Matthew Quintal, outstanding heavy

I like to collect postcards that are related to my main subject, but perhaps not obviously so at first glance. These two cards are from what I like to call my "sideways" collection.

Matthew Quintal, born on 3rd March, 1766, was perhaps the roughest character in the Pitcairn story. He was the man who, some people believe, took it upon himself to burn the Bounty at Pitcairn. The following extract is from David Silverman’s excellent book Pitcairn Island, published in 1967 by the World Publishing Company:

Matthew Quintal, (Quintall, Quintrell, Quintral), A.B. Matthew Quintal, a Cornishman from Padstow, was easily the outstanding “heavy” in the Pitcairn cast, despite no inconsiderable competition. His comradeship at arms (and bottle) with McCoy apparently antedated their Bounty experience. Quintal was the very prototype of the “hard cases,” typical of Royal Navy crews of the time, for whose control the lash had been sanctioned. He was the first aboard the Bounty to taste it; early in the voyage Bligh had ordered twenty-four applications of that sovereign remedy applied to Quintal’s back for what Bligh variously described as “insolence and mutinous behaviour” and “insolence and contempt to the master.” Quintal appears on Bligh’s list as “aged 21 years, five feet five inches high, fair complexion, light-brown hair, strong made [no exaggeration], very much tatowed on the back side, and several other places.” Quintal was the leader in the maltreatment of the Polynesians. “Asserted as a fact” by Rosalind Young is the story “handed down that one day his wife went out fishing, and, not succeeding in obtaining enough to satisfy Quintall, he punished her by biting off her ear.”

This 1888 view of Padstow Harbour, from the Francis Frith Collection, is reproduced from a recently printed postcard. Although photographed almost 100 years after the Mutiny on the Bounty, it captures a view that would not have been totally unfamiliar to the young Matthew Quintal.

Another view of Padstow, shows the Market Place in 1906, also reprinted from the Francis Frith Collection. Here we see evidence of the Quintrell family – their printing and stationery business (on the right) in Market Place. The building, a newsagent’s shop in 2001, under different ownership (although the family is still known in the area), was actually where I purchased this postcard.

A similar viewpoint today can be seen on Google Street View.