Day 16. Family prayers

The Galls appear to have been Godfearing people. They would have put their trust in God for the safety of their children and their new lives in Barbados.

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Two days later their mother, father and sister went to St.George's church which in 1810 Dr Gall had donated 28 pieces of hardwood posts and 250 staves for the building of the new church. It was the first service they had attended without their two sons. Dr Gall’s sister Mary Judith Benjamin was with them with her two daughters. They were fearful for all their boys’ safety and remembered the many tales that Park Benjamin had regaled them with. They were well aware of the way the sea could be whipped up into a frenzy in the shallow tropical waters off that part of the South American coast. 

The four young girls sang the words of the seaman’s hymn with added fervour, their lips quivering as they remembered the loss of lives as many ships had foundered in less stormy weather:

Most Holy Spirit! Who didst brood,

Upon the chaos dark and rude,

And bid its angry tumult cease,

And give, for wild confusion, peace;

Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,

For those in peril on the sea!

If the mothers had known the true discomforts that their boys were enduring they would have surely wept and begged that their sons be returned to the safety of the womb.

Nothing had prepared the boys for the miseries of life at sea. Captain Benjamin had regaled them with tales of his times at sea; the dodging of the British squadrons during the late war; of his encounters with brigands; but nothing of the fears of sailors in a storm or the monotony of life on board when becalmed. Nothing had prepared them for the debilitations of seasickness. Their mother was not with them to calm their woes. Indeed the sailors appeared to take delight in watching the plight of the youngsters whilst they had quickly recovered their own sea legs. It was like a Purgatory in this life for the sins that they had committed but the boys could not think of any sins they had committed that would merit what they were experiencing.

If the sickness was not bad enough they could hardly find the strength to make their way up to the deck to take some breaths of fresh air. And when they returned to their berths they were tossed about like some bags of potatoes and had to suffer the drips of water through the innumerable leaks which had an uncanny way of finding a place above their faces from which to drop. The boys’ bony frames did not provide them with any cushion as they hit first one side and then the other of their narrow cots. Nor was there anything soft to lie on since any mattress or covering would quickly rot at sea.

There was no company for the ship the next day but for the weaving Frigate birds. Close hauled, Captain Benjamin had held her course, first Nor’ard - a leg soaking out to windward and then a leg on starboard tack. And so it went on, the West Indian crew working on the halyards and sheets which were bar tight. Captain Benjamin cursed his men and gave them no peace day nor night.
Arrival in Hell