Flood was aware of the stir at the lawyers’ bench and then of the movement in the court, where the earlier witnesses were sitting. Pisani’s unhappiness would be increasing with every moment that passed.
‘You have no doubt about that?’ Flood pressed.
‘Absolutely none.’
‘That view is obviously supported by evidence?’
‘Of course,’ said Austin.
‘Then taking as much time as you feel necessary, Mr Austin, perhaps you could provide that evidence.’
There was more movement from where the lawyers sat as they prepared to take notes.
‘The Mary Celeste has no bulwarks, but a top-gallant rail supported by stanchions,’ began the surveyor. ‘The whole of this rail, apart from one section, was uninjured. Nor was a single stanchion misplaced. Upon the deck were water barrels, in their proper places and secured. Had the vessel ever been thrown on her beam ends or encountered a very serious gale, the barrels would have gone adrift, carrying away some of the top-gallant stanchions.’
‘That is your only evidence?’
‘By no means. There is a for’ard deckhouse, made of thick planking and painted white, the seam between it and the deck being filled with pitch. A very violent sea would have swept the deckhouse away. A sea of less than very great violence would have cracked the panelling or the pitch. It had not suffered the slightest injury; there was not even cracking in the paint. I examined the windows and shutters of this deckhouse. None was damaged in the slightest degree, as they would have been had bad weather been encountered.’
‘What else?’
‘On the starboard side of the main cabin was the chief mate’s quarters. On a little bracket in this cabin I found a small phial of oil for a sewing machine, in an upright, perpendicular position, a reel of cotton and a thimble. Such light articles would have been cast down in any serious gale. In a lower drawer beneath the bedspace was a quantity of glass and some loose pieces of iron, stored together. I would have expected this iron to shatter the glass, had the Mary Celeste been thrown about. The glass was intact. Throughout the vessel, there were windows the glass of which was not of the reinforced, porthole type. Unless covered or shuttered in bad weather — and none of it was covered when I boarded the vessel — then this glass would have been stove in by heavy seas.’
‘Would you help the court about what you found upon descending through the lazarette hatch?’
‘As the court knows, this is the storage area of the vessel,’ responded Austin. ‘I located here several barrels of assorted stores and also a barrel of Stockholm tar, the head of which had been removed. Neither the provisions nor the tar had been upset by weather, as would have undoubtedly happened if it had been bad.’
‘Will you now talk about your findings in the master’s cabin?’
During his evidence, Austin had turned slightly away from Cochrane, towards the court. He went back now, knowing it was another important piece of evidence.
‘There was a sword there, of a somewhat ornate design — ’ began Austin.
‘This sword?’ queried Flood, offering the exhibit.
The marshal carried it to Austin, who nodded.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘This was the weapon. I examined it minutely. I did not consider it affected by the water which had wetted, although not to an appreciable degree, other sections of the vessel. Upon withdrawing the blade from its scabbard, I saw upon the blade marks which I believed to be blood. Attempts had been made to wipe them away — ’
‘A moment, Mr Austin,’ interrupted the Attorney-General. ‘Let us establish a fact here without question of challenge. Although not substantial, is it your view that there were areas of the ship which had been wetted by the sea and this cabin was one of them, apparently having had an open fanlight when the salvage crew boarded?’
‘That was my information.’
‘That being so, do you consider that the marks upon this sword could have been in any way those of rust, caused by that wetting?’
‘As I have already said, no, I do not.’
‘You have no doubt whatsoever that the stains were blood?’
‘None. There had been some attempts to wipe the blade, but it was still clearly blood.’
The Attorney-General paused, glancing to his right. All three lawyers sat hunched over their pads, writing hurriedly.
‘Did you discover any wine, beer or spirits aboard?’
‘No, sir, none.’
‘You have told us that, in your opinion, no weather conditions could have caused the abandonment of the Mary Celeste. During the five hours you spent conducting your minute, expert examination did you come upon any other logical explanation of why Captain Briggs should have taken his wife, baby and crew off in the ship’s boat?’
‘Absolutely none. I studied every part of the ship to which I had access in an effort to discover whether there had been any explosion or whether there had been any fires or any accident calculated to create an alarm of an explosion or fire. I did not discover the slightest trace of such a thing.’
‘The vessel was sound and not shipping water to any appreciable extent?’
‘Absolutely sound.’
‘You had a diver, Mr Ricardo Portunato, conduct an external examination of the hull?’
‘I did.’
‘What were his findings?’
‘The hull was intact, in excellent condition and with no visible signs of damage other than the two cut marks about which I have already spoken.’
‘What conclusions do you, an expert, draw from all this, Mr Austin?’
‘From my examination of the Mary Celeste, I did not discover any evidence indicating weather conditions or any other logical explanation for the disappearance of the crew.’
‘Continuing that assessment to its logical end, can there only be a sinister conclusion as to the fate of Captain Briggs, his wife, their child, and perhaps some of the crew?’
‘I fear so,’ said Austin.
The Attorney-General sat down, flushed with contentment. Returning to his reflections at the beginning of the day, he decided that had he been performing in the bullring and not in a court, he would surely have been awarded not just the ears, but the tail as well.
He relaxed in his seat, watching first Pisani and then Cornwell attempt to obtain from the surveyor some qualification of the dogmatic evidence he had given. Austin remained absolutely unshakeable, repeating again and again that there had been no evidence aboard the ship to support the theory that the vessel had been beset by gales.
For a lawyer who could no longer have any belief in his brief, Pisani was questioning with remarkable tenacity. Flood regarded the man admiringly. Pisani did have integrity. But it was proving to little avail. The more Pisani tried, the worse he made it sound for the crew of the Dei Gratia.
The Attorney-General decided he would invoke the request with which he had ended each day’s examination and have Oliver Deveau recalled. John Austin’s evidence would make a damaging contrast to that of the first mate, and Flood judged Deveau more likely to collapse under positive challenge than either Morehouse or Winchester. The Attorney-General felt he could afford to wait, savouring their eventual capitulation to truth at some later time.
He looked casually around, unable to locate Deveau. Obviously the man had absented himself for a few moments; Flood had been passingly aware of how accustomed these men had become to court proceedings, leaving and entering during the course of the hearing, no longer sniggering like nervous schoolboys, as they had that first day. It was true, of course, that even the most obtuse must recognise which way the hearing was going and realise that there was little cause for laughter any more.
It was a further hour before Pisani conceded defeat, sitting down and leaving the surveyor with every statement absolutely intact.
Flood was on his feet as soon as the surveyor had been released.
‘I seek the recall of Oliver Deveau,’ he announced.
The response came not from the court registrar, as he had anticipated, but from Pisani.
‘I regret that will not be possible,’ said the crew lawyer, standing.
