Saladin: Piracy, Mutiny and Murder and the High Seas.

R. Gordon Moyles is professor emeritus of English at the University of
Alberta, co-author of Imperial Dreams and Colonial Realities: British
Views of Canada, 1880–1914, and author of The Salvation Army and the
Public.

“We were conveyed from prison, unto the gallows high, / Ascended on the scaffold, whereon we were to die. / Farewell, my loving countrymen, I bid this world adieu, / I hope this will a warning be to one and all of you.”

This verse from “The Ballad of George Jones” in Helen Creighton’s Songs and Ballads of Nova Scotia recounts the sad end of one of the four mutineers of the Saladin who, in 1843, after a double doublecross, bludgeoned to death two of their captains and several members of their crew, took over the ship, and misguided it onto the rocky shoals of Nova Scotia. In what they call a historical novel (though it reads more like descriptive history), Crooker and Peirce offer a minutely detailed recreation of the events that resulted in the four hangings on Halifax`s Citadel Hill on July 13, 1844. They describe how George Fielding, captain of the Vitula, loses his ship through illegal dealings in South America, manages to insinuate himself into the good graces of Sandy Mackenzie, captain of the Saladin, and parlays a free trip home for himself and his son. But, greedy as ever, Fielding has only the intention of taking over the ship and securing for himself (and his willing accomplices) its rich cargo.

Others are just as greedy, however, and, after Mackenzie and most of his crew are dispatched, they in turn dispatch Fielding and his son, leaving just six to sail the ship. Four of them are found guilty of mutiny and are hanged; two, deemed guiltless, are set free. It is a story brilliant in its detail, intense in its depiction of greed and murder, and excellent in its descriptions of shipboard activity, personal animosities, and relations. Altogether an engaging story.