Very much like the corrida, thought Flood. Bulls were shortsighted.
‘Just as it is the custom in a court of law for those responsible for malfeasance to be held guilty of their actions,’ said the Attorney-General. ‘But I’m sure the court is grateful for your definition.’
‘I was unaware,’ fought back Winchester, ‘that this was a court considering a crime. I believed it to be civil proceedings, adjudging a civil claim.’
Often, at the very point of death, the bull put up the most spirited defence, reflected Flood.
‘Indeed it is,’ he agreed. ‘But a legally constituted tribunal would be failing in its function if it failed to respond to the evidence before it.’
‘Just as this hearing would be failing in its function if it failed to respond to the evidence before it,’ concurred Winchester. ‘Having sat in this room for so many days, I still wonder what evidence has been established.’
‘A responsibility of decision resting upon neither of us,’ said Flood. ‘But on Mr Justice Cochrane.’ And that of the Gibraltar constabulary, he thought. It would be interesting to know what an unbiased observer such as the chief of police would conclude from the statements, affidavits and evidence now before him. Flood had no doubt of the decision.
‘Let us move on from the polemics of the judiciary and concentrate upon the statements made since you first stood where you stand today,’ he continued. ‘If my notation is correct, you asserted during your initial evidence that some manifestation of the weather caused the abandonment of the Mary Celeste by Captain Briggs and his crew.’
‘Captain Briggs bore a high character, that of a courageous officer and good seaman who would not, I think, desert his ship except to save his life,’ said Winchester. ‘I also knew the mate, Richardson. I had done so for two years. He was an experienced and courageous officer in whom I had great confidence. I believe he had presence of mind. His three previous captains spoke of him as fit to command any ship and I believe he would not leave his ship except for a matter of life or death. From what I have seen of the state and conditions of the vessel, I cannot believe that she was abandoned by her master, officers and crew by stress of weather only. I had plenty of time to examine her thoroughly and feel very certain that she was not abandoned through perils of the sea.’
Winchester had spoken with urgent seriousness, still anxious to help the enquiry, so that he was breathless when he concluded. For several moments the Attorney-General remained absolutely motionless, giving no reaction whatsoever to the statement. From across the courtroom the owner regarded him defiantly.
Flood waited until his clerk handed him the notes before making any response. As he spoke, the hand holding the papers moved in a vaguely enticing fashion, in the way that the matador lures the exhausted animal on to his sword-point with the flickering of the cape.
‘… cannot believe she was abandoned through stress of weather only,’ he paraphrased. ‘Nor through perils of the sea…’
Winchester waited suspiciously.
Flood took great care to select another page of notes, moving it in the same fashion as he had the first.
‘… “It must have been something quite frightening and quite unexpected. It’s been a stormy season and I can only assume it was some manifestation of weather that we shall never know”…’
Flood looked up from his clerk’s notes.
‘Is that familiar to you, Captain Winchester?’ he said.
‘I said — ’ attempted the witness, but Flood interrupted him.
‘Is that familiar to you, Captain Winchester?’
‘I know that’s what I said…’
‘Then what has caused you to alter that statement since you first gave evidence at this enquiry?’
‘I have not altered it.’
‘To my mind, you have qualified it considerably.’
‘I said something quite frightening and unexpected,’ tried Winchester.
‘And accounted for whatever it was by some unknown weather condition,’ the Attorney-General reminded him.
‘All I meant to convey was that there was something in addition to the weather.’
‘And that addition — something so terrifying that it caused such experienced men to leap overboard — I have been attempting to identify for many days past,’ said Flood. ‘Having tried once to be be more helpful, perhaps you can offer this enquiry the further benefit of your considerable experience. What, beyond stress of weather or known perils of the sea, could have caused such a reaction among such men?’
Wearily Captain Winchester shook his head. There was always such a moment, thought Flood, just before the bull slumped, exposing the fatal point of entry between the shoulder blades.
‘If you have the transcript of my earlier evidence before you,’ said the ship-owner, ‘then I believe you will see that I also stated my belief that no one would ever know… that it would always remain a mystery.’
‘And you may recall my response to that,’ replied Flood. ‘That before the conclusion of this enquiry, the real truth might be found.’
‘I remember the remark well enough,’ said Winchester. ‘I am unaware of your having succeeded.’
‘Then let us proceed and perhaps I might,’ said Flood. ‘What, in addition to weather or perils of the sea, would cause the abandonment?’
‘I don’t know!’ protested Winchester desperately. ‘How many times do we have to have the same question to which I can only make the same answer!’
‘We will have the question as many times as it takes me to obtain the proper answer,’ said Flood. He took up another piece of paper.
‘Have you arranged for the Mary Celeste to load fruit in Messina, for passage back to New York?’ he asked unexpectedly. It had been a wise precaution to have the last three months’ editions of the New York Journal of Commerce shipped from America, from which he had been able to learn of the contract.
‘It was a shipment agreed before I even knew of the disaster that had befallen the vessel,’ said the owner.
‘If you fail to fulfil that contract, do you stand to lose financially?’
‘Of course,’ said Winchester. ‘I am responsible for my company’s bond.’
‘Can you afford such loss?’
‘Of course not.’
‘So you are not a rich man… you are someone who would welcome money, in fact?’
Until the error with Deveau, that was the sort of question that would have brought Cornwell to his feet in protest. Now the lawyer remained at his bench, hunched in apparent concentration over his papers.
‘I am not a rich man,’ responded Winchester slowly, as if he were anxious that the judge should be aware of what he was saying. ‘For my income I depend upon the workings of my ships. But I am not so short of funds that I am driven to the sort of criminality that has been suggested on numerous occasions at this hearing. I am not involved in any nefarious scheme to benefit from the disappearance and subsequent recovery or the Mary Celeste, its crew or any salvage award that this court may feel inclined to make.’
‘An assurance, like those that preceded it, which I know this court welcomes,’ said Flood, smoothly. He picked up the piece of deck railing, holding it above his head.
‘You were aboard the Mary Celeste before it sailed from New York?’
‘On several occasions.’
Flood gestured to the court marshal for the exhibit to be carried to the owner.
‘Do you imagine you would have noticed such an injury on the railing, had it occurred there?’
‘Yes, I do. Prior to Captain Briggs’s buying into my company, we thoroughly examined the vessel together. There was also a purchaser’s survey conducted. It said nothing about any such injury.’
‘So it occurred during the voyage?’
‘Obviously.’
‘How?’
‘There are a hundred ways that such damage could have been caused.’