The Wager Disaster

by C. H. Layman

  Night was coming on and we were running on a lee-shore fast, where the sea broke in a frightful manner. Not one amongst us imagined it possible for boats to live in such a sea. In this situation, as we neared the shore, expecting to be beaten to pieces by the first breaker, we perceived a small opening between the rocks, which we stood for, and found a very narrow passage between them, which brought us into a harbour for the boats as calm and smooth as a millpond.

  The yawl had got in before us, and our joy was great at meeting again after so unexpected a deliverance. Here we secured the boats, and ascended a rock. It rained excessively hard all the first part of the night, and was extremely cold; and though we had not a dry thread about us, and no wood could be found for firing, we were obliged to pass the night in that uncomfortable situation, without any covering, shivering in our wet clothes. The frost coming on with the morning, it was impossible for any of us to get a moment’s sleep; and having flung overboard our provision the day before, there being no prospect of finding anything to eat on this coast, in the morning we pulled out of the cove. But we found so great a sea without that we could make but little of it.

  After tugging all day, towards night we put in among some small islands, landed upon one of them, and found it a mere swamp. As the weather was the same, we passed this night much as we had done the preceding. Sea-tangle was all we could get to eat at first, but the next day we had better luck: the Surgeon got a goose, and we found materials for a good fire. We were confined here three or four days, the weather all that time proving so bad that we could not put out.

  As soon as it grew moderate we left this place, and shaped our course to the northward; and perceiving a large opening between very high land and a low point we steered for it, and found a large bay down which we rowed, flattering ourselves there might be a passage that way. But towards night we came to the bottom of the bay, and finding no outlet, we were obliged to return the same way we came, having found nothing the whole day to alleviate our hunger.

  Next night we put into a little cove, which, from the great quantity of red wood found there, we called Redwood Cove. Leaving this place in the morning, we had the wind southerly, blowing fresh, by which we made much way that day, to the northward. Towards evening we were in with a pretty large island. Putting ashore on it, we found it clothed with the finest trees we had ever seen, their stems running up to a prodigious height, without knot or branch and as straight as cedars. The leaf of these trees resembled the myrtle leaf, only somewhat larger. I have seen trees larger than these in circumference on the coast of Guinea, and there only; but for length of stem, which gradually tapered, I have nowhere met with any to compare to them. The wood was of a hard substance, and if not too heavy, would have made good masts, the dimension of some of these trees being equal to the main-mast of a first-rate man-of-war. The shore was covered with driftwood of a very large size, most of it cedar, which makes a brisk fire; but is so subject to snap and fly, that when we waked in the morning after a sound sleep, we found our clothes singed in many places with the sparks, and covered with splinters.

  The next morning being calm, we rowed out; but as soon as clear of the island, we found a great swell from the westward. We rowed to the bottom of a very large bay, which was to the northward of us, the land very low, and we were in hopes of finding some inlet through, but did not; so kept along shore to the westward. This part, which I take to be above fifty leagues from Wager’s Island, is the very bottom of the large bay it lies in. Here was the only passage to be found, which (if we could by any means have got information of it) would have saved us much fruitless labour. Of this passage I shall have occasion to say more hereafter. [6]

  We were so pinched with hunger that we ate the shoes off our feet, which consisted of raw seal skin. In the morning we got out of the bay; but the incessant foul weather had overcome us, and we began to be indifferent as to what befell us, and the boats in the night making into a bay, we nearly lost the yawl, a breaker having filled her and driven her ashore upon the beach. (This, by some of our accounts, was Christmas Day; but our accounts had so often been interrupted by our distresses, that there was no depending upon them.) Upon seeing the yawl in this imminent danger, the barge stood off, and went into another bay to the northward of it where it was smoother lying, but there was no possibility of getting on shore. In the night the yawl joined us again.

  The next day was so bad, that we despaired of reaching the headland, so rowed down the bay in hopes of getting some seal, as that animal had been seen the day before, but met with no success. So we returned to the same bay we had been in the night before, where the surf having abated somewhat we went ashore, and picked up a few shellfish. In the morning we got on board early, and ran along shore to the westward for about three leagues in order to get round the Cape, which was the westernmost land we could see. It blew very hard, and there ran such a sea that we heartily wished ourselves back again, and accordingly made the best of our way for that bay which we had left in the morning. But before we could reach it night came on, and we passed a most dismal one, lying upon our oars.

  The weather continuing very bad, we put in for the shore in the morning, where we found nothing but tangle[7] and seaweed. We now passed some days roving about for provisions, as the weather was too bad to make another attempt to get round the Cape as yet. We found some fine lagoons towards the head of the bay; and in them killed some seal, and got a good quantity of shellfish, which was a great relief to us. We now made a second attempt to double the Cape; but when we got the length of it and passed the first headland (for it consists of three of an equal height), we got into a sea that was horrid; for it ran all in heaps, like the Race of Portland, but much worse. We were happy to put back to the old place, with little hopes of ever getting round this Cape.

