The Mudmen Code,a potty history of Garston

[captain kong]

One day as the Garstonia 2, was approaching the Island of Fernando Noronha, off the coast of Brazil on her voyage south towards Buenos Aires, The Steward Jasse and Fireman Aspinall were in Jasse`s cabin drinking the famous Cambrinous Brown ale from the condensate that was in the cargo hold. They had been drunk every night of the voyage, both causing trouble with the rest of the crew and with the Officers.
One night as Jasse came out of the Hold with a bucket of the condensate of Brown Ale, he was seen by Mr Reginald Bangoreg, the Mate, a struggle followed and Jasse battered him to death. He dragged him out on deck and dumped his body over the side into the sea.
The Second Engineer had gone into the stokehold and found Aspinall drunk on watch with a Dixie full of ale. When he got on to him a fight started and Aspinall opened a relief valve and scolded the Engineer to death. He was dragged up on deck and thrown overboard. Aspinall told Jasse, he had killed the Second, They decided the only thing to do was to kill everyone and make it look like it was a shipwreck and they were the only two survivors.
Jasse gave Aspinall a revolver he had hidden under his bunk and also armed himself.
Jasse went up to the bridge where Captain King was with the Second Mate and a struggle started when the Captain thumped Jasse but in the fight the gun went off and the Captain fell dead. The Second Mate was next, Jasse shot him in the head. Kevin Thomas was the Sailor on the wheel, Jasse told him to help to throw the Captain and the Second Mate over the wing of the bridge into the sea. And then said ?Are you with us or against us?? Kevin Thomas, who was terrified said ?Yes I am with you.?
Jasse took the Captains jacket off and put it on. He paraded up and down the bridge pretending to be the Captain shouting orders.
They went down below., to the Mess room. Aspinall had killed the other Engineers and firemen, The Chief Steward, Fred Kinghorn was sat there, with Ernest Norris Green, both looking white and scared. Again Jasse said to Fred, ?Are you with us or against us?? Fred said ?No way, you`ll hang for this.?, a shot rang out and Fred fell dead, blood pumping out of his head. Ernest was next, ?OK? said Ernest ?I am with you.?. scared in case he got what Fred had just got.
Jasse said to Aspinall ?Go down below and open the sea valves and set fire to anything that will burn, Ernest and Kevin swing out the lifeboat. And I will set fire to anything around here.
The boat was swung out and all four climbed into it and they lowered away and then cast off.
The GARSTONIA 2 was ablaze from stem to stern and sinking by the stern. The men rowed away into the darkness as the fires were extinguished as the ship slid under the waves.. The following morning a ship hove into view and with much waving and shouting they were seen and the ship stopped and rescued them.
She was the Raphael, one of Lamport and Holt`s steamers homeward bound from Buenos Aires.
They told their rescuers an incredible story. The Garstonia 2, had started its voyage to Buenos Aires, with a crew of 12 men, of whom two had died in mysterious accidents at sea. They then had a fire on board and had abandoned ship, in one of the two life boats, losing contact with the remaining members of the crew in the second boat. One of the 4 rescued men, Kevin Thomas, seemed afraid of the others and asked to be kept separate from them. It was also noticed that Gleff Jasse was wearing the Captain's Uniform jacket which seemed quite odd to the Raphael`s Captain. The Raphael made its way home to England arriving at Liverpool in January 1901. Kevin Thomas told the Raphael`s Captain that the missing crew of the Garstonia 2, had really been murdered by the other 3 survivors, although they vehemently denied this, and stuck to the story of the fire accusing Thomas of inciting the mutiny and killing the rest of the crew. The Captain of the Raphael was deeply suspicious and handed all 4 over to the police when he docked in Liverpool. Ernest Norris Green, decided to change his story and support Thomas' version of events.

