_Course from the Straits of Le Maire to Cape Noir._
We had scarcely reached the southern extremity of the Straits of Le
Maire, when our flattering hopes were almost instantly changed to the
apprehension of immediate destruction. Even before the sternmost ships
of the squadron were clear of the straits, the serenity of the sky was
suddenly obscured, and we observed all the presages of an impending
storm. The wind presently shifted to the southward, and blew in
such violent squalls that we had to hand our top-sails and reef our
main-sail; while the tide, which had hitherto favoured us, turned
furiously adverse, and drove us to the eastward with prodigious
rapidity, so that we were in great anxiety for the Wager and Anna
pink, the two sternmost vessels, fearing they might be dashed to
pieces upon the shore of Staten Land; nor were our apprehensions
without foundation, as they weathered that coast with the utmost
difficulty. Instead of pursuing our intended course to the S.W. the
whole squadron was now drifted to the eastward, by the united force of
the storm and current; so that next morning we found ourselves nearly
seven leagues eastward of the straits, which then bore from us N.W.
The violence of the current, which had set us with so much
precipitation to the eastward, together with the fierceness and
constancy of the westerly winds, soon taught us to consider the
doubling of Cape Horn as an enterprize that might prove too mighty
for all our efforts; though some among us had so lately treated the
difficulties which former voyagers were said to have encountered in
this undertaking as little better than chimerical, and had supposed
them to have arisen from timidity and unskilfulness, rather than
from the real embarrassments of the winds and seas. But we were now
convinced, from severe experience, that these censures were rash and
ill founded; for the distresses with which we struggled during the
three succeeding months, will not be easily paralleled in the relation
of any former naval expedition; which, I doubt not, will be readily
allowed by those who shall carefully peruse the ensuing narration.
From this storm, which came on before we were well clear of the
straits of Le Maire, we had a continual succession of such tempestuous
weather as surprised the oldest and most experienced mariners on
board, and obliged them to confess, that what they had hitherto called
storms were inconsiderable gales, when compared with those winds
we now encountered; which raised such short, and at times such
mountainous waves, as greatly surpassed in danger all seas known
in other parts of the globe, and, not without reason, this unusual
appearance filled us with continual terror; for, had any one of these
waves broken fairly over us, it must almost inevitably have sent us
instantly to the bottom. Neither did we escape with terror only:
for the ship, rolling incessantly gunwale-to, gave us such quick and
violent jerking motions, that the men were in perpetual danger of
being dashed to pieces against the decks and sides of the ship; and,
though we were extremely careful to secure ourselves against these
shocks, by grasping some fixed body, yet many of our people were
forced from their holds, some of whom were actually killed, and others
greatly injured. In particular, one of our best seamen was canted
overboard and drowned; another dislocated his neck; a third was thrown
down the main hatchway into the hold and broke his thigh; one of our
boatswain's mates broke his collar-bone twice; not to mention many
other similar accidents.
These tempests, so dreadful in themselves, though unattended by any
other unfavourable circumstances, were yet rendered more mischievous
to us by their inequality, and by the deceitful intervals that at
times occurred; for, although we had often to lie-to for days together
under a reefed mizen, and were frequently reduced to drive at the
mercy of the winds and waves under bare poles, yet now and then we
ventured to make sail under double-reefed courses; and occasionally,
the weather proving more moderate, were perhaps encouraged to set our
top-sails; after which, without any previous notice, the wind would
return with redoubled force, and would in an instant tear our sails
from the yards. And, that no circumstance might be wanting which could
aggravate our distress, these blasts generally brought with them a
great quantity of snow and sleet, which cased our rigging in ice, and
froze our sails, rendering them and our cordage so brittle as to tear
and snap with the least strain; adding thereby great difficulty and
labour to the working of the ship, benumbing the hands and limbs of
our people, and rendering them incapable of exerting themselves
with their accustomed activity, and even disabling many of them, by
inducing mortification of their toes and fingers. It were, indeed,
endless to enumerate the various disasters of different kinds which
befel us, and I shall only mention the most material, which will
sufficiently evince; the calamitous condition of the whole squadron,
during this part of our navigation.
