Who Was "Doctor Long Ghost"

John D. Earnshaw, 16 Lord Street, Roseville, Sydney, seeks more information about a romantic character of the Early Pacific.

OF all the strange characters that figure in Pacific history there is none more elusive or intriguing than that of Dr. Long Ghost, the bosom friend and companion of Herman Melville. In deed, it is only due to Melville that the Long Docior can lay any claim to immor tality: for embalmed in the pages of “Omoo” is the account of the cruise of the colonial whaler Lucy Ann, the adven ture of the mutiny off Papeete and the subsequent joyous vagabonding in Moorea.

On August 9, 1842, the Sydney whaler, Lucy Ann, Captain Ventom, lay off the coast of Nukahiva, in the Marquesas. She was short of men and had just signed on, with 120th lay of the catch, a young American runaway sailor who bore the now famous name of Herman Melville.

He had deserted from the whaleship Acushnet a short time previously; and, after spending three weeks in the valley of Taipi, was glad to change the life of a beachcomber, with all its faults and com pensations, for the more sober one of a sailor before the mast. In “Typee,” that doyen of South Sea novels, Melville tells of his sojourn in the valley, and of his dalliance with the dusky Fayaway.

The steward of the Lucy Ann was one John B. Troy, a man of many parts, but few scruples; for we learn that a few days previously he had attempted to desert, taking with him some of the ship’s stores, including the all-precious medicine chest.

For this, he was banished to the fo’pastle, where he and Melville soon became bosom friends. rOY was the “Dr. Long Ghost” that is the familiar figure to those who have read “Omoo.” Melville describes him in affectionate terms: “He had gone out,to Sydney as assistant-surgeon of an emigrant ship. On his arrival there, he went back into the country, and after a few months’ wanderings, returned to Sydney penniless, and entered as a doc tor aboard the Julia (i.e., Lucy Ann).

“His personal appearance was remark able. He was over six feet high—a tower of bones, with a -complexion absolutely colourless, fair hair, and a light, unscru pulous grey eye, twinkling occasionally as the very devil of mischief. Among the crew, he went by the name of the Long Doctor, or, more frequently still, Doctor Long Ghost. And from whatever high estate Doctor Long Ghost might have fallen, he had certainly at one time or other spent money, drunk Burgundy, and associated with gentlemen.

“As for his learning, he quoted Virgil, talked of Hobbes of Malmsbury, besides repeating poetry by the canto, especially Hudibras. He was, moreover, a man who had seen the world. In the easiest way imaginable, he would refer to an armour he had in Palermo, his lion-hunting among the caffres, ahd the quality of coffee to be drunk in Muscat; and about these places, and a hundred others, he had more anecdotes than I can tell of.

Then such mellow old he sang, in a voice so round and racy, the real juice of sound. How such notes came forth from his lank body was a constant marvel.”

This is the most graphic description we have of the man who was one of the most plausible and engaging rogues that ever went adventuring in the Pacific. The boasts of Dr. Long Ghost awake a vaguely familiar echo in the extravagant bombasts of Joshua Hill who, by his tyranny, dis turbed the peace of Pitcairn Island in

the 1830’s. Maybe it is more than co incidence that Joshua Hill also hailed from Chile.

BUT, to return to the Lucy Ann. After a month or so of fruitless cruising after the sperm whale, she arrived off Papeete, where the crew—longing for the known delights of that town—refused duty. Acting-Consul Wilson took charge and clapped the “revolters” into the “calaboosa Beretanee” for mutiny. Mel ville and Long Ghost were among those who suffered this mild confinement, but it was only a matter of weeks before the pair Jjad effected their escape to the neighbouring island of Moorea.

Their wanderings on Moorea make as entertaining reading as can be imagined, and is the best account that has come down to us of a beachcomber’s life in those days. But, soon, came the parting of the ways, and Melville shipped on a whaler bound for the coasts of Japan.

He never saw or heard of Long Ghost again.

But Long Ghost was too remarkable a man to drop so easily from the pages of Pacific history. So, in later years, he is identified as playing a leading role in two other South Sea episodes of tragedy and hazard.

