resulting from this reflection demonstrates that Francis Cobbold had inherited sound foresight as well as an ability to assimilate and profit by hard facts. The ambition with which he had first sailed in the Ann Duthie was based on what he had seen and learned when visiting his grandfather's ships. That fleet of ships belonged to one owner, when other owners possessed single ships. It had been young Cobbold's ambition to sail his own ship in trading ventures among the alluring islands of the South Sea at a time when it was only just becoming clear that opportunities for trade in that part of the world might be as great as they were in both India and China.

      At a much later date, private shopkeepers were to feel the keen competition of trading corporations and chain stores. In the same way, in 1868 private ship owners were feeling the competition of shipping lines owned by recently-formed joint stock companies. The lad saw this trend in ocean traffic and recognised its potential growth. Ships were becoming even larger, and already his grandfather's biggest ships were small in comparison with the newest ships launched from British slipways.

      The prospects of becoming an independent trader were rapidly dwindling, and there was nothing ahead of a ship's apprentice but the prospect of slowly rising to the position of a ship's captain - subservient to the will of an owner or a combination of owners. Beyond that a sea career went no further.

      Slow promotion and wretched pay lay ahead of the Ann Duthie's apprentice, who at that time would most certainly not have been able to envisage his advancement to the bridge of an Atlantic liner driven by steam turbines and owned by a joint stock company capitalised with millions of pounds. Steam at this time was regarded as an auxiliary to sail, and the most up-to- date mail and passenger liner running to Australia was the steamship Great Britain, an auxiliary vessel still relying mainly on sails for driving power.

      So when Francis Cobbold sailed again for Sydney, he was determined to leave his ship in Australia, though he refrained from telling his parents of this decision.

      2.

      On reaching Sydney, Francis Cobbold packed his kit and walked off the ship. There was nothing to hinder him. The owners of the Ann Duthie had, of course received the £60 for his apprenticeship and they could not hope to get anything further. If the lad chose not to complete the sea education they had contracted to give him, it was no concern of the ship owners, to whom further sums of sixty pounds were being offered by parents wishing to apprentice their sons. Also, at that time Australia was comparatively a free country, access to which was open to everyone. There was then no White Australia Policy, no immigration restrictions whatsoever, and ships' captains were not held responsible for their crews and faced with a heavy fine should a member of a crew elect to stay in the country. So many sailors left their ships to take part in the gold rushes, or take up more remunerative work ashore, that often homeward bound ships found difficulty in obtaining crew.

      From Sydney, the lad took passage to Melbourne in the Dandenong, a steam ship of about 500 tons. The cost of the passage was about thirty shillings, and the trip occupied six days or so.

      3.

      When he arrived in Melbourne, Francis Cobbold visited his sister, who had just recently come to Australia. She was the wife of Mr William Dickson, the founder of Dickson Brothers and Company, Importers of Flinders Lane. Cobbold accepted a position offered by his brother-in-law in the wholesale importing house - to enter commerce proved to be another decision which was to benefit him throughout his life thereafter.

      His sister was Sarah Jane Cobbold, born 24th March 1841, who came to Australia from South America and has married William Hill Dickson (c 1825-1876) in Colchester on 8th July 1869. The business was located at 23 Little Flinders Street, which was also known as Flinders Lane. Sarah married a second time in April 1877. Her husband was the Hon William Cain (1831-1914).

      His job at the warehouse was to enter into a journal the lines called out by the entry men. His fellow clerk at the same desk was the invoice clerk concerned with despatching invoices with outgoing goods. Their work was inter-dependent, and young Cobbold learned how to write quickly and legibly and accurately run up the pounds, shillings and pence columns simultaneously. Should there occur a discrepancy at the end of the day, they had to work back until it was discovered - naturally in the beginning there were many, for the entry man was constantly calling for more speed which meant higher proficiency or employment elsewhere. Cobbold came to owe a debt to a fellow clerk named Wingate, for Wingate gave him a good deal of assistance and encouragement.

      But it was not the type of work that appealed to him. Life on the Ann Duthie had roused the wanderlust in his soul, and very soon he was seeking an avenue of escape from the desk in the warehouse.

      Australia was in closer proximity to the islands of the South Sea than England was; it was then the jumping-off place for all those glamorous tropical countries just being opened up to unrestricted trade. The tales of fortunes won and to be won were rife and seemed more realistic than they had seemed at the other side of the world.

      The American Civil War had recently dragged to its conclusion. The price of cotton had risen to two shillings per pound, and through the commercial houses in Melbourne and Sydney went the tale that the Islands of Fiji were the coming place for anyone possessing spirit and enterprise to grow cotton.

      The Islands! The South Sea Islands were painted with the bright colours of romance, adventure and wealth far more then than today. Had not Tasman sailed those seas in search of islands