A voyage round the world in the years MDCCXL, I, II, III, IV

by Baron George Anson Anson

Thus was this unhappy vessel bandied about within a few leagues of her intended harbour, whilst the neighbourhood of that place and of those circumstances which could alone put an end to the calamities they laboured under, served only to aggravate their distress by torturing them with a view of the relief it was not in their power to reach. But she was at last delivered from this dreadful situation at a time when we least expected it; for after having lost sight of her for several days, we were pleasingly surprized, on the morning of the 23d of July, to see her open the N.W. point of the bay with a flowing sail, when we immediately dispatched what boats we had to her assistance, and in an hour's time from our first perceiving her, she anchored safe within us in the bay. And now we were more particularly convinced of the importance of the assistance and refreshments we so often sent them, and how impossible it would have been for a man of them to have survived had we given less attention to their wants; for notwithstanding the water, the greens, and fresh provisions which we supplied them with, and the hands we sent them to navigate the ship, by which the fatigue of their own people was diminished, their sick relieved, and the mortality abated; notwithstanding this indulgent care of the commodore, they yet buried above three-fourths of their crew, and a very small proportion of the remainder were capable of assisting in the duty of the ship. On their coming to an anchor, our first endeavours were to assist them in mooring, and our next to send their sick on shore. These were now reduced by deaths to less than fourscore, of which we expected to lose the greatest part; but whether it was that those farthest advanced in the distemper were all dead, or that the greens and fresh provisions we had sent on board had prepared those which remained for a more speedy recovery, it happened, contrary to our expectations, that their sick were in general relieved and restored to their strength in a much shorter time than our own had been when we first came to the island, and very few of them died on shore.

I have thus given an account of the principal events relating to the arrival of the Gloucester in one continued narration. I shall only add, that we never were joined by any other of our ships, except our victualler, the Anna pink, who came in about the middle of August, and whose history I shall defer for the present, as it is now high time to return to the account of our own transactions on board and on shore, during the interval of the Gloucester's frequent and ineffectual attempts to reach the island.

Our next employment, after sending our sick on shore from the Centurion, was cleansing our ship and filling our water. The first of these measures was indispensably necessary to our future health, as the numbers of sick, and the unavoidable negligence arising from our deplorable situation at sea, had rendered the decks most intolerably loathsome. And the filling our water was a caution that appeared not less essential to our security, as we had reason to apprehend that accidents might intervene which would oblige us to quit the island at a very short warning; for some appearances we had discovered on shore upon our first landing, gave us grounds to believe that there were Spanish cruisers in these seas, which had left the island but a short time before our arrival, and might possibly return thither again, either for a recruit of water, or in search of us, since we could not doubt but that the sole business they had at sea was to intercept us, and we knew that this island was the likeliest place, in their own opinion, to meet with us. The circumstances which gave rise to these reflections (in part of which we were not mistaken, as shall be observed more at large hereafter) were our finding on shore several pieces of earthen jars, made use of in those seas for water and other liquids, which appeared to be fresh broken: we saw, too, many heaps of ashes, and near them fish-bones and pieces of fish, besides whole fish scattered here and there, which plainly appeared to have been but a short time out of the water, as they were but just beginning to decay. These were certain indications that there had been ships at this place but a short time before we came there; and as all Spanish merchantmen are instructed to avoid the island, on account of its being the common rendezvous of their enemies, we concluded those who had touched here to be ships of force; and not knowing that Pizarro was returned to Buenos Ayres, and ignorant what strength might have been fitted out at Callao, we were under some concern for our safety, being in so wretched and enfeebled a condition, that notwithstanding the rank of our ship, and the sixty guns she carried on board, which would only have aggravated our dishonour, there was scarcely a privateer sent to sea that was not an over-match for us. However, our fears on this head proved imaginary, and we were not exposed to the disgrace which might have been expected to have befallen us, had we been necessitated (as we must have been, had the enemy appeared) to fight our sixty-gun ship with no more than thirty hands.

