Perils of the Sea

Today we are all used to long-haul travel. We fly across the world without thinking of any danger. Even when our children jet off to Asia on a gap year, whatever qualms we have are about what they might get up to rather than ‘will they arrive’.

In the age of sail, it couldn’t have been more different. The East India Company was the richest in the world with the finest ships and crews, yet they still lost five percent of their vessels in shipwrecks. Imagine if flying was as hazardous! The reasons are numerous: inaccurate instruments and charts, scurvy and other illnesses left crews weakened, whilst terrible winds and waves of course played their part.

When we look at early voyages, we look at what they discovered, but perhaps their greatest achievement was that they completed the voyage at all, and that notable captains such as Cook and Bligh were sailors and navigators of the highest order.

Cook made three of the greatest voyages of discovery of all time. His first two were to the South Pacific but his third and final voyage, A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean (1784), was in the North Pacific where he reached Hawaii. The purpose of this last voyage was to discover the elusive Northwest Passage, and during the expedition with an all-star crew including Bligh, Vancouver, and Burney, Cook charted the West coast of America from Northern California to the Bering Strait. It was whilst overwintering at Hawaii that he met his death. We have a beautiful account of this voyage, the preferred second edition printed on superior paper with more handsome typography, and the atlas from the library of the renowned Victorian female book collector, Frances Mary Richardson Currer with superb impressions of the plates.

Captain William Bligh took command of HMS Bounty in 1787, hoping to win a reward from the Royal Society for collecting breadfruit trees from Tahiti (these were seen as a cheap high energy source of food for the slave trade). Bligh’s harsh leadership, combined with cramped crew conditions which contrasted unfavourably with a sybaritic lifestyle in Tahiti, led to the most famous mutiny in British maritime history. Bligh was cast adrift along with eighteen loyal crew in a small longboat. This was to result in the most heroic voyage to safety in the annals of the Royal Navy, forty-seven days and over 3600 miles, during which Bligh also found the time and energy to sketch maps of various coasts. Only one man was lost, and that was due to unfriendly locals, rather than anything to do with the actual row. We are fortunate to be able to offer a very special copy of Bligh’s two accounts, the excessively rare advance issue of A Voyage to the South Sea (1792), bound with A Narrative of the Mutiny (1790). We can only trace one copy of the advance issue of the Voyage at auction in the last sixty years, and only a couple of copies in Australian institutions. This is a great opportunity to purchase a legendary rarity.

Far less lucky were the crew of HMS Wager. This vessel was a store ship for Anson’s squadron on his voyage of circumnavigation and attack on the Spaniards, 1740-44. The crew were already suffering from scurvy when the ship struck a reef. Many of those confined to their hammocks were lost immediately, whilst most of the remainder reached temporary safety on an island but there it all went pear-shaped. Navy regulations stated that the crew would not be paid if the ship was lost and that officer’s commissions were no longer valid. This led to a complete breakdown of authority and fuelled by rum anarchy ensued. When Captain Cheap shot one of the crew, gunner John Bulkeley, aided by carpenter John Cummins, led a mutiny. Most of the crew left on a longboat with Bulkeley and Cummins. Their epic narrative of endurance, including the account of the longboat rounding the Strait of Magellan is found in A Voyage to the South Seas. Captain Cheap and the rest of the crew were taken prisoner by the Spanish before finding their way back to London. Of the 153 crew members only thirty-five survived. At that time the Navy high command was very unpopular and Bulkeley and his fellow mutineers escaped court-martial. Our copy is a fine example of the Dublin edition, 1743. The shipwreck and its aftermath were the basis for The Unknown Shore by Patrick O’Brian.

A happier result befell the crew and passengers of HMS Alceste when it was shipwrecked. The Alceste set off in 1816 for China. She carried Lord Amherst who had been named Ambassador Extraordinary for King George III to the Emperor of China. All went well on the outward voyage but on the return the ship struck an uncharted reef near Borneo. All on board were taken to a small nearby island on boats, along with stores, and a well was dug. Lord Amherst and forty-six others set off for Java to obtain help, leaving two hundred men and one woman on the island. Despite attack from locals, Captain Maxwell maintained morale and discipline until all were rescued in 1817. Our copy of Voyage of His Majesty’s Ship Alceste (1818), is the preferred, enlarged second edition.

Written by Julian Mackenzie