It seemed that the Mate, Reginald Bangoreg, was the first to be murdered by Jasse and Aspinall who had quarrelled with him over him finding out that they had been discovered broaching cargo, namely the barrels of Aspinalls Cambrinous Craft Brewery containing condensate of Brown Ale.. The Mate was battered to death and thrown overboard. Once they had murdered Reg Bangoreg, they were then at serious risk, so it was decided to kill any other member of the crew who would not join them. Thus, Jasse who had some arms stowed under his bunk, passed some to Aspinall and the two of them went on the rampage.Then other men were killed and thrown into the sea while Captain King and Second Mate were shot on the bridge prior to being thrown overboard. A final man jumped over the side and was shot at in the water.
The Murder case opened at Liverpool's St George's Hall on the 10th of May 1901. It was the trial of 3 men for mutiny and murder on the high seas. The defendants were Gleffe Jasse, Steward, Swede, Michael Aspinall, Fireman, and Ernest Norris Green, AB/Cook, who were accused of killing the Captain of the ship ?Garstonia 2? and 6 members of his crew. The murders were alleged to have taken place aboard the `Garstonia 2 `in December 1900, at sea off South America. They were only tried on the charge of murdering the Captain, the other charges being held in reserve if they were acquitted of this one.
They were taken to the Court in St Georges Hall, from HM Prison at Walton. .
After an intensive inquiry it was discovered that One Gleff Jasse was not a Swede but an Englishman hiding his identity, his real name being Jeff Glasse. More investigations proved that he was the son of one Jeff Glasse who was also convicted of murdering the Captain and Chief Officer of the good ship Garstonia forty years previously. It was rumoured the Jeff Glasse senior had cheated the hangman by getting the prison warder drunk and changing clothes with him and so the Warder was unfortunately executed in his place.

The trial was to last 3 days before Mr. Justice Robert Fairley and on the 14th of May, the Jury pronounced that all 3 defendants were guilty. Mr. Justice Fairley, placed the black cap on his head and said, ? You will be taken from here to a place of execution and hanged by the neck until you are all dead and your bodies will be buried within the precincts of the Prison. Take them away.? Ernest Norris Green, was later reprieved following the jury's recommendation to mercy and because of his age. Jeff Glasse and Michael Aspinall were taken back to Walton to await their fate. Just 3 weeks later, at 8.00 a.m. on the morning of Thursday, the 2nd of June 1901, they were brought together for the final time, Jeff Glasse, was Hanged first, as he was the ring leader, and three minutes later Michael Aspinall was led out and was dropped alongside him, hanged by William Billington assisted by John Billington.
On the scaffold, Glasse was heard to shout ?Up yours, Kong? just as the trap door opened and he went to his maker. After the executions, the two bodies were left to hang for an hour.Then Mr W. Billington lowered the two bodies down into the chamber below. They stripped the bodies, Mr John Billington commented to Mr William Billington that ?We have a dirty one here? as he removed Glasse`s trousers as they stripped the bodies prior to placing them into the coffins. Mr Glasse, for all his bravado, had actually crapped himself.
Graves were dug by the prison wall and then they were both interred, a number fixed on the wall as the only marker of their existence.

That was the end of an infamous voyage and the end of an era of horrific happenings to all the ships of the Gerston Mud Trading Company of Garston. Lord Twyze Daley, VNC. DR never went into ship owning again. After those tragic events, he died a broken man, the Company only used chartered ships after that.

[Jeff Glasser]

Well, that's that then!
Of course there's always -

Jasse woke with a start, drenched in sweat. He lay there momentarily before realising it was just a terrifying nightmare Oh b*****ks he thought, I really have crapped myself though, thankfully this turned out to be no more than the greasy remains of the bowl of scouse he'd been eating just before drifting into a drunken stupour the night before. Still going to be difficult to get out, he mused, and I must remember not to retire whilst still wearing this neckerchief...........

[captain kong]

GOTCHA!!!


DID THE LATE JEFF GLASSE HAVE A SON WAY BACK IN 1900????