  Next day, the weather proving very bad, all hands went ashore to procure some sustenance, except two in each boat, which were left as boat-keepers. This office we took by turns, and it was now my lot to be upon this duty with another man. The yawl lay within us at a grapnel. In the night it blew very hard, and a great sea tumbled in upon the shore; but being extremely fatigued, we in the boats went to sleep. Notwithstanding, however, I was at last awakened by the uncommon motion of the boat, and the roaring of the breakers everywhere about us. At the same time I heard a shrieking, like to that of persons in distress. I looked out, and saw the yawl canted bottom upwards by a sea, and soon afterwards she disappeared. One of our men, whose name was William Rose, a quartermaster, was drowned; the other was thrown ashore by the surf, with his head buried in the sand; but by the immediate assistance of the people on shore was saved. As for us in the barge, we expected the same fate every moment; for the sea broke a long way without us. However, we got her head to it, and hove up our grapnel, or I should rather say killick,[8] which we had made to serve in the room of our grapnel, which had been hove overboard some time before to lighten the boat. By this means we used our utmost efforts to pull her without the breakers some way, and then let go our killick again.

  Here we lay all the next day in a great sea, not knowing what would be our fate. To add to our mortification, we could see our companions in tolerable plight ashore eating seal while we were starving with hunger and cold. For this month past, we had not known what it was to have a dry thread about us.

  The next day being something more moderate, we ventured in with the barge as near as we could in safety to the shore, and our companions threw us some seal’s liver; which having eaten greedily we were seized with excessive sickness, which affected us so much that our skin peeled off from head to foot.

  Whilst the people were on shore here Mr Hamilton met with a large seal, or sea-lion, and fired a brace of balls into him, upon which the animal turned upon him open-mouthed; but presently fixing his bayonet he thrust it down its throat, with a good part of the barrel of the gun, which the creature bit in two seemingly with as much ease as if it had been a twig. Notwithstanding the wounds it received, it
eluded all farther efforts to kill it, and got clear off.

  Having lost the yawl, and being too many for the barge to carry off, we were compelled to leave four of our men behind. They were all marines, who seemed to have no great objection to the determination made with regard to them, so exceedingly disheartened and worn out were they with the distresses and dangers they had already gone through. And indeed I believe it would have been a matter of indifference to the greatest part of the rest, whether they should embark or take their chance. The Captain distributed to these poor fellows arms and ammunition and some other necessaries. When we parted they stood upon the beach, giving us three cheers, and called out, God bless the King. We saw them a little after, setting out upon their forlorn hope, and helping one another over a hideous track of rocks; but considering the difficulties attending this only way of travelling left to them (for the woods are impracticable from their thickness and the deep swamps to be met everywhere in them), considering too, that the coast here is rendered so inhospitable, by the heavy seas that are constantly tumbling upon it, as not to afford even a little shellfish, it is probable that all met with a miserable end.[9]

  Chapter 19

  Negotiations with Native Indians

  Golfo de Peñas, 28th January 1742. Campbell describes the appalling weather that dogged their two-month efforts to get out of the Bay of Sorrows, with food and clothing barely enough to sustain life. In absolute desperation they return to Wager Island as a familiar place to die in. There an Indian agrees to pilot them to Chiloé in exchange for the barge. Tensions and resentment arise against the Captain for not sharing food fairly, even when one man dies of starvation. Six men desert and make away with the barge with all their meagre supplies aboard, leaving five officers stranded and completely destitute.

  From Midshipman Campbell’s account

  When we got up to the Cape we found ourselves the third time disappointed there, the wind being always from the north to the west, with such a terrible great sea that it was impossible for any open boat to get round. So we were obliged to return to Marines’ Bay, as we called it, on account of the four men left there.

  All that night we were obliged to lie on our oars, for it was so dark that we dared not attempt to go ashore, especially in the rough state the sea was in, which would greatly have hazarded the loss of the barge also, and then we must all have infallibly perished.

  It is now six weeks since we left Wager Island, during which our chief subsistence has been drawn from under the stones at low water; and we have been every day obliged to remove from place to place to gather shellfish. The loss of the yawl was the more unfortunate to us who belonged in her, as therein we lost all the poor clothes we had except what we happened at that time to have on our backs. All the clothes I had now left were an old shirt, one pair of cloth breeches, one waistcoat, and an old hat, but neither shoe nor stocking.

  On 29th January some of the people declared against making a fresh trial to go round the Cape, and insisted on returning to Wager Island. Others were for leaving the barge and attempting to travel overland, which was the maddest thought imaginable, it being impossible to travel in this wretched part of the American continent.[10] For on the coast side it is all wood and swamp, so that if a man should happen to fall he would be in great danger of drowning.

  At last all agreed to go back to Wager Island, though we had now lost all hopes of ever revisiting our native country, for we expected to die at Wager Island, looking on that place, which we had been so much used to, as a kind of home.