As already observed, it was on the 7th of March that we passed the
Straits of Le Maire, and were immediately afterwards driven to the
eastwards, by a violent storm, and by the force of the current setting
in that direction. During the four or five succeeding days, we had
hard gales of wind from the same western quarter, attended by a most
prodigious swell; insomuch that, although we stood all that time
towards the S.W. we had no reason to imagine we had made any way to
the westwards. In this interval we had frequent squalls of rain and
snow, and shipped great quantities of water. After this, for three
or four days, though the sea ran mountains high, yet the weather was
rather more moderate; but, on the 18th; we had again strong gales of
wind with excessive cold, and at midnight the main top-sail split, and
one of the straps of the main dead-eyes broke. From the 18th to the
23d the weather was more moderate, though, often intermixed with rain
and sleet and some hard gales; but, as the waves did not subside,
the ship, by labouring sore in this lofty sea, became so loose in her
upper-works that she let in water at every seam, so that every part of
her within board was constantly exposed to the sea-water, and scarcely
any even of the officers ever lay dry in their beds. Indeed, hardly
did two nights pass without many of them being driven from their beds
by deluges of water.
On the 23d we had a most violent storm of wind, hail, and rain, with a
prodigious sea; and, though we handed the main-sail before the height
of the squall, yet we found the yard spring; and soon after, in
consequence of the foot-rope of the main-sail breaking, the main-sail
itself split instantly into rags, and much the greater part of it
was blown away, in spite of every endeavour to save it. On this the
commodore made the signal for the squadron to bring to; and as
the storm lulled into a calm, we had an opportunity to lower the
main-yard, and set the carpenters to work upon it, while we also
repaired our rigging; after which, having bent a new main-sail, we got
again under way with a moderate breeze. But, in less than twenty-four
hours, we had another storm, still more furious than the former, which
blew a perfect hurricane, and obliged us to lie-to under bare poles.
As our ship kept the wind better than any of the rest, we were obliged
in the afternoon to wear, in order to join the squadron to leeward, as
otherwise we had been in danger of parting from them in the night. On
this occasion, as we dared not venture to show any sail to the gale,
we had to use an expedient, which answered the purpose: This was
putting the helm a-weather and manning the fore-shrouds: But, though
this answered the end in view, yet in its execution one of our ablest
seamen was canted overboard. Notwithstanding the prodigious agitation
of the waves, we could perceive that he swam very vigorously, yet we
found ourselves, to our excessive concern, incapable of giving him the
smallest assistance; and were the more grieved at his unhappy fate, as
we lost sight of him struggling with the waves, and conceived that
he might continue long sensible of the horror of his irretrievable
situation.
Before this storm was quite abated, we found that two of our
main-shrouds and one of our mizen-shrouds were broken, all of which
we knotted and replaced immediately. After this we had an interval of
three or four days less tempestuous than usual, but accompanied by so
thick a fog, that we had to fire guns almost every half hour to keep
our squadron together. On the 31st we were alarmed by a gun from the
Gloucester, and a signal to speak the commodore. We immediately bore
down to her, prepared to learn some terrible disaster, of which we
were apprised before we came down, by seeing that her main-yard was
broken in the slings. This was a grievous misfortune to us all, at
this juncture, as it was evident that it must prove a hinderance to
our sailing, and would detain us the longer in these inhospitable
latitudes. Our future safety and success was not to be promoted by
repining, but by resolution and activity; and therefore, that this
unhappy incident might delay us as short as possible, the commodore
ordered several carpenters to be put on board the Gloucester from the
other ships of the squadron, in order to repair her damage with
the utmost expedition. At this time also, the captain of the Tryal
represented that his pumps were so bad, and his ship made so much
water, that he was scarcely able to keep her free; wherefore the
commodore ordered him a pump, ready fitted, from the Centurion. It was
very fortunate, both for the Gloucester and Tryal, that the weather
proved more favourable that day, than for many days both before and
after; since by this means they were enabled to receive the assistance
which seemed so essential for their preservation, and which they
could scarcely have procured at any other time, as it would have been
extremely hazardous to have ventured a boat on board.
Next day, being the 1st of April, the weather returned to its
customary bias; the sky looking dark and gloomy, and the wind
beginning to freshen and to blow in squalls; yet it was not so
boisterous as to prevent us carrying our top-sails close reefed,
but its appearance evidently prognosticated that a still more severe
tempest was at hand. Accordingly, on the 3d of April, there came on a
storm, which, both in its violence and duration, for it lasted three
days, exceeded all we had hitherto experienced. In its first onset,
we received a furious shock from a sea, which broke upon our larboard
quarter, where it stove in the quarter gallery, and rushed into the
ship like a deluge. Our rigging suffered also extremely from the blow;
among the rest, one of the straps of the main dead-eyes was broken, as
were likewise a main shroud and a puttock shroud; so that, to ease the
stress upon the masts and shrouds, we had to lower both our main and
fore yards, and to furl all our sails. We lay in this posture for
three days, when, the storm somewhat abating, we ventured to make sail
under our courses only. Even this would not avail us long; for
next day, being the 7th, we had another hard gale, accompanied with
lightning and rain, which obliged as to lie-to all night.