[Jeff Glasser]

Curses alehouse, you wound that one up good! I was just getting into the swing there. Superbly:handclap condensed though.

How did you know that that old rogue Jeff Glasse had a son?
He was brought up by Jeff Glasses' doxy, who some say was heavy with his child when Jeff Glasse was strung up for his crimes. She was resident strumpet at the 'Rampant Fireman', an Inn tucked away down a stinking back street in the dock area of old Lahpool. Debauchery and drunkenness were its claim to fame, frequented by pox ridden mariners and those low life that make a living from others misfortunes.....

[captain kong]

You almost made me homesick then with your description of Lahpool.

I am off to my beach house for a few days, got to get it sorted before I go to the Antarctic in two weeks.
Catch up when I get back.
Sayonara.

[Jeff Glasser]

Have a good one kong, catch you later.

Jeff

[captain kong]

Who knows, one Gleff Jasse may be on the ship that I sail on around Cape Horn and the Antarctic next week.
Maybe he will end up like his father and his father before him with a VNC

[captain kong]

In 1925 the eldest son of Lord Twize Daley, one Lord Twize Daley, chartered a cargo ship to take a cargo of Garston Mud to Buenos Aires, He had had nothing but trouble from the previous ships that he owned, with death, Mutiny and murder.
He renamed the vessel `Notsrag`, he reversed the name of Garston hoping to reverse his fortunes, which were no too great at the moment.
He hired a Master who was the son of the Master of his last owned vessel, the Garstonia 3 that was lost in a mutiny in 1900, he was Captain King.
The charter was for a cargo of Gerston Mud for the factories in Argentina who used the minerals that were contained in the mud for their pharmaceutical trade. Also to go to the Island of South Georgia to Grytvicken to load a cargo of whale oil. This was to be used with the minerals of Gerston Mud in the manufacture of perfumes. A very lucrative trade.
A crew was signed on and the ship made ready for the voyage south.
There was amongst this crew a steward who was a very strange character, he went by the name of Jeff Glasse. He had one eye, on account he had offended a young lady, on a previous voyage, by spying through her cabin door key hole and she just happened to have a hat pin handy and she poked his evil eye out.
The voyage to Buenos Aires went without much events but the good Captain was not at all happy with his steward, a grovelling, shifty one eyed character always lurking and listening at doors, he always had a smell of gin upon his breath tho` he claimed to be of temperate habits.
In Buenos Aires, Captain King search the alleyways and bars around the Calle Viente Cinco de Mayo, searching for a person who went by the name of Cleopatra, another strange one he found mentioned in his fathers journals. He was directed to the Recolletta where there was a tomb to the memory of this she/man. `Gone but not forgotten` was carved upon the tombstone.
On leaving Buenos Aires, after doing a tango with a young senorita in the Texas Bar, we cleared the River Plate and the `Notsrag` headed south towards Gritvicken in South Georgia, and that is when things started to go wrong.
There were various acts of sabotage to the ships equipment. and the Captains steward was a suspect,
More when I return from my voyage to Grytvicken in a few weeks.

[captain kong]