  Before we set out we killed some seal for our voyage. As we came by the place where we had left the four marines, we resolved to go and bring them off. For we considered that if the boat sunk, we then should be free from the miserable life we led, and die altogether. But alas! All we could find of them, or belonging to them, was one musket and their ammunition; and we doubted not but that they had before now perished by some means or other.

  Putting to sea from Marines’ Bay, we rode away for the headland that we had left on Christmas Day; but it being calm all the day, it was night before we could get into the cove. Then we were obliged to lie all night upon our oars, keeping the boat’s head out to sea, for it both rained and blew very hard.

  Next day we set out for Montrose Island,[11] but as soon as we opened the headland that lay to the west of us the vessel almost overset, and filled so fast with water that we were forced to return to the headland and put into the cove, which we called Stone Cove. There we lay weather-bound for two days, after which we again set out for Montrose Island, but could not yet fetch it, and were obliged to put into another harbour. While we lay in this harbour I went on shore, and being very weak my foot slipped so that I fell from one rock to another, then into the water, and was almost drowned, being stunned with the fall from the rocks.

  Having lain here one day, we again put to sea, rowing to windward with the wind at north, in order to get to Montrose Island. All this while we had nothing to eat but seal, which was almost rotten, and we could get no slaugh, so that we were in very great distress. It pleased God that the next night brought us to Montrose Island, which was one of the best we could find in this part of the world, though it produced nothing to eat except a berry which tasted like a gooseberry, but it was black and grew on a bush like a thorn.

  Here we stayed some time, the weather being exceeding bad, and we had far to go without any harbour in the way. And even when we did put to sea the wind blew so hard that we were forced to put back to the same island we came from. Next day we again put to sea with wind and rain pretty moderate. But we had not been long out before it began to blow hard, and was so thick that we could not see whither we were steering, till we heard the breakers on the shore; and in a little time could see them white all around us. We were then obliged to haul aft the sheet and stand off the shore, which we happily, and I might also say miraculously, cleared. For who could imagine that any boat could carry so much sail in such a storm?

  At last it pleased God that we got safe into Redwood Cove. At this time Mr Byron, Mr Hamilton, and I ate together, and when we came on shore I went with the former to get fish, but Mr Hamilton being sick stayed at home to make a half wigwam. This sort of wigwam consists of three arches about a yard and a half high and two yards wide, covered with bushes or whatever can be got for thatch. We made a fire at the door place, but it proved of no use for the smoke would not suffer us to tarry in the wigwam. And so we called this place Smoke Cove.

  Here it was that I was obliged to eat my shoes. They were of seal skin, and they were at that time a very great dainty.

  When we set out from Smoke Cove the weather was fair with little wind, which obliged us to row all the way. It pleased God that we got safe into Cheap’s Bay the same day about five or six o’clock in the afternoon. We were all in a starved condition, having eaten nothing for three days but tangle and other seaweeds. After landing we moored the barge with her grapnel to the sea and stern fast to the land. Going up to the huts which we left two months before, we found one of them nailed up, and were obliged to break open the door to get in. It appeared that the Indians had been there by the things that were in the hut, particularly a quantity of iron and other materials which we knew they had taken from the wreck of our unfortunate ship.

  We found some seal among the bushes which the Indians had thrown away, for it was so rotten that none but men in our condition could have borne the smell of it. We parted it equally among us, ate it all up, and gave thanks to Almighty God for his providential care of us hitherto.

  We stayed here 15 days before any of the Indians came to the island. Meantime we endured the greatest hardships imaginable, the weather being so bad that we could neither get shellfish nor seaweeds. In the interim some differences happened between the Captain, Mr Byron, Lieutenant Hamilton, and myself. There had been some misunderstanding among us ever since Christmas Day; this being 12th February by our account. On this day Mr Hamilton walking along shore discovered several pie
ces of beef washing in the sea, and brought some of them home to Mr Byron and myself, his messmates. Hereupon I went with Mr Byron and we took up several pieces more. The same night we asked the Captain for his frying pan to melt down the fat, in order to preserve it for frying of slaugh or anything else. When we carried it home, with one half of the fat we had found, the Captain would not receive the fat.

  Soon after this affair some Indians came with two canoes, and in one of them was a native of the island of Chiloé who could speak a little Spanish. The Surgeon could speak it likewise, and he asked the Indian if he would carry us to Chiloé in the barge, telling him that he should have her for his trouble, with all that was in her, as soon as we came there. The Indian consenting, we immediately fell to providing for the voyage; and were soon ready, for God knows we had neither victuals nor clothing to trouble ourselves with.

  6th March 1742. We all except one marine embarked in the barge with the Indian for our pilot. This marine, when we were going on board, came upon the beach and stole a greatcoat belonging to one of the men; which done he hid himself in the woods so that we could not find him, nor had we ever any account of him afterwards.

  And now high words arose between the Captain and Mr Hamilton concerning the fat beef he had found some days before; and the difference arose to such a pitch that the Captain threatened to leave the Lieutenant on the island. After this they did not speak to each other for a long time.[12]