THOMAS TROOD. an old identity of Apia, and one-time British Vice- Consul, writing of John C. Williams in his book of “Island Reminiscences,” says: “He was the son of the celebrated missionary, John Williams, who was mur dered, with Mr. Harris, at Erromanga. their companions escaping. One of them, a surgeon, whose name appears fictitiously as ‘Dr. Long Ghost’ in one of Herman Melville’s Islands novels, I saw at Con ception, Chile, in 1856. where he had married and settled. Unless he is con siderably over a hundred, he must have long since joined the majority.”

The two survivors of that fatal day at Erromanga in 1839 were Captain Mor gan, master of the missionary brig, Cam den, and a certain Mr. William C. Cun ningham. It is the latter that Trood indicates as the Long Ghost of Melville.

There#is no record of Cunningham’s arrival in New South Wales, but it is known that he left for the Islands on the schooner Ulitea, in 1834, and later

attempted sugar planting in Rarotonga.

He left that island on the Camden, as the guest of Williams, a few weeks before the tragedy at Erromanga.

In the following year he returned to Erromanga, on HMS Favourite, and assisted to recover the relics of the mur dered men; and shortly afterwards he made another of his characteristic exits from contemporary records. rE next identification of Dr. Long Ghost is by Captain H. B. Stem dale, of New Zealapd. In the last century, Sterndale was a leading authority on the trade and history of the South Seas. In 1890, writing of the wreck of the Chatham on Penrhyn, he says: “The Chatham was owned by Mr. E. H.

Lamont, now of Melbourne, who has since published a large volume of adventure under the title of ‘Wild Life Among the

Pacific Islanders’; and his Dr. Rouke was none other than the Dr. Long Ghost immortalised by Herman Melville in his story ‘Omoo.’ "

The brig, Chatham, was purchased in 1852 by Lamont, Hunter & Co., of San Francisco, for a trading cruise to the South Pacific. Her master was George Snow, an old Nantucket whaleman.

Lamont states: “Sometime previous to the concerted voyage, I had met in San Francisco a gentleman who professed an intimate knowledge of the Islands. Dr.

R (I need not give the name by which he was introduced to me) proposed to participate in our expedition; and from his presumed knowledge of the Islands trade, I most gladly availed my self of his services.”

It was perhaps more than a coincidence that the course of the Chatham , as dir ected by the Doctor, was turned towards the old stamping-grounds of his earlier years. The first call was at Taipi, in the Marquesas; thence on to Tahiti and Rarotonga. On January 6, 1853, shortly after leaving Rarotonga on the return voyage, the brig ran on the reef at Pen rhyn, and became a total loss. All the company reached shore safely, but little was saved from the wreck. After a few weeks of indecision, they built a small craft from the wreckage, with the inten tion that a few of their number would try to make Humphreys Island, a few hundred miles to the south-west.

In the meantime, however, some of the crew had discovered a rich bed of pearl shell in the lagoon, and one morning

Lamont was awakened by the natives cry ing: “The boat is gone, the Long Man is gone.” To Lament’s dismay, this proved to be the case. During the night, Dr. Rouke, Captain Snow and two others had made off with the boat. Lamont bit terly remarks: “He was indeed gone, and all my hopes of deliverance, at least for a time, were gone With him; for, as he had an idea of pearling here, I felt satisfied he would not disclose the position of the island until he could return with a vessel, for which purpose he must first reach Chile, as he had no means elsewhere of enter ing into the matter.”

APPARENTLY, Long Ghost and his companions made their boat voyage safely; for, as we have heard, Trood met him in Chile three years later.

Whether he returned to Penrhyn for the pearls we do not know. For a time, Lamont remained on the island and then was picked up by a passing Yankee whaler.

Who was the mysterious Dr. Long Ghost, and where did he come from, and where did he finally go? Who was this charming scamp of many aliases, who roved the broad Pacific a hundred years ago; at ease in any circumstances or place, whether it was the dingy fo’castle of a Sydney whaler or the ward-room of a man-o’-war?

Perhaps some reader can fill in the gaps in his history, so that we can have a complete picture of this veritable para gon of Pacific rovers.