In a few weeks?
I have just returned from this unfortunate voyage.
On our voyage from Buenos Aires to Grytviken, things began to go wrong with the ships equipment. The alcohol in the ships compass in the wheel house disappeared, the compass was useless. A young Ernie Norris Green who was one of the helmsmen said it was OK when he was relieved at midnight. The next man on the wheel was a Michael Aspin, another strange fellow. He was always cohorting with the one eyed steward, one Jeffery Glasse. Some thing was not quite right, I had a memory of my father`s journals which were written as a continuing story from his father`s day and so on.
I retrieved the journals from my sea chest and started to read, with much trepadition.
Reoccurring names were repeated through each generation of my family going back to the days of 1646. The names of Glasse and Aspin.
It started in 1626 when an illigitemate son of Baron de Aspin, was born to a Miss Lilac
Michael de Aspin was only a half member of the de Aspin family. He was born on the other side of the blanket after a dalliance by Baron de Aspin and a serving wench known as Miss Lilac in that house of ill repute, Ye Olde Man and Scythe, in the square in ye township of Bolton.
Later when he was twenty years old, Michael de Aspin wanted money off his father, the Baron de Aspin who had found he was an embarrassment to the family name. The Baron hired a one eyed cretin by the name of Jeffery de Glasse, to despatch Michael, paying him half now and the other half after the deed was done.
Jeffery de Glasse returned from London informing the Baron that Michael was now at the bottom of the Thames, buried in the mud and so no further claims would be made on the de Aspin Estate. The Baron hated this grovelling cretin and dismissed him with out payment. When Jeffery de Glasse complained, the Baron reported him to the authorities, the Puritans found him guilty of sedition and had him burned at the stake high on a hill overlooking the lands of the Baron. As the flames engulfed his body, de Glasse screamed a curse at the Baron and all his decendents.
Just afterwards the Baron`s ancestral home, Aspin Hall was burned to the ground by Cromwell`s men.
And so the curse has followed each generation and each time there was a Glasse involved and a Michael Aspin.
The curse could only be stopped by burning Glasse in the Fires Of Hell.

