Library Has Something To Write Home About
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday July 19, 1995
Jacob Nagle's first trip to Manly was not a happy one.
Nagle, an American sailor who came to NSW on the First Fleet ship Sirius, was with Governor Arthur Phillip at Manly when Phillip was speared by an Aborigine. Nagle hauled the oars on the long boat that carried the Governor back to Sydney Cove while the ship's doctor sat writing Phillip's will.
Now Nagle's memoir of his stay in Port Jackson has been secured by the State Library for $35,000.
To help fund the acquisition, the State Library of NSW Foundation will throw a gala dinner at the library tonight.
The money raised will also go towards buying 86 letters written by the artist Donald Friend to his friend Donald Murray.
The curator of manuscripts at the State Library, Mr Paul Brunton, said that with the purchase of the Nagle memoir, dating from 1821, the library now had nine of the 11 First Fleet journals.
A later version of Nagle's memoir (1840) is in the Clements Library in Michigan and was published in 1988. It recounts Nagle's First Fleet adventures, as well as his experiences in the American Revolutionary War (where he shook George Washington's hand) and the Royal Navy (where he shook Nelson's hand).
The earlier journal was found last year in Ohio, where Nagle died in 1841, aged 80.
"This version is much more off-the-cuff, so more valuable from the point of view of being nearer in time to the events described and more first thoughts," Mr Brunton said. "It's interesting too from the point of view of an ordinary seaman, not an officer; it is very different to get a below-decks view."
Mr Brunton said Nagle's memoir supported an emerging view that the First Fleet was not just sent here to dump convicts, but for strategic trading reasons. Nagle is clear that one reason Sydney was chosen was because of its proximity to Norfolk Island, with its pine and flax for naval supplies. Nagle's journal will go on display at the library next month.
The library has paid a "substantial sum" to the bookseller Hordern House for the Friend letters. They were written between 1939 and 1952, a time not covered by the artist's diary. Friend was in Africa before World War II, lived in Sydney and Cairns during the war and afterwards in London and Italy.
"I really do hope someone publishes them," Mr Brunton said. "They are the most witty and sparkling letters I have ever read and I've read quite a few."
The letters include reminiscences of school days and stories of being raided by the "Sydney Gestapo" during the war after a neighbour reported Friend for playing African music she suspected contained a code.
Friend also describes an African brothel frankly advertising "Big Men sixpence, Small Men thruppence", although he says the term Big Men "refers to social standing not penitic dimension". He apologises for his lack of paper, saying he has used it for "sanitary purposes and protests to The Times".
"It's a lovely sweep of correspondence for 20 years and the few people I know who have looked at them get engrossed and start chuckling," Mr Brunton said. "The words just jump off the page."
© 1995 Sydney Morning Herald