Whilst the cleaning our ship and the filling our water went on, we set up a large copper oven on shore near the sick tents, in which we baked bread every day for our ship's company; for being extremely desirous of recovering our sick as soon as possible, we conceived that new bread, added to their greens and fresh fish, might prove a powerful article in their relief. Indeed we had all imaginable reason to endeavour at the augmenting our present strength, as every little accident, which to a full crew would be insignificant, was extremely alarming in our present helpless situation. Of this we had a troublesome instance on the 30th of June; for at five in the morning, we were astonished by a violent gust of wind directly off shore, which instantly parted our small bower cable about ten fathom from the ring of the anchor: the ship at once swung off to the best bower, which happily stood the violence of the jerk, and brought us up with two cables in eighty fathom. At this time we had not above a dozen seamen in the ship, and we were apprehensive, if the squall continued, that we should be driven to sea in this wretched condition. However, we sent the boat on shore to bring off all who were capable of acting; and the wind soon abating of its fury, gave us an opportunity of receiving the boat back again with a reinforcement. With this additional strength we immediately went to work to heave in what remained of the cable, which we suspected had received some damage from the foulness of the ground before it parted; and agreeable to our conjecture, we found that seven fathom and a half of the outer end had been rubbed, and rendered unserviceable. In the afternoon we bent the cable to the spare anchor, and got it over the ship's side; and the next morning, July 1, being favoured with the wind in gentle breezes, we warped the ship in again, and let go the anchor in forty-one fathom; the eastermost point now bearing from us E.½S.; the westermost N.W. by W.; and the bay as before, S.S.W.; a situation in which we remained secure for the future. However, we were much concerned for the loss of our anchor, and swept frequently for it, in hopes to have recovered it; but the buoy having sunk at the very instant that the cable parted, we were never able to find it.

And now as we advanced in July, some of our men being tolerably recovered, the strongest of them were put upon cutting down trees, and splitting them into billets; while others, who were too weak for this employ, undertook to carry the billets by one at a time to the water-side: this they performed, some of them with the help of crutches, and others supported by a single stick. We next sent the forge on shore, and employed our smiths, who were but just capable of working, in mending our chain-plates, and our other broken and decayed iron-work. We began too the repairs of our rigging; but as we had not junk enough to make spun-yarn, we deferred the general overhale, in hopes of the daily arrival of the Gloucester, who we knew had a great quantity of junk on board. However, that we might dispatch as fast as possible in our refitting, we set up a large tent on the beach for the sail-makers; and they were immediately employed in repairing our old sails, and making us new ones. These occupations, with our cleansing and watering the ship (which was by this time pretty well compleated), the attendance on our sick, and the frequent relief sent to the Gloucester, were the principal transactions of our infirm crew till the arrival of the Gloucester at an anchor in the bay. And then Captain Mitchel waiting on the commodore, informed him that he had been forced by the winds, in his last absence, as far as the small island called Masa Fuero, lying about twenty-two leagues to the westward of Juan Fernandes; and that he endeavoured to send his boat on shore there for water, of which he could observe several streams, but the wind blew so strong upon the shore, and occasioned such a surf, that it was impossible for the boat to land, though the attempt was not altogether useless, for his people returned with a boatload of fish. This island had been represented by former navigators as a barren rock; but Captain Mitchel assured the commodore that it was almost everywhere covered with trees and verdure, and was near four miles in length; and added, that it appeared to him far from impossible but some small bay might be found on it which might afford sufficient shelter for any ship desirous of refreshing there.

As four ships of our squadron were missing, this description of the island of Masa Fuero gave rise to a conjecture that some of them might possibly have fallen in with that island, and might have mistaken it for the true place of our rendezvous. This suspicion was the more plausible as we had no draught of either island that could be relied on: and therefore Mr. Anson determined to send the Tryal sloop thither, as soon as she could be fitted for the sea, in order to examine all its bays and creeks, that we might be satisfied whether any of our missing ships were there or not. For this purpose, some of our best hands were sent on board the Tryal the next morning, to overhale and fix her rigging; and our long-boat was employed in compleating her water, and whatever stores and necessaries she wanted were immediately supplied either from the Centurion or the Gloucester. But it was the 4th of August before the Tryal was in readiness to sail, when, having weighed, it soon after fell calm, and the tide set her very near the eastern shore. Captain Saunders hung out lights and fired several guns to acquaint us with his danger; upon which all the boats were sent to his relief, who towed the sloop into the bay, where she anchored until the next morning, and then weighing again, proceeded on her cruize with a fair breeze.

