Cold Open

It’s early morning on May 14th, 1741, on board the British warship HMS Wager, off the coast of southern Chile.

Below deck, 17-year-old Midshipman John Byron wades through waist-deep water, feeling his way along a dark passage. After nine months at sea, Byron knows every inch of the ship. But right now, it’s utterly unfamiliar.

The Wager has run aground in a storm. Pinned between two rocks, it’s being ripped apart by the waves. The lower decks are already underwater, and it won’t be long before this level is totally submerged as well.

Most of the surviving crew have already abandoned ship and reached safety on a nearby island. Now Midshipman Byron is heading for the surgeon’s cabin. He’s got to convince the captain, who’s bed-bound with a broken shoulder, to join the rest of the crew before it’s too late.

The Wager shudders and lurches beneath him. A candle floats by, and Byron grabs it and stuffs it into a pocket. They’ve taken as many provisions off the ship as possible, but they’ve had to leave most behind, and even a half-burned candle may come in handy.

Pulling himself around a corner, Byron kicks through the water to the surgeon’s door and hauls it open.

The room is still dry, and Captain David Cheap lies on a cot inside, his arm wrapped in a sling, and his face pale. He asks whether the crew is off the ship, and Byron says they’ve taken everyone they can. For a moment, it seems that Cheap is determined to go down with his ship. But Byron won’t let him. The survivors will need their captain if they are to survive what comes next.

Reluctantly, Captain Cheap agrees.

Byron grabs the captain’s greatcoat, which is hanging by the door. Then he finds a cane in the corner of the room. Gently, he eases the captain up out of the bed, and with Byron’s help, Cheap gets to his feet.

The Wager is lost, but the men are still alive.

HMS Wager was part of a mission to attack Spanish settlements in the Americas. But after rounding Cape Horn, relentless storms first separated the Wager from the rest of the British squadron and then dashed the ship on the rocks.

Now, Captain Cheap, Midshipman Byron, and the rest of the crew must try to find a way home. And in the months and years to come, there will be feuds, mutinies, and bloodshed before the last survivors of the shipwreck finally make it back to England on April 9th, 1745.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham, and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is April 9th, 1745: The Return of HMS Wager’s Castaways.

Act One: Wager Island

It’s the morning of May 15th, 1741, on a small island off the coast of southern Chile, a day after HMS Wager ran aground.

44-year-old Captain David Cheap plunges his cane into the sand. A long overcoat drapes his injured arm, its tails snapping in the blistering wind as he gazes across the waves at the wreck of his ship. Almost 150 survivors sit scattered across the beach behind him. The men are exhausted and frightened. And they’re waiting for his orders.

Captain Cheap hasn’t been their commander long. When the Wager and the rest of the Royal Navy squadron left England in August 1740, he was only a lieutenant. But a few months ago, the death of the captain of another ship in the squadron prompted a string of promotions, and Cheap stepped into the vacancy that was created on the Wager.

This command has been a challenging one, though. As Cheap was settling into the captain’s quarters, the British squadron headed toward Cape Horn.

These waters off the tip of South America are the most dangerous in the world. To navigate around the Horn, ships must endure hurricane winds and enormous waves, as well as constant rain, sleet, and snow. Sailing into this maelstrom, the Wager fell behind and lost sight of the rest of the British squadron. It eventually made it around the Horn, and Cheap tried to catch up. But the weather was still against him. During a storm off the coast of Chile, Cheap fell down a quarterdeck ladder and badly injured his shoulder. Confined below decks, he couldn’t help the crew through the storm, and the ship ran aground.

Now, standing on the shore of his new barren home, Captain Cheap is determined to establish some semblance of order. He commands one group of men to search the island for food and water, while the others salvage what they can from the disintegrating ship.