I read all these stories that my father had written and it filled me with great dread, I had two members of my crew named Glasse and Aspin. I went ice cold with fear and the hairs on my neck stood on end. What was I to do.?
I challenged Aspin about the compass, he denied all knowledge of the missing alcohol it was OK when he left the wheel at 2am.
Steering a course was very difficult with the compass needle sticking repeatedly, .being an old ship we had no other compass to steer by.
The seas were heavy now, we were in the roaring forties, I also challenged Glasse as to why he was staggering like a man who was drunk, he said it was the roll of the ship that made him like that. I could not prove it was him who had drank the alcohol
The Mate and I had to try and watch these two men continuously.
One night an iron bar was jammed into the piston of our triple expansion engine and it snapped a piston, which smashed the cylinder, steam was blasting all over the engine room and the poor second engineer, a Mr Kevin Harrison, was scalded to death.. The ship was stopped while the body of Mr Kevin was retrieved. When all hands were called to assist in the engine room it was discovered that Glasse, Aspin and Ernest Norris Green had disappeared with one of the ship`s lifeboats.
We were approximately forty miles off the coast of South Georgia, but we were powerless and drifting with the current and a northerly wind to the South towards the Antarctic.
We had the sad task of sewing up the body of Kevin and sliding his body into those cold dark waters of the Scotia Sea.
Two weeks later we were nearing the coast of Elephant Island, we were surrounded by large icebergs. We had struggled with the engine repairs and finally removed the smashed piston and cylinder. The firemen got up steam again and the engines were started slowly, it was off balance and so we had to steam at slow speed making around three knots, but that was better than drifting ashore on that wild and desolate island with no means of escape.
Meanwhile, we learned later, Glasse and Aspin had taken Ernest hostage to help with the rowing and sailing of the boat to South Georgia, They knew there were many whalers and sealers operating out of there and so they could easily escape.
They had landed in King Edward Sound and made their way to Grytviken with a tale of shipwreck, they were the only survivors. A Norwegian Whaler arrived and Ernest being a Seaman and bigger than the other two, found a job onboard and shipped out. No one wanted a one eyed steward and a whinging sailor. They were stranded for the duration.
Twelve days after repairing the engine we arrived in Grytviken four weeks after the disaster caused by the Glasse and Aspin.
The Harbour Authorities arrived on board and were amazed when we told them of our dreadful voyage. He informed us that the evil Glasse and Aspin were still on the island and steps would be taken to arrest them.
They were confined in an empty whale oil tank, there being no police or prison on the island, and held until we were ready for sailing after loading the whale oil into our tanks in the holds. Also there was no facility on South Georgia to repair the piston and cylinder so we would have to make for Cape Town as the nearest port on our way back to Garston. The 3800 mile voyage would take us around seven weeks at three knots. We loaded coal bunkers, stores and fresh water, then Glasse and Aspin were dragged onboard in chains and taken down the fore peak and chained to the bulkhead there. A watch was posted at the entrance to the focsle and they were fed and watered when the crew were fed.
We cast off the wooden jetty in Grytviken to the cheers of the Flensers and the crews of the Sealers that were moored there. Sailing around King Edward Point we then headed in a NE direction through the iceberg covered Scotia Sea towards the South Atlantic. We now had a new compass purchased from the chandlers in Grytviken.
After 24 days at sea we were running short of stores and fresh water, we had enough coal loaded for the journey to Cape Town.
Nightingale Island came up on our Port bow, which was, unfortunately uninhabited. A few hours later Tristan da Cunha came in sight on our Starboard bow, a look at the charts showed there was a settlement there so we made for the anchorage by the settlement named Edinburgh.
As we anchored a few small fishing boats came out to us and we invited them on board. They were a very pleasant and cheerful crowd.
They informed us that we could purchase sheep and fresh vegetables for our stores.
Now at this time Glasse and Aspin were on deck for their exercise period and Glasse heard that one of the senior men on the island was a Mr Glass. He claimed to be a member of the family. I saw a chance here of getting rid of the evil little man, if he was stranded here on Tristan he would never return to England, no ships passed this way, it was the most isolated island on earth.
Mr Glass, a kindly man, took Glasse ashore with him while he questioned his family connections. I thought it would be an ideal thing to do, separate Glasse and Aspin , I would then take Aspin to Cape Town to be dealt with by the authorities there.
Mr Glass called me to his home, he told me that this Glasse had tried to tell him he was from the Somerset side of the Glass family. He could not possibly be.
The original Glass family had arrived here from Holland in 1814 with William Glass as head of the family and had never had any English side. He had Glasse taken outside of the settlement to a shack that was some times used as a shelter for the men working in the fields. He was locked up there while we decided what to do with him. I didn?t want him on my ship and Mr Glass didn?t want him on the island.
Then fate took a hand, there was a tremble and the earth moved sideways and back, a rumbling sound was heard, Mr Glass said ?Quickly, we must get into the boats, it is the volcano.? Tristan was just a volcano with enough space on it for the settlement.
We and all the 200 residents ran down to the jetty and the boats took us all out to our ship.
We watched as the volcano fired flames, smoke and sparks up into the sky, then a sliver of orange lava poured down the mountain side and it was heading for the shack that held Glasse.
We could hear his screams echoing from the side of the mountain as the lava advanced upon him. Then it hit the shack and then a cloud of steam appeared as his body was consumed in the `Fires From Hell`. He was gone, covered in a thick layer of molten rock, a fitting end to an evil man and hopefully an end to the curse of de Glasse in the 17th century.
The volcano stopped the eruption and all was quiet again. it was as if it had to be to rid the earth of this evil. The volcano stayed quiet until 1961 when the whole settlement had to be evacuated to England.
We went back ashore with the families and all seemed to normal again. We stayed for four days while the good islanders rounded up the sheep and found us the vegetables that we required.
We bade farewell to our new friends and headed for Cape Town 2000 miles distant..
After an uneventful voyage of 28 days we arrived in the shadow of Table Mountain. The British Consul arrived on board and I notified him of the events of the voyage and also we needed repairs to our engine.
The Police came down to the ship and Aspin was taken ashore and charges laid against him, Mutiny and assisting in the manslaughter of Mr Kevin Harrison, our late Second Engineer.
The Notsrag was towed around to the repair berth and Globe Engineering Co. Ltd. Stripped out our engine and did all the necessary repairs and soon had the pistons moving up and down smoothly.
Meanwhile I attended the Crown Court on Adderley Street for the trial of Aspin. He was found guilty of the charges and was sentenced to Hard Labour for life on Robben Island, working in the Limestone Quarry. At last we had got rid of this evil duo.
We made ready for sailing, loaded fresh stores, water and coal bunkers then proceeded to sea for a pleasant voyage back to Garston with a brief call at St. Vincent in the Cape Verde Islands for bunkers.
When we arrived in Garston much was made of the voyage in the Newspapers and of the events that had happened to us.

