Thomas Dudley is a native of this place and is respected by all who know him. We ask this on account of his hitherto almost blameless life, the terrible ordeals through which he has passed, the fact that medical evidence was altogether excluded at his trial and that his further incarceration will preclude him from the chance of taking up business offered him by a relative in the Colonies.
The home secretary also received,
The humble petition of the Mayor, Magistrates, Corporation and Inhabitants of Falmouth on behalf of Dudley and Stephens, Captain and Mate of the ill-fated yacht Mignonette.
These poor men ought to have the sentence of six months imprisonment commuted and a free pardon granted with an immediate order for their release. Independent of their terrible sufferings in an open boat on the high seas for twenty-four days, the subsequent trial and imprisonment has been to them no ordinary punishment.
There was also a petition from John Burton of the Curiosity Shop in Falmouth, who had met Harcourt when he visited Falmouth two years earlier: ‘May I ask the favour of your sympathy for Dudley and Stephens? Trusting yourself and Lady Harcourt are well, I might here add I am the person who stood bail for Dudley and Stephens.’
A number of other individuals also petitioned Harcourt. Miss Alice Maud Lever wrote from Cheshire asking for a free pardon for them and enclosing fifty pounds to be sent to their families ‘as a New Year’s gift’.
Harcourt was unimpressed. ‘Write to the lady to say that the sentence on these men was carefully considered and cannot be changed, and return the money to her. It is not necessary to give her any address as I do not wish to encourage presents of this kind. Have the letter carefully registered as in its present state the cheque is payable to the bearer.’
Despite his efforts, Miss Lever made contact with Philippa and passed on her donation. She also enlisted her brother, Ellis Lever, an industrialist and philanthropist, to petition the home secretary. He wrote a letter containing, ‘a suggestion which might be advantageous in preventing any such deplorable mishap in the future’.
His idea — that ship-owners should in future be compelled to stock their lifeboats with provisions and water — was eventually adopted, but a law requiring the provision of an adequate number of lifeboats had to await a more terrible tragedy, the sinking of the Titanic.
Ellis Lever also sent a petition to,
Her Most Gracious Majesty Victoria. The case to the prisoner’s wife and children is so exceptional and heartrending and as to the man himself, it should not be forgotten, he unreservedly and voluntarily stated to his most terrible disadvantage the whole circumstances. So constant and remorseful a memorial is likely to endure, not for six months, but for all time to come during his life, that I do most earnestly and humbly beseech Your Majesty so to relax the ordinances of justice in this case, as to be pleased to give directions that the term of imprisonment to Captain Thomas Dudley may be curtailed, if it be even for one moiety of the unexpired portion of that term.
Lever enclosed with his own petition a letter written to him by Philippa.
We have been married seven years and have three children, Philippa, four years and nine months, Winifred, three years six months and Julian, two years and two months.
From his youth he has been hard-working and plodding, aiming to improve his position. Having received little or no education he tried in every way to supply this deficiency. He studied hard and in time gained a Board of Trade certificate.
Every yacht owner has testified in his favour, in fact all who came in contact with him respected him, and it was his boast that no man, woman or child could look in his face and say, ‘Tom Dudley, you have wronged me.’
He often urged me to give up school duties because of the anxiety attending them but while his position was uncertain, I preferred working. The chance of taking the Mignonette out to Australia for a certain sum being offered to him and the business being offered us there by an Aunt in Sydney, he wished to see it for himself without risk of losing money before venturing to take his family.
He prepared for the voyage, laying in a plentiful supply of provisions, and started on the 19th May accompanied by a crew of two men and a boy. As he intended holding Service on board, he took prayer books and also elementary books to teach the lad who was quite ignorant. When told the boy was an orphan, he said if the lad behaved himself he would make a man of him.
On June 3rd I received a telegram from him at Madeira saying ‘All is well’. That was the last communication received until the receipt of the telegram of September 6th speaking of the accident and terrible sufferings undergone.
In the meantime, the yacht had foundered on July 5th, twelve hundred miles from the Cape. He with his companions had suffered indescribable agony in the open boat for twenty-four days and nights, the latter being the most terrible death staring them in the face, every billow threatening to engulf them, while the fear that the sharks would knock in the bottom of the boat constantly haunted them.
The very elements seemed to mock their sufferings. As he often described it, they would eagerly watch the clouds gather and seem ready to pour rain down in abundance and then while the poor sufferers in agony watched, the clouds dispersed and left them in despair. Was not that a time of delirium and fever? Poor victims to misery, can their situation be conceived? Their tongues were swollen and black. He said they were like wild animals.
Without wishing to speak slightingly of his fellow sufferers but in justice to my husband, his wonderful forethought, bravery and unselfishness were very prominent. He it was who stayed in the yacht procuring provisions until almost too late. He constructed the sea anchor with which to break the force of the huge waves and prevent them engulfing them. He cut off the bottoms of his trousers to stop the hole in the boat. He urged the men to give up a garment apiece to be used for sails and on their refusal erected all the wood that could be spared from the bottom of the boat. After constant entreaties they gave up their shirts which with his own he erected for a sail.
The men, hopeless and tortured, were bent on committing suicide but were buoyed up by him, and after the deed was committed both Brooks and Stephens grasped his hands many scores of times in the day saying he had saved their lives and how they would show their gratitude on reaching home if they ever did so.
When picked up they were as weak and helpless as infants, having to be carried to berths and nursed with wonderful skill. If not so treated they must have perished. They were on board the Moctezuma receiving all possible attention for nearly six weeks, consequently no idea could be formed of their pitiful condition at the time of rescue.
On September 6th they landed at Falmouth and Tom immediately made his deposition before the Magistrates, not palliating a single circumstance, though entreated never to divulge it. That the bravest and most honest should suffer must seem hard when one who, too cowardly to do, was not too scrupulous to share, yet could be permitted to go unpunished and then make a market out of the misery of his companions.
My husband with his companions was lodged in Falmouth Police Station where he supplied himself and his comrades with food. He returned home on September 11th on bail and had to go back again on the 17th, having to undergo an examination before the Magistrates by the Public Prosecutor.
After being summoned to Exeter to await his trial, he returned home November 6th, from then until December 4th he bore a month of suspense. At that time Winifred was attacked with congestion of the lungs and he nursed her night and day. We were doubtful of her recovery when he had to go to Holloway again to undergo another ordeal, still more trying.