Augusten Elliot, Witness and the Wreck of Hope
Augusten Elliott in the charge, was said to be one of the prime organizers a man “accustomed to pray and ravages of this kind” and “the muster-master, the treasurer and divider of the prey amongst his plundering regiment”. So it seems fair to assume that being “accustomed” it was not the first time he had done this kind of thing.
After a trial of six and a half hours the jury brought in a verdict of Not Guilty. The writer of the account concludes “as at a moderate computation 10,000 from all parts of the county of farmers, tradesmen, labourers with one Lord of the Manor” were involved it was perhaps not surprising the jury should favor the accused. It would also be impossible in such times and in a county as Dorset, to find a totally disinterested jury. For no doubt all had profited from the wreck in some way.
Across his waistcoat is his watch chain and hanging from it the gold coin referred to
here. It can also be seen hanging in the frontispiece.
Behind him can be seen the cable worked incline, and wagons loaded with cut and marked stone to be shipped off the Island. June 1921.
It is a likely conclusion too that this shipwreck and plunder was the origin of the gold coins that both grandfather John5 Flann and great uncle George wore on their watch chains and which presumably had been passed down to them. Grandma Flann and our aunts always denied this, but they were certainly highly prized possessions and presumably had passed down the generations to them.
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