It was really wonderful, notwithstanding the severe weather we
endured, that no extraordinary accident had happened to any of the
squadron since the Gloucester broke her main-yard. But this good
fortune now no longer attended us, for, at three next morning, several
guns were fired to leeward as signals of distress, on which the
commodore made the signal for the squadron to bring to. At day-break
we saw the Wager a considerable way to leeward of any of the other
ships, and soon perceived that she had lost her mizen-mast, and main
topsail-yard. We immediately bore down towards her, and found that
this disaster had arisen from the badness of her iron-work, as all the
chain plates to windward had given way, in consequence of her having
fetched a deep roll. This accident proved the more unfortunate for the
Wager, as her captain had been on board the Gloucester ever since
the 31st March, and the weather was now too severe to permit of his
return. Nor was the Wager the only ship in the squadron that suffered
in this tempest; for next day, a signal of distress was made by the
Anna pink, and on speaking her, we found she had broken her fore-stay
and the gammon of her boltsprit, and was in no small danger of all her
masts coming by the board; so that the whole squadron had to bear away
to leeward till she made all fast, after which we again hauled upon a
wind.
After all our solicitude, and the numerous ills of every kind, to
which we had been incessantly exposed for near forty days, we now
had great consolation in the hope that our fatigues were drawing to
a close, and that we should soon arrive in a more hospitable
climate, where we should be amply rewarded for all our past toils and
sufferings; for, towards the latter end of March, by our reckoning, we
had advanced near ten degrees to the west of the westermost point
of Terra del Fuego; and, as this allowance was double what former
navigators had thought necessary to compensate the drift of the
western current, we esteemed ourselves to be well advanced within
the limits of the Southern Pacific, and had been, ever since then,
standing to the northward, with as much expedition as the turbulence
of the weather and our frequent disasters would permit. On the 13th of
April, in addition to our before-mentioned westing, we were only one
degree of latitude to the southward of the western entrance into the
Straits of Magellan, so that we fully expected in a very few days to
experience the celebrated tranquillity of the Pacific Ocean. But these
were only delusions, which served to render our disappointment more
terrible. On the morning of the 14th, between two and three o'clock,
the weather, which till then had been hazy, fortunately cleared up,
and the pink made a signal for seeing the land right a-head; and, as
it was only two miles distant, we were all under the most dreadful
apprehensions of running on shore; which, had either the wind blown
from its usual quarter, with its wonted violence, or had not the moon
suddenly shone out, not a ship of the whole squadron could possibly
have avoided. But the wind, which some hours before blew in squalls
from the S.W. had fortunately shifted to W.N.W. by which we were
enabled to stand to the southward, and to clear ourselves of this
sudden and unexpected danger, and were fortunate enough by noon to
have gained an offing of near twenty leagues.
By the latitude of this land we fell in with, it was agreed to be that
part of Terra del Fuego, near the south-western outlet of the Straits
of Magellan, described in Frezier's chart, and was supposed to be that
point which he calls Cape Noir.[1] It was indeed wonderful that the
current should have driven us to the eastward with so much strength,
for the whole squadron computed that we were ten degrees to the
westward of this land; so that in turning, by our reckoning, about
nineteen degrees of longitude, we had not in reality advanced half
that distance: And now, instead of having our labours and anxieties
relieved by approaching a warmer climate, and more tranquil seas, we
were forced again to steer southwards, and had again to combat those
western blasts which had already so often terrified us; and this
too, when we were greatly enfeebled by our men falling sick and dying
apace, and when our spirits, dejected by long continuance at sea
and by this severe disappointment, were now much less capable of
supporting us through the various difficulties and dangers, which we
could not but look for in this new and arduous undertaking. Added to
all this, we were sore discouraged by the diminution in the strength
of the squadron; for, three days before this, we had lost sight of the
Severn and Pearl in the morning, and, though we spread our ships, and
beat about for them for some time, we never saw them more; whence we
apprehended that they also had fallen in with this land in the night,
and being less favoured by the wind and the moon, might have perished
by running on shore. Full of these desponding thoughts and
gloomy presages, we stood away to the S.W. prepared, by our late
disappointment, how large an allowance soever we made in our westing
for the drift of the current from the westward, that we might still
find it insufficient upon a second trial.
[Footnote 1: Cape Noir, is a small island off the western coast of
Terra del Fuego, is in lat. 54° 28' S. long, 78° 40' W.--E.]