Selkirk's Island by Diana Souhami (best color ebook reader txt) 📕

the Manila treasure galleon. In pursuit of it, he voyaged north in ‘dirty squally weather, with much Thunder and Lightning, and very uncertain Gales’. The men survived on fish and turtles until they seized a small craft, bound for Panama, with a cargo of flour, sugar and brandy. On it were more letters to the President of Panama. They learned that two Spanish Men-of-War, armed with twenty-four-pound brass guns and five hundred soldiers and seamen, were lying in wait for them near Guayaquil.

On 22 July they fought one of these warships. According to Welbe at ten in the morning Dampier gave orders to attack. Welbe advised him to wait ‘till we had the Advantage of the Sea-Breeze’

and then we might be sure of getting to the Windward of her; but if we tack’d the Ship then, as he intended to do, we shld lose the Advantage of the Sea-Breeze, and be sure to go to the Leeward of her. But he wld not consent to it, but took his own Way, and immediately tack’d the Ship. And as I said, so it happen’d; for we were not able to fetch to the Windward of her. But if Capt. Dampier had taken my Advice…†

As ever, Dampier took no one’s advice. He blamed his crew for the botch-up. He called them ‘a Parcel of Fellows who were Perpetually drunk… They were always Doing something they should not; and did not think me worthy their Council.’ They had, he said, ‘sprung my Fore-Top Mast in the Night, so it immediately came by the Board. By this I was utterly deprived of means to get a windward, or anything else.’

Insults were exchanged. The men told him he was not fit to captain a ship and that his language was ‘very base and abusive’. He should not call them ‘Rogue, Rascal, Son of a Bitch and other such vulgar Expressions’.

They hoisted ‘the bloody Flag’, the pirates’ flag, instead of the English ensign of a commissioned privateer and fought the ship for themselves. Funnell said they fought from noon to dusk. ‘We went to it as fast as we could load and fire.’ They made little impact and counted themselves fortunate that only two of their men had their hands and faces blasted. The Spanish ship, unharmed, sailed away in the dark.

Dampier feared that his Master, Mr Bellhash, and his First Mate, John Clipperton, were ‘on the Watch to overset the Voyage’. The crew had split into marauding gangs. At the island of Gallera, twenty armed men went ashore to loot and scavenge. Islanders fled to the mountains ‘with their Wives and Children and all they had’. The gang ransacked their huts, stole wood from a half-built bark, and took another bark with two masts and square sails, loaded with plantains. They named it the Dragon.

The ostensible plan was to fit this out as a consort, the better to fight the treasure ship. At St Lucas the St George was hauled ashore. It was encrusted with barnacles and leaking. The carpenters could do no more than patch leaks with nails and oakum. While they worked, its ammunition and provisions were stored on the Dragon. On 2 September twenty-one men, led by Clipperton, demanded money and silver from Dampier, boarded the Dragon, and left under cover of night.

In a ship of holes with scarce arms and a reduced crew, the St George sailed on toward Acapulco. The men ate guanos and pelicans. They saw the ‘Vulcans of Guatimala’ spewing flames. On 9 October a small prize yielded provisions. Her captain, Christian Martin, an adventurer brought up in London, knew the South Sea. On a previous disputatious voyage he had marooned himself on the island of Gorgona, then escaped to freedom on a raft of tree trunks with two shirts for a sail and a large bag filled with oysters fixed to the mast.

Martin helped them locate the Manila galleon. It was called the Rosario and they sighted it on 6 December near the ‘Vulcan of Collima’. It was a well-built ship, armed with twenty-four-pound cannon. The St George had only four five-pounders. Martin advised that the one chance of success was to draw alongside by stealth then board with speed.

Dampier vacillated and was as ever drunk. The Rosario, supposing the St George to be friendly, hoisted the Spanish ensign and fired a greeting shot to its leeward. Welbe and others urged Dampier to fly Spanish colours. Instead, he hoisted the English flag and gave orders to fire.

The Rosario ‘sprung her luff and got to windward’ and prepared to batter the St George to pieces. The boatswain on the St George urged the helmsman to edge near, so that they could board quickly. Dampier swore he would shoot him through the head if he did so. The Rosario cannon hit the St George below water, hit the ‘Powder Room’ and blasted planks out of the stern. Welbe told Dampier the ship was sinking: ‘The captain cried out, Where is the canoe? Where is the canoe? And was for getting into the boat to save his life, which showed what man of courage and conduct he was.’ Dampier said the men were not in a fit state to board anything. They were all ‘Drunk and Bewitch’d though Clark, the Mate, who was Potent in Liquor, cry’d Board, board her’.

As the St George sheared off, the carpenters again tried to plug holes in its timbers. Welbe said Dampier left no orders with anyone but went to his cabin with a supply of liquor, ordered a sentry to guard the door ‘that no Body should disturb him’, and did not wake until eight next morning.

The Manila ship sailed toward Lima, its treasure intact. The crew of the St George wanted to go home ‘knowing we could do no good in these Parts, either for our selves or Owners; having Provision but for three Months and that very short; and our Ship being ready of herself to fall in Pieces.’†

1704–9 His Agility