And now, after the Gloucester's arrival, we were employed in earnest in examining and repairing our rigging; but in the stripping our foremast, we were alarmed by discovering it was sprung just above the partners of the upper deck. The spring was two inches in depth, and twelve in circumference; however, the carpenters, on inspecting it, gave it as their opinion that fishing it with two leaves of an anchor-stock would render it as secure as ever. But, besides this defect in our mast, we had other difficulties in refitting, from the want of cordage and canvas; for though we had taken to sea much greater quantities of both than had ever been done before, yet the continued bad weather we met with had occasioned such a consumption of these stores that we were driven to great straits, as after working up all our junk and old shrouds to make twice-laid cordage, we were at last obliged to unlay a cable to work into running rigging. And with all the canvas, and remnants of old sails that could be mustered, we could only make up one compleat suit.

Towards the middle of August, our men being indifferently recovered, they were permitted to quit their sick tents, and to build separate huts for themselves, as it was imagined that by living apart they would be much cleanlier, and consequently likely to recover their strength the sooner; but at the same time particular orders were given, that on the firing of a gun from the ship they should instantly repair to the water-side. Their employment on shore was now either the procuring of refreshments, the cutting of wood, or the making of oil from the blubber of the sea-lions. This oil served us for several purposes, as burning in lamps, or mixing with pitch to pay the ship's sides, or, when worked up with wood-ashes, to supply the use of tallow (of which we had none left) to give the ship boot-hose tops. Some of the men too were occupied in salting of cod; for there being two Newfoundland fishermen in the Centurion, the commodore set them about laying in a considerable quantity of salted cod for a sea-store, though very little of it was used, as it was afterwards thought to be as productive of the scurvy as any other kind of salt provisions.

I have before mentioned that we had a copper oven on shore to bake bread for the sick; but it happened that the greatest part of the flour for the use of the squadron was embarked on board our victualler the Anna pink: and I should have mentioned that the Tryal sloop, at her arrival, had informed us, that on the 9th of May she had fallen in with our victualler not far distant from the continent of Chili, and had kept company with her for four days, when they were parted in a hard gale of wind. This afforded us some room to hope that she was safe, and that she might join us; but all June and July being past without any news of her, we then gave her over for lost, and at the end of July, the commodore ordered all the ships to a short allowance of bread. Nor was it in our bread only that we feared a deficiency; for since our arrival at this island we discovered that our former purser had neglected to take on board large quantities of several kinds of provisions which the commodore had expressly ordered him to receive; so that the supposed loss of our victualler was on all accounts a mortifying consideration. However, on Sunday, the 16th of August, about noon, we espied a sail in the northern quarter, and a gun was immediately fired from the Centurion to call off the people from shore, who readily obeyed the summons, repairing to the beach, where the boats waited to carry them on board. And being now prepared for the reception of this ship in view, whether friend or enemy, we had various speculations about her; at first, many imagined it to be the Tryal sloop returned from her cruize, though as she drew nearer this opinion was confuted, by observing she was a vessel with three masts. Then other conjectures were eagerly canvassed, some judging it to be the Severn, others the Pearl, and several affirming that it did not belong to our squadron: but about three in the afternoon our disputes were ended by an unanimous persuasion that it was our victualler the Anna pink. This ship, though, like the Gloucester, she had fallen in to the northward of the island, had yet the good fortune to come to an anchor in the bay, at five in the afternoon. Her arrival gave us all the sincerest joy; for each ship's company was immediately restored to their full allowance of bread, and we were now freed from the apprehensions of our provisions falling short before we could reach some amicable port; a calamity which in these seas is of all others the most irretrievable. This was the last ship that joined us; and the dangers she encountered, and the good fortune which she afterwards met with, being matters worthy of a separate narration, I shall refer them, together with a short account of the other missing ships of the squadron, to the ensuing chapter.