Ships and Mariners: 19th c Cape and Natal 12 Bell Caithness

At the Cape two children had been added to the Bell family: a daughter, Ellen Harriet, born in May 1846 and named for the child lost two years before, and a son James Colquhoun born in Cape Town on 28 December 1847. The celebrations were scarcely over when James Ramsey Caithness’s brig the Lady Leith was wrecked on Thunderbolt Reef on 27 February 1848. Her remains were sold at auction.*

In September 1847 and February 1849 Bell appears as Master of the schooner Louisa, previously one of the ships sailed by H G Caithness, the disappearing mariner husband of Pamela Halt Okes. 

May 1848 and August 1849 saw Bell commanding the brig Workington: at this stage he was taking whatever voyages were offered by the ship agent. He may even have been the W Bell listed as master of the Bucephalus on a voyage from Calcutta to Table Bay arriving on 9 March 1848.

His services rendered in 1842 weren’t entirely forgotten, though the authorities needed a push in the right direction. They received it towards the end of 1847 when the inhabitants of Port Natal petitioned the Lieutenant Governor for Bell’s reinstatement ‘in the full enjoyment of his former office and Emolument’.

The signatories, who included the Cato brothers, Richard King and other prominent citizens, expressed their ‘strong conviction of what is due by them to Captain Bell, as a worthy, faithful and meritorious Public Servant against whom … no charge of any dereliction of duty, or of any inferiority for the perfect fulfillment of the hazardous and responsible functions of his office has been preferred’. They acknowledged the ‘deep obligation’ they owed to Captain Bell ‘for the preservation of their life and liberty, while adhering to the Standard of their Queen and Country’.

These views were forwarded to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, who subsequently considered that Bell had a fair claim to employment by the Natal Government.

William Bell must have felt indebted to his corps of supporters at Port Natal. It would not be the last time that George Cato stepped into the breach on behalf of his friend. 

Sextant 19th c

*http://molegenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/06/wreck-of-lady-leith-1848.html

Ships and Mariners: 19th Cape and Natal 7 Bell Caithness

SACA 1 Oct 1842

Returning to the Conch’s regular sailing schedule after the excitement at Port Natal must have been an anti-climax for William Bell but he had responsibilities, including a new daughter, Ellen Selwyn Sophia Still, born shortly after his return to Algoa Bay in July 1842. Bell had not forgotten Major Selwyn who had played an important role in the events of June.

That the child was baptized by Rev Dr Okes is a reminder of the connection with H G Caithness, who had married Pamela Okes in June 1839. Not long after his own child, Eliza Ann Margaret, was born in September 1840 Caithness disappeared leaving Pamela to fend for herself. 

Simonstown: early view

In February 1844 Rev Okes made application to the Colonial Office on behalf of Mrs H G Caithness for a position as postmistress at Simon’s Town, where she had been running a day school. Whether Caithness died or sailed away remains uncertain. He made his final voyage between Table Bay and Algoa Bay as Captain of the Fame in November 1840; command of this schooner passes to J Hulme in March 1841 and subsequently to other masters. 

For Bell, life continued on an even keel, but there were shoals ahead. On 4 May 1844 the schooner Mary (Captain James Caithness, Bell’s brother-in-law), was wrecked in Algoa Bay, further evidence that no matter how experienced the mariner, coastal waters were treacherous. About a month later, little Ellen Selwyn Sophia died aged 1 year 98 months and a day. Misfortunes generally arriving in threes, the Bells were probably wondering what else Fate had in store when their luck changed suddenly and unexpectedly.

Acknowledgement:
Tom Sheldon