March 2009.
I have just read my Grandfather`s journal of 1925/6. I decided to do a re run of that voyage but this time on a nice cruise ship. After that fateful voyage he changed the family name again to Kong instead of King, a changed name a changed fortune. he said.
We went to Buenos Aires and walked around the streets such as Viente Cinco de Mayo where my forefathers drank and danced the tango with so many Senoritas. I went to the Pink Palace, one time home of the famous Evita and to the Recolletta, where she is buried. We sailed to that dreadful place, Elephant Island, through the mists and snows, through the Scotia Sea surrounded by icebergs to Grytviken in South Georgia. A pretty place in the late Autumn sun light. The Whaling Station has long gone, just a few rusting tanks and derelect buildings, two Sealers and a whale catcher hauled up onto the beach rusting a little more each year. A small grave yard containing around twenty graves of whalers and also of Sir Ernest Shackleton, the great explorer. A sad and lonely place.
From there we sailed 1800 miles to Tristan da Cunha, the loneliest Island on earth.
Going ashore there to the settlement of Edinburgh, we met up with Mr Glass, one of the senior seven families of the island. We went to where the lava flowed down from the volcano and stood on the very spot where that evil Glasse had met his end in the `Fires of Hell`, a strange feeling, being over the man who had caused so much misery. I picked up a lump of pumice, the size of an orange, from the lava and placed it in my pocket.
I bade farewell to the islanders and returned to my ship.
We arrived in Cape Town five days later and stayed there for a few days before flying home.
I took a trip on the ferry to Robben Island, a place made famous by one Nelson Mandela.
I was given permission to examine the records of the inmates. The whole place is now a tourist venue and the guides are ex prisoners from there. Looking through the files I found the name Michael Aspin, he was killed in the limestone quarry by a falling rock that crushed his skull. Then I froze, the date of his death was the date of my birth, 21 June 1935.
I have been much troubled by this revelation since I arrived home.
In my office as I write this journal the lump of lava from Tristan da Cunha seems to be alive, it sort of glows in the dark and sometimes a little sound comes from it, could it be from the screams of Glasse when he was consumed in that fiery lava so far away.??.............................

[Jeff Glasser]

Bugger, reading down the last paragraphs I thought, yes, I can haunt haunt kong with tales of the 'Screaming pumice stone' and what happens? you beat me to it!
Fear not kong, Jeffrey Glasse is not finshed yet.
I will have to give it serious thought.

on a more serious note, do you know how Brian is?


Jeff

[captain kong]

Hi Jeff,
I heard from Clancy that he phoned his Company and they told him that he is still in hospital but he is "up and about". what ever that means.


You`ll notice that the story is still left "open". hope you enjoyed the demise of Glasse.
Mr. Glass of Tristan is a real person. just a coincidence . I must appolgise to him for bringing him and his family into this story and for any embarrassment caused. Cheers.

[Jeff Glasser]

Hi kong,
Glad to hear that Brian is 'up and about'

I guessed that the name 'Glass was real on Tristan, even you would'nt have made that one up!
Your latest scribblings were those of a true master of the written word.

I shall continue as soon as I can think up something terrible for you to have to endure!!

Jeff

[captain kong]

I will be ready for you Glasse.

[Jeff Glasser]

Fear not kong, I shall parry your litery thrusts with my own sharpened quill!

Imust away now to my secret writing chamber to decant more vitriol!

Glass'

[clancy]

Fear not kong, I shall parry your litery thrusts with my own sharpened quill!

Imust away now to my secret writing chamber to decant more vitriol!

Glass'

err wats a vitriol can ya eat it