Chapter 28

The gaffer turned out to be old school Aussie. Big, tough and an excellent shot, his friends were just as handy. All were descendants of freeholders ... but way back when ... in 1789 or 1790, wives were hard to come by so the first William Tindale married a convict.

Molly, a pretty little London pickpocket with no last name, was all of fourteen years old when she was transported but turned fifteen by the time her prison ship arrived.

The first Bill was a Tindale but there was a convict of the same name and rather than worry about it, Bill took up the name of Tindle.

Nine generations of Tindles produced the Gaffer ... two more were responsible for William the twelfth. William 12 was the one who convinced Andrea and the Pretty Penny crew to wait in Darwin for the ROV parts and techs.

There may have been some confusion as to who ... exactly ... was responsible for the first native born Australian WilliamTindle ... but the rest of sweet Molly's ten children were surely William's progeny.

Big Bill was everything his father was not; Six feet one inch to Dad's five foot three. As blond as dad was dark, Big Bill got his nickname not from his height but from his length. He was smarter than his mother ... and Molly was no slouch. He took to the new continent like he was born there ... well ... he was.

Tindale (Tindle) had a holding in the Outback ... of course, the Outback wasn't all that far Outback when Sydney and the Colony was first settled ... the Outback kept getting farther and farther out

back as the country around Sydney filled up. And it was filling up.

In America there were those people who kept moving west because, "Mother ... we're getting crowded in here. I saw smoke ... oh ... must be twenty miles east of us. Pack up ... I don't like people knowing what I'm doing."

The Tindles moved ... moved ... and moved again before Molly put her pretty little foot down.

She was holding a cast iron skillet under his nose, "This far, William Tindle, and no more!!"

"But Molly..."

"Bill?" She stamped her foot.

"Molly?"

"Do you like my cunny?"

"You know I do."

"Move me again and you can use Rosie Palmer and her five daughters for your relief!"

"Yes, Molly."

They stayed. The country filled up around them. Many of the newcomers had daughters. It was a very good thing. The generations of the Williams had the same problem ... they liked them young ... most families have twenty between generations ... the Tindles had fifteen.

Lieutenant J. L. Stokes of the Beagle, was the first British person to spot Darwin harbor in September of 1839. Commander J.C. Wickham named the water after the English naturalist, Charles Darwin. Thirty years later, in 1869, George Gorder established a permanent European settlement and named it after the British Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston.

Shortly after the settlement the Australian Overland Telegraph was set up to connect Darwin with Port Augusta. Two thousand miles of poles and wire ... and much of it was nailed up by the sixth William.

William Tindle ... the sixth Bill ... liked the looks of Darwin ... what he liked the looks of wasn't the harbor or the land ... He liked the looks of Kitty Kerlake ... Katherine to her mother when she was bad. When Kitty was bad, she was very good.

Big Bill the sixth was actually Big Bill of the long nine ... and it scratched the itch of Kitty Kerlake one too many times. By 1872, the Tindles had the start of a large brood.

Kitty had an education ... she passed it on to her children ... she had a head for business, too. By 1900, the Tindle's owned considerable timbered land and most importantly ... a sawmill.

The seventh Big Bill decided that it was more profitable to ship the timber themselves and thus began the Tindle Shipping and Transportation Company. Now they had money.

The eighth Bill went to the Army to learn to be an officer. He wanted to fly but the requirements of the service ... Subaltern William Tindle married and went off to war ... he never came back, nor was he ever found ... but he did leave a grieving widow ... and the ninth Bill ... the Gaffer.