Charles Augustus (or Gustavus) Anderson [Laws D19]

DESCRIPTION: Anderson, the singer, is about to be hanged. He had had a good childhood, but went away to sea on the "Saladin." There he joined in a conspiracy with one Fielding; they murdered the ship's captain and others. Now he must pay the price
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: sea execution mutiny
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1844 - The Saladin mutiny
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) US(NE)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Laws D19, "Charles Augustus (or Gustavus) Anderson"
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 290-293, "Charles Gustavus Anderson" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 158, "Fielding" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 867-868, "Charles Augustus Anderson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 109, "Charles G Anderson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 196-197, "Saladin Mutiny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 113, "Charles Augustus Anderson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 180-182, "Charles Gustavus Anderson" (1 text)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 197-198,243, "Charles Gustavus Anderson" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 352, SLDNMTY2*
Roud #646
RECORDINGS:
Sr. Fitzgerald, "Charles Augustus Anderson" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Mrs Thomas Walters, "Charles Augustus Anderson" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "George Jones" [Laws D20] (subject)
cf. "Saladin's Crew" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Charles Gustavus Anderson
NOTES [800 words]: The story of the Saladin mutiny is roughly as follows: The pirate Fielding, taken aboard the Saladin out of charity, convinces part of the crew to mutiny against Captain "Sandy" Mackenzie. (Mackenzie seems to have been a harsh officer, but the Fieldings -- a father and son -- probably hoped to capture the money stored on the ship.) Mackenzie and five others are killed, and the conspirators, realizing that they might be next, turn against the Fieldings and throw them overboard. The ship, left without an experienced navigator, is wrecked off Halifax (a place now called "Saladin Point"); the remaining conspirators are executed.
Most sources date the mutiny to 1844; Laws says 1843, but I'm guessing this is one of the many typos in his song list. Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 178-180, gives a fairly detailed account of the mutiny and says that it was in 1842 that Captain Fielding and his teenage son George left England on the Vitula for Valparaiso, where he tried to capture a nitrate vessel. It was not until 1844 that he convinced Captain Mackenzie to take him home.
The four men executed were Charles Anderson, George Jones, John Hazelton, and William Trevaskiss. Three of the four have ballads about them. This one, about Anderson, is the most popular; "George Jones" [Laws D20] is also well-known; "Saladin's Crew," about Hazelton, was found only by Helen Creighton.
Creighton quotes an account from the 1924 Acadian Recorder that seems to imply that all three songs were written by a "Mr. Forhan" who saw the mutineers hanged when he was six years old.
In his notes on "Saladin's Crew," Ben Schwartz says, "Another of the Saladin conspirators speaks out (cf. "Charles Augustus (or Gustavus) Anderson [Laws D19]" and "George Jones [Laws D20]"). Here is John Hazelton. Hazelton -- like Anderson and Jones -- was convicted and hanged. Has William Trevaskiss, the fourth of the hanged mutineers, a ballad as well?" The answer is, seemingly, no -- at least, I've not encountered it. But at least one of the survivors was also the subject of a ballad: Albert Hicks was the subject of "Hicks the Pirate," although that song is known only from broadsides, not from tradition.
And, amazingly, Hicks actually did give a confession before being hung, and he allegedly actually made up a song about it. Rich Cohen, The Last Pirate of New York, Spiegel & Grau, 2019, p. 191, cites it. It opens:
My own, my dear loved mother,
If I could see thy face,
I'd kiss thy lips in tenderness
And take my last embrace.
The larger portion is devoted to the Saladin mutiny:
I shipped on board the Saladin
As you may understand,
Bound to South America,
Captain Kenzie in command
We arrived in that country
Without undue delay,
When Fielding came on board,
Ah! cursed be that day.
Cohen does not list his source, but Ben Schwartz was able to locate part of in Harper's Weekly, June 16. 1860 (available on Google Books), p. 374 (by the internal page number; it's p. 350 in Google's PDF). Interestingly, the Harper's version omits the introduction and starts directly with the line "I shipped on board the Saladin." That led me to the full text, which appears in the New York Times, June 2, 1860.
The reason I mention this is because Hicks's verse has substantial similarities to the text of this song (e.g., in Doerflinger's version):
I shipped on board the Saladin as you may understand.
She was bound to Valparaiso, Mackenzie in command.
We arrived there in safety without the least delay,
When Fielding came aboard of us, curse on the fatal day!
This permits only two possibilities that I can see: Either Hicks's piece was printed, presumably as a broadside, and used as a basis for "Charles Augustus Anderson," or "Charles Augustus Anderson" was already in existence and Hicks borrowed part of it. Both face objections: no one seems to have found a broadside of the Hicks text (it occurs only in newspapers), but neither has "Charles Augustus Anderson" been collected at any time close to 1860; the earliest versions are from half a century later.
In 1844, James Bowes published Trial of Jones, Hazelton, Anderson and Trevaskiss, alias Johnson, for Piracy and Murder on board barque Saladin, with the Written Confessions of the Prisoners, Produced in Evidence on the said Trial; To which is Added, Particulars of their execution on the 30th of July; Also, the Trial of Carr and Galloway, for the murder of Captain Fielding and his son on board the Saladin. Compiled from the Halifax Papers. I have not seen it; without more information, I find it hard to trust a book with a title like that! There have also been at least two fictional retellings, William Crooker with Elizabeth Pierce, Saladin: Piracy, Mutiny and Murder on the High Seas and Henry S. Whittier, The Other Watch. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LD19

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