The Wreck of HMS "Wager"
1 March 2019 01:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
igenlodeFor some reason I had a sudden desire to reread the book
Byron of the Wager (not the famous Lord Byron, but his grandfather, who was a midshipman in Anson's day).
I remembered it as a story about survival after a dramatic wreck; I'd completely forgotten that this happened to be another case of a famous small-boat voyage, where the crew successfully built themselves a new craft in order to sail home after their ship was wrecked in a hostile environment. And my memory apparently wiped a lot of the more gruesome bits...
The story of the crew of the "Wager" is almost the reverse of the story of the survival of Captain Bligh after the mutiny on board the "Bounty". Unlike Bligh's and Shackleton's men, almost all of them died, pretty much as a direct result of the lack of discipline after the mutiny.
The captain of the "Wager" had a small vessel constructed by enlarging the ship's longboat (the largest of the boats carried on board), with the aim of sailing northward into the Pacific from the site where they were wrecked near the tip of Cape Horn, and capturing a Spanish ship to replace their own lost ship (and rejoining the rest of Anson's squadron if at all possible). However, the crew mutinied and insisted on sailing southwards in the hopes of getting back through the Straits of Magellan, and thence finding a way home.
In the weeks that followed, starvation (as a result of devouring all their rations without restraint) and betrayal (men were put ashore to survive as best they could or simply abandoned after having volunteered to land and bring back provisions for the rest) killed the majority of those who had set out. A handful made it round to Brazil, where after further quarrels a small party eventually arrived back in Britain to tell their version of the story. Meanwhile the captain and a few loyal men were left behind at the site of the wreck on the assumption that they would die.
Ironically, if the crew of the "Wager" had in fact followed the captain's orders and sailed north instead of south, they would have found one of the other ships of Anson's squadron sheltering in a bay relatively nearby, and could have made rendezvous quite easily. Or even if they had not arrived until after the "Anna" had left, the scheme of capturing a Spanish ship would almost certainly have proved successful, and cost far fewer casualties. Anson's squadron found the Pacific coast of South America almost totally undefended, and even the tiny eight-gun sloop the "Tryal" (a fraction of the size of the wrecked "Wager") managed to capture a ship much larger than herself and transfer her crew on board the newly rechristened "Tryal's Prize" before the sloop sank as a result of the battering she had taken in the storms of Cape Horn.
But without enough provisions or a large enough boat to make the sea passage, the captain's party, attempting to travel north, also almost all perished. Four of them survived to be taken prisoner by the Spanish, including young Byron and the captain himself, and eventually made it back to England via France -- amazingly, one of the marooned parties of mutineers survived, was enslaved by Indians who killed half of them, and the remaining handful were eventually ransomed (apart from the mulatto from London whom the Indians refused to send back because they assumed the Spanish wanted him as a slave, and who was never heard of again). So there were three separate parties of survivors -- a tiny fraction of the number of men who were originally wrecked, most of whom died horribly.
Surprisingly, there was no court-martial over the mutiny, although an enquiry was held over the original loss of the ship (for which the first lieutenant was censured, although he and the other officers were acquitted). The suggestion is that Anson himself intervened on the grounds that far too many of the men of his squadron had already died as a result of the expedition -- the vast majority failed to return, either because they were unfit before the voyage started (due to shortages of manpower, many of them were Chelsea Pensioners or other hospital patients) or because they succumbed to scurvy during the struggle to reach the Pacific -- and that he did not want to see the executions of the surviving mutineers that would almost certainly have resulted, owing to the captain's having unexpectedly lived to present his side of the story.
It coincidentally addressed one of my other questions about what happened in terms of pay and orders, etc., after a shipwreck: the big problem with the "Wager" was that according to the naval regulations of the day, the men's pay ceased the moment their ship was lost, and thus the officers had no authority over them. (Another problem was that the Marines on board did not consider themselves to be under naval command, and their ranking officer was thus able to deploy them to arrest and confine the captain when persuaded into it.)
However the law was apparently changed as a direct result in order to continue both the wages and the discipline of the Navy in the case of "His Majesty's ships wrecked, lost or taken": https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=RYFPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA237
Of course, this only applies to the British Navy in 1749 and proves nothing about the state of affairs in France a hundred and fifty years later :-p
But it's indicative...
Byron of the Wager (not the famous Lord Byron, but his grandfather, who was a midshipman in Anson's day).
I remembered it as a story about survival after a dramatic wreck; I'd completely forgotten that this happened to be another case of a famous small-boat voyage, where the crew successfully built themselves a new craft in order to sail home after their ship was wrecked in a hostile environment. And my memory apparently wiped a lot of the more gruesome bits...
The story of the crew of the "Wager" is almost the reverse of the story of the survival of Captain Bligh after the mutiny on board the "Bounty". Unlike Bligh's and Shackleton's men, almost all of them died, pretty much as a direct result of the lack of discipline after the mutiny.