The crew of the Wager may have mostly survived the shipwreck. But “Wager Island,” as they call it, is uninhabited and inhospitable. Using timber salvaged from the wreck, the sailors build crude huts and shelters along the beach. But steadily their rations begin to dwindle. They think they are going to starve to death, until one day, three slender canoes emerge from the mist. Inside are several bare-chested men.

These are the Kawesqar, an indigenous people of Patagonia. And they are the English crew’s only hope.

Captain Cheap welcomes them graciously and offers them what gifts he can—a sailor’s hat and a red soldier's coat. The Kawesqar men seem pleased, and a few days later, they return with more food and their families. Captain Cheap is overjoyed—the crew of the Wager might just survive after all.

But some of his men can’t control themselves. They start stealing from the Kawesqar and even try to assault the women. Insulted, the Kawesqar leave and take all their provisions with them.

The mood in the British camp quickly darkens after that. Many of the crew blame Captain Cheap for their misery, and turn to another man for leadership—the charismatic and confident 35-year-old gunner, John Bulkeley. In the eyes of many of the starving crewmen, Bulkeley has already usurped Captain Cheap as their true leader.

But Bulkeley isn’t the only threat to Cheap’s authority. Every night, more and more rations go missing from the storage tent. Eventually, the thieves are caught, and Cheap decides to make a brutal example of them. They are flogged and then banished from camp to an even smaller and more desolate island nearby. It is a sentence so severe that Cheap is sure no one will dare defy his authority again.

But hunger is more powerful than the Navy’s hierarchies. Rations continue to vanish, and Captain Cheap grows ever more paranoid and suspicious. It’s been only a month since the shipwreck, and discipline is breaking down.

But throughout it all, Midshipman John Byron has stayed loyal to the captain.

But one evening, there's a confrontation at the ration tent. A drunken midshipman challenges the quartermaster over a stopped allowance — and a shot rings out in the darkness.

Inside his shelter, Captain Cheap hears the gunfire. He bursts out, his own pistol cocked, demanding to know what's going on. The midshipman lurches toward him — and without a word, and without a question, Cheap raises his pistol and shoots the unarmed man in the head.

For Byron, this fatal shooting is the final straw. The young midshipman was his friend, and Byron knows he wasn’t starting a mutiny—he was complaining about rations. But without even trying to find out the truth, the captain shot him.

Repelled, Byron turns to the gunner Bulkeley. And with some backing of more and more of the crew, Bulkeley takes it upon himself to propose a daring escape—they should salvage the Wager’s longboat from the wreck, repair it, and then take it south, avoiding Cape Horn this time by sailing through the Strait of Magellan. In its own way, this strait is just as dangerous as the Cape, but Bulkeley is convinced this is their only hope. If they make it through, they can then sail up the coast of Brazil and hope they find a friendly ship or port.

But when the plan is presented to Captain Cheap, he rejects it. He demands they instead sail north, rendezvous with the rest of the British squadron, and continue their mission to attack the Spanish. Bulkeley says that Cheap’s plan is a suicide mission—a desperate attempt to salvage his honor at the cost of all of their lives. So, he refuses to follow orders. With or without the captain, he says they’re heading for the Strait of Magellan.

Several hard weeks later, the longboat is finally repaired and ready. Bulkeley launches a mutiny and departs with most of the survivors.

But John Byron won’t be among them. When the reality of betraying his captain sinks in, he will change his mind and return to Captain Cheap’s side. Along with a few other loyal men, Byron will have to find another way off Wager Island—before they all starve to death.

Act Two: Nomads of the Sea

It’s December 1741, on Wager Island, two months after the mutineers left for Brazil.

18-year-old Midshipman John Byron rolls a barrel of salted beef up the sand—a final gift they’ve managed to recover from the hold of HMS Wager. On the shoreline, Captain David Cheap and his marooned crew are gathering the last of their meager supplies. And they’re gonna need them.

Following the departure of the mutineers, Cheap was revitalized. With his remaining men, he retrieved two small boats from the wreck of the Wager and set about repairing them