Byron's Narrative of the Loss of the Wager: With an account of the great distresses suffered by himself and his companions on the coast of Patagonia from the year 1740 till their arrival in England 1746Byron, John
History
Byron's Narrative of the Loss of the Wager: With an account of the great distresses suffered by himself and his companions on the coast of Patagonia from the year 1740 till their arrival in England 1746
Byron, John
Chiloé (Chile); Patagonia (Argentina and Chile); Wager (Ship)
to sea again, the season being already far advanced for passing Cape
Horn. The next day we went to an allowance of a quart of water a day
for each man, which continued the whole passage. We were obliged to
stand a long way to the westward; and went to the northward of Juan
Fernandez above a degree, before we had a wind that we could make any
southing with. On the 25th, in the latitude of 46 degrees, we met with
a violent hard gale at west, which obliged us to lie to under a reefed
mainsail for some days; and before we got round the Cape, we had many
very hard gales, with a prodigious sea and constant thick snow; and
after being so long in so delightful a climate as Chili, the cold was
almost insupportable. After doubling the Cape, we got but slowly to
the northward; and, indeed, at the best of times, the ship never went
above six knots; for she was a heavy-going thing. On the 27th of May
we crossed the line; when finding that our water was grown extremely
short, and that it would be almost impossible to reach Europe without
a supply, it was resolved to bear away for Martinico. On the 29th of
June, in the morning, we made the Island of Tobago, and then shaped
a course for Martinico; and on the first of July, by our reckonings,
expected to see it, but were disappointed. This was imputed to the
currents, which, whether they had set the ship to the eastward or
westward, nobody could tell; but upon looking over the charts, it
was imagined, if the current had driven her to the westward, it must
have been among the Granadillos, which was thought impossible without
seeing any of them, as they are so near together, and a most dangerous
place for rocks. It was then concluded we were to the eastward, and
accordingly we steered S.W. by W., but having run this course for above
thirty leagues, and no land appearing, it was resolved to stand to the
northward till we should gain the latitude of Porto Rico, and on the
4th in the evening we made that island; so that it was now certain the
ship had been hustled through the Granadillos in the night, which was,
without doubt, as extraordinary a passage as ever ship made. It was
now resolved to go between the islands of Porto Rico and St. Domingo
for Cape François, therefore we lay to that night. In the morning, we
made sail along shore; and about ten o'clock, as I was walking the
quarter-deck, Captain Cheap came out of the cabin, and told me he had
just seen a beef-barrel go by the ship; that he was sure it had but
lately been thrown overboard, and that he would venture any wager we
saw an English cruizer before long. In about half an hour after we saw
two sail to leeward, from off the quarter-deck; for they kept no look
out from the mast-head, and we presently observed they were in chace
of us. The French and Spaniards on board now began to grow a good deal
alarmed, when it fell stark calm; but not before the ships had neared
us so much, that we plainly discerned them to be English men of war;
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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