The captain of the "Wager" had a small vessel constructed by enlarging the ship's longboat (the largest of the boats carried on board), with the aim of sailing northward into the Pacific from the site where they were wrecked near the tip of Cape Horn, and capturing a Spanish ship to replace their own lost ship (and rejoining the rest of Anson's squadron if at all possible). However, the crew mutinied and insisted on sailing southwards in the hopes of getting back through the Straits of Magellan, and thence finding a way home.
In the weeks that followed, starvation (as a result of devouring all their rations without restraint) and betrayal (men were put ashore to survive as best they could or simply abandoned after having volunteered to land and bring back provisions for the rest) killed the majority of those who had set out. A handful made it round to Brazil, where after further quarrels a small party eventually arrived back in Britain to tell their version of the story. Meanwhile the captain and a few loyal men were left behind at the site of the wreck on the assumption that they would die.
Ironically, if the crew of the "Wager" had in fact followed the captain's orders and sailed north instead of south, they would have found one of the other ships of Anson's squadron sheltering in a bay relatively nearby, and could have made rendezvous quite easily. Or even if they had not arrived until after the "Anna" had left, the scheme of capturing a Spanish ship would almost certainly have proved successful, and cost far fewer casualties. Anson's squadron found the Pacific coast of South America almost totally undefended, and even the tiny eight-gun sloop the "Tryal" (a fraction of the size of the wrecked "Wager") managed to capture a ship much larger than herself and transfer her crew on board the newly rechristened "Tryal's Prize" before the sloop sank as a result of the battering she had taken in the storms of Cape Horn.
But without enough provisions or a large enough boat to make the sea passage, the captain's party, attempting to travel north, also almost all perished. Four of them survived to be taken prisoner by the Spanish, including young Byron and the captain himself, and eventually made it back to England via France -- amazingly, one of the marooned parties of mutineers survived, was enslaved by Indians who killed half of them, and the remaining handful were eventually ransomed (apart from the mulatto from London whom the Indians refused to send back because they assumed the Spanish wanted him as a slave, and who was never heard of again). So there were three separate parties of survivors -- a tiny fraction of the number of men who were originally wrecked, most of whom died horribly.
Surprisingly, there was no court-martial over the mutiny, although an enquiry was held over the original loss of the ship (for which the first lieutenant was censured, although he and the other officers were acquitted). The suggestion is that Anson himself intervened on the grounds that far too many of the men of his squadron had already died as a result of the expedition -- the vast majority failed to return, either because they were unfit before the voyage started (due to shortages of manpower, many of them were Chelsea Pensioners or other hospital patients) or because they succumbed to scurvy during the struggle to reach the Pacific -- and that he did not want to see the executions of the surviving mutineers that would almost certainly have resulted, owing to the captain's having unexpectedly lived to present his side of the story.
It coincidentally addressed one of my other questions about what happened in terms of pay and orders, etc., after a shipwreck: the big problem with the "Wager" was that according to the naval regulations of the day, the men's pay ceased the moment their ship was lost, and thus the officers had no authority over them. (Another problem was that the Marines on board did not consider themselves to be under naval command, and their ranking officer was thus able to deploy them to arrest and confine the captain when persuaded into it.)
However the law was apparently changed as a direct result in order to continue both the wages and the discipline of the Navy in the case of "His Majesty's ships wrecked, lost or taken": https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=RYFPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA237
XXI. And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That from and after the Twenty fifth Day of December One thousand seven hundred and forty nine, all the Powers given by the several Articles and Orders established by this Act, shall remain and be in full force with respect to the Crews of such of His Majesty's Ships as shall be wrecked, or be otherwise lost or destroyed; and all the Command, Power, and Authority given to the Officers of the said Ship or Ships, shall remain and be in full force as effectually as if such Ship or Ships to which they did belong were not so wrecked, lost, or destroyed, until they shall be regularly discharged from His Majesty's further Service, or removed into some other of His Majesty's Ships of War, or until a Court Martial shall be held, pursuant to the Custom of the Navy in such Cases, to enquire into the Causes of the Loss of the said Ship or Ships; and if upon such Enquiry it shall appear by the Sentence of the Court Martial that all, or any of the Officers or Seamen of the said Ship or Ships did their utmost to preserve, get off, or recover the said Ship or Ships, and since the Loss thereof have behaved themselves obediently to their superior Officers, according to the Discipline of the Navy and the said Articles and Orders hereinbefore established, then all the Pay and Wages of the said Officers and Seamen, or of such of them as shall have done their Duty as aforesaid, shall continue and go on, and be paid to the Time of their Discharge or Death; or if they shall be then alive, to the Time of the holding of such Court Martial, or removal into some other of His Majesty's Ships of War; and every such Officer and Seaman of any of His Majesty's Ships of War, who after the Wreck or Loss of his Ship shall act contrary to the Discipline of the Navy, and the several Articles and Orders hereinbefore established, or any of them, shall be sentenced by the said Court Martial, and punished as if the Ship to which he did belong was not so wrecked, lost, or destroyed.
Of course, this only applies to the British Navy in 1749 and proves nothing about the state of affairs in France a hundred and fifty years later :-p
But it's indicative...