3. THE TERRIBLE ISLANDS: HISTORY

3.3      Small-scale warfare between natives and outsiders since the settlement's establishment in 1789

Despite the occasional inexplicable friendly interlude, the native Andamanese traditionally dished it out as much as they took it. Attacks on shipwrecked people and on ships' crews trying to collect wood and water were a very ancient local tradition and one that faded only slowly after 1858. Indeed, one of the reasons for the reluctant British annexation of the islands was the necessity to suppress the outrages committed on shipwrecked seamen. The earliest outrage of which details are known took place on 13th April 1790 during the first British attempt at settling the islands. Four Bengali fishermen belonging to the new settlement went missing on that day. Three days later the bodies of two of them were found on the beach with signs of "inhuman barbarity." Their bodies had been mangled in the Andamanese ceremony for rendering enemies and their spirits harmless, known in more detail otherwise only from the Onge. The fishermen's agonizing death was not an isolated incident, however, but was part of the continuous small-scale warfare waged between natives and outsiders, a war that had started within days of the settlement's establishment in 1789 when plundering raids from the Andamanese had been answered by force. During another skirmish in the same war, two young Andamanese had been taken prisoner. The British intended to teach them the customs and language of the settlers, to use them later as intermediaries with their relatives in the jungle. We find here practiced for the first time in the Andamans what after 1858 would become the less-than-successful standard procedure.

The combination of dangerous coral reefs and frequent storms must have caused countless shipwrecks over the ages. We know of only a handful and details of still fewer. During the 19th century the presence of the British navy had increased the chances of rescue before the natives could lay hands on the survivors. The survival rate for shipwrecked people over the thousands of years before that time must have been close to zero. Only those who could repair their vessel quickly or build themselves a new one stood a tiny chance of getting away alive. Many would not even have realized their predicament and would have been taken unawares by the first attack. The relatively high population density in the Andamans before 1858 ensured that there were no unvisited islands within the Andamans on which a Robinson Crusoe could hide and survive undiscovered for any length of time. Any shipwreck was bound to be spotted soon and any survivors dealt with briskly.

One of the very few shipwrecks about which details are known took place in November 1844.Two ships coming from opposite ends of the world and both full of British troops on their way to India were wrecked within sight of each other. The double-wreck took place on the east Coast of John Lawrence Island in Ritchie's archipelago. The story bears telling in some detail because, apart from its unique happy end, it throws light on the many tragedies that must have taken place on those very same shores before.

The British ship Briton, an American-built barque with 431 soldiers, their dependents and crew aboard, had left Sydney on 12th August 1844 on the way to Calcutta as part of a larger fleet of four ships. After an uneventful trip via Timor and Singapore, the Briton reached the Andaman sea in early November. The captain had expected the north-east monsoon normal at this time of the year but instead he found quite untypical and highly variable winds. The unpredictable winds increased to gale force on 10th November and the following day to hurricane force. For 50 hours the Briton was tossed about and battered by the raging sea, its masts gone, its superstructure reduced to matchwood. The crew had to pump for their lives with the ship threatening to break up at any moment. But miraculously it held. Nobody aboard had the faintest idea where they were when shortly after midnight on 12th November and with the storm still howling at full force, the ship struck what must have been a reef and was then lifted over the obstacle by a gigantic wave. Only then did it begin to break up. Sitting in total darkness behind the shelter of the unseen reef, the crew felt the violence of the waves abate and their vessel slowly settling into something soft.

The barque Runnymede had sailed from Gravesend in England on 20th June 1844 with 200 soldiers, dependents and crew aboard, bound for Calcutta. The journey had been very difficult from the start and contrary winds had delayed the ship so much that stores of food and fresh water were running low. Instead of going straight to Calcutta, the Runnymede had to make for Penang in Malaya to replenish. It was surprised by the same storm and went through much the same experience as the Briton. On 11th November, during a brief lull in the storm in daytime, the master of the Runnymede spotted two other battered ships in the distance, one of which may have been the Briton. At 0130 in the morning of the 12th November the Runnymede was thrown high up on what the crew thought was a reef.

At daybreak, the winds abated and the crews of the two ships found themselves not only in the middle of a large mangrove swamp but less than 500 m (550 yards) from each other. They quickly made contact and found to their delight that their surviving stores complemented each other well. They combined forces, built a causeway through the swamp to the shore and moved themselves and their stores to dry land. Two drowned aborigines and their wrecked canoe were found washed up on the beach and were buried. The havoc caused by the storm extended over the entire island. Trees were stripped of their leaves with even the oldest and largest lying in a impenetrable jumble of fallen trunks. On their 9th day ashore, the shipwrecks met their first living Andamanese: crew searching for sea-shells were attacked and four wounded by arrow shots. The attackers disappeared into the maze of fallen trees when soldiers went after them. The captain's report described them as "quite naked, regular savages and no doubt cannibals." Later, some aborigines were spotted near the wrecks, apparently trying to collect iron. When the crew tried to establish friendlier relations by hanging a jacket on a pole and making gestures for them to take it, the natives tore the jacket down and trampled on it before attacking the would-be peace-makers. Camp fires and large numbers of natives were observed in December gathering on a neighbouring island - hopefuls expecting a good loot. Repeated attacks followed but all were frustrated by the large number of soldiers available for defence. It was noted that the native seemed to be familiar with the effects of firearms: they vanished as soon as they spotted someone carrying one while they attacked anybody who went unarmed.