This page is here due to poetic licence. It is factually accurate ... but not written in an encyclopaedic manner. Once completed, my intent is to release it to WikiSource, and send a copy / link to the Iziko South African Museum for their travelling exhibition "Finding Meermin". I think it would be a fun way for school kids to learn and remember the story.
The Saga of the Meermin
editThis saga will tell of the tale of the Meermin, who carried her cargo of slaves[1]
Under Muller and Krause and the fifty-four seamen who sailed on South African waves.[2]
Johan Krause was experienced, done it before,[3] very sure that he knew what to do
Whereas Muller was sick,[4] and a newbie for sure,[3] and a bit of an idiot, too.[1]
The holds were all crowded, the slaves were diseased,[5] and so Krause said "I have an idea!
We'll take off their shackles - I know you'll be pleased if we get them out working up here."[2]
So the slaves were released (thus relieving much sadness), to work;[2] Mr Krause had no fears
And one day he decided - a moment of madness - to set them to cleaning some spears![6]
Massavana (their leader)[5] was bright (but no reader), he heard opportunity knock,
And he rallied the slaves, both the women and braves,[2] giving Muller a horrible shock.[7]
The slaves stabbed the Captain, they killed Mr Krause and a lot of the crew (twenty-three),
Sailors fled up the mast, sailors hid in a locker, the bodies were thrown in the sea.[2]
The crew in the rigging were safe from the slaves, but the slaves didn't know how to sail;[2]
A truce was arranged between sailors and braves saying what such a truce would entail.[8]
"Madagascar's our home and we want to go back; we will let you come down from the mast
If you turn the ship round; then we will not attack and your troubles will be in the past."[4]
It all started well but it didn't go through because something went wrong with the plan;[9]
A battle broke out between slaves and the crew, and those sailors were killed, to a man.[2]
The men who had hid in the locker below found a way to encourage a truce,
And using some gunpowder threatened to blow up the ship, if they were not let loose.[2]
Now with Muller so injured, and Mr Krause dead, Olaf Leij had command of the men,
And speaking the language, and using his head, they came to agreement again.[10]
Olaf Leij had a plot, though, an ace in his hand - they couldn't just let them escape!
By daylight he steered for the slaves' native land but by night set all sail for the Cape.[2][7]
The Meermin sailed southwards for three or four days before crewmen and slaves sighted shore;[2][7]
The slaves were ecstatic, believing the bays were the edge of their homeland once more.[5]
Massavana sent slaves out in pinnace and longboat to check out the land they had reached,[2]
And if others could follow without going wrong, they arranged to light fires on the beach.[9]
But the slaves who'd set out on the boats in such hope for the land had a dreadful surprise,
The agreement they'd made, and their trust, was betrayed – Mr Leij had been telling them lies![7]
For the ship had been seen by some farmers, who sent for the magistrate, Johannes le Sueur,
Who rallied the locals to form a militia to capture them, there on the shore.[5]
Of the slaves who had landed, fourteen of them died, others captured as victims of liars,[7]
And out on the ship, for a week, the rest tried to be patient and wait for the fires.[11]
The crew on the ship were afraid, saying: "What'll we do? We will die where we stand!"
So Olaf made plans to seal up in a bottle a message for those on the land.[11]
"Though we trust in the Lord, we need you on our side!" the messages Olaf sent said;
"We need fires on the beach and we need you to hide in the dunes, or we'll all end up dead!"[5]
So three bottles were sent to drift in to the shore, and two of them got to the land;
They were found and presented to Messer la Sueur, who arranged to light fires on the strand.[5]
The slaves on the ship cut the anchor's stout rope upon seeing the fires on the sand
And in a canoe six set out in great hope to meet up with the rest of their band.[10]
The militia abiding in patience, in hiding, were waiting at Olaf's request
And the landsmen on shore, under Messer la Sueur, shot one dead, and recaptured the rest.[5]
The slaves on the ship saw the fight and, enraged and betrayed and deceived, they set to,
For three terrible hours a battle was waged on the ship 'twixt the slaves and the crew.[10]
The sailors were tired and the slaves were exhausted, they knew that their fight was in vain,
Outnumbered and beaten, their battle was lost, they agreed to be shackled again.[10]
They had fought for their freedom all through the long trip in a mutinous bid to escape;
Of the hundred and forty who boarded the ship, just a hundred and twelve reached the Cape.[8]
So the slaves lost their freedom, and some lost much more, and the Meermin broke up where she lay;
People brought many things from the ship to the shore, and auctioned them there in the bay.[11]
Massavana and Muller in Court had their day; the slave leader was exiled, not shot,[5]
And Muller was stripped of his rank and his pay, and roundly denounced as a clot.[10][8]
The Meermin today still lies there in the bay, archaeologists set out to find her,
To raise her again, and help to explain all the history she left behind her.[12]
References
edit- ^ a b Malan, Antonia (2008). "Unearthing Slavery: the Complex Role of Archaeology" (PDF). Historical Archaeology Research Group, University of Cape Town. Retrieved 2011-10-31.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Mountain, Alan (2005). An Unsung Heritage: Perspectives on Slavery. David Philip. p. 204. ISBN 978-0864866226.
- ^ a b Educational Broadcasting Corporation (2010-11-07). "Slave Ship Mutiny (episode information)". Educational Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2011-10-31.
- ^ a b "The Slave Mutiny on the slaver ship Meermin". Cape Slavery Heritage. 26 March 2008. Retrieved 2011-10-14.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Kennedy, Joe (2010-11-11). "Slave Ship Mutiny (Program Transcript)". Educational Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2011-10-31.
- ^ "Quarterly bulletin of the National Library of South Africa". 59. Friends of the National Library of South Africa. 2005: 101.
{{cite journal}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Cite journal requires|journal=(help)url - ^ a b c d e Theal, George McCall (2010). History and Ethnography of Africa South of the Zambesi. Cambridge University Press. p. 32. ISBN 978-1108023344.url
- ^ a b c Rebirth Africa. "Slaves : a failed but bold attempt to escape". Rebirth.co.za. Retrieved 2011-10-31.
- ^ a b Alexander, Andrew. "The Meermin Story (extracts from Mutiny on the Meermin)". Mermaid Guest House. Retrieved 2011-11-01.
- ^ a b c d e Western Cape Government (2005-11-29). "Places of Slave Rememberance in the Western Cape, Struisbaai". Westerncape.gov.za. Retrieved 2011-11-01.
- ^ a b c Sharon LaFraniere (2005-08-24). "Tracing a Mutiny by Slaves Off South Africa in 1766". Utexas.edu. Retrieved 2011-10-31.
- ^ Chandler, Graham (2009). "Hunting for a lost ship under two and a half centuries of shifting sands". Earthexplorer.com. Retrieved 2011-10-31.