Red Saunders the Chronicle of a Genial Outcast

by Sinbad (Captain Dingle)

258 pages, Hardcover

Published September 1, 1934

Reviews

[Neil Stanley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series of good rip- roaring yarns, supposed the life of Red Saunders, probably based on fact but certainly author’s licence used. The author, Sinbad, actually a former sea Captain who sailed with Red Saunders & was wrecked with him on St Paul’s Island in Indian Ocean - unfortunately this part of the story is skimmed over, as Sinbad states that it is covered in his book A Modern Sinbad, also published in 1930s. Red Saunders left England under a cloud, having broken a man’s back on a billiard table during a fight. In Singapore he signed on as mate on a trading schooner called the ‘Black Pearl’ which after attempting to obtain a cargo of bird-of-paradise feathers in New Guinea, where they fell foul of Dutch authorities, they headed via Sydney to Samoa where they were caught up in the famous devastating hurricane of 1889 (written about by RL Stevenson) where The owner of the ‘Black Pearl’ was killed & Red Saunders inherited the boat. For the next 20 or so years - other than the hurricane & Saunders death in East Africa just before WW1, the author gives no hint of dates - the series of adventures fluctuates between South East Asia, Gilbert Islands, Zanzibar, Borneo, Madagascar, Australia. The adventures include dealing with pearls & gems in Singapore & Dutch East Indies, kidnapping the Sultan of Zanzibar’s harem in the Royal barge; smuggling opium to convicts in the Andaman Islands; shipping a circus from Singapore to Zanzibar, complete with an elephant & tigers & being caught in a hurricane where the elephant & tigers broke loose. He was almost killed by natives in the Solomon Islands, looked for gold & precious stones in Borneo, & even the more mundane - shipping kauri timber from Kaipara in NZ to Australia for railway sleepers. Eventually Red Saunders was killed, having been caught up in a gun-running operation in Tanganyika at the outbreak of the First World War. The book is a good read, probably a mix of exaggerated fact & hearsay, of itinerant traders in the late Victorian & Edwardian eras. Unfortunately the book has long been out of print & I found it by chance in a second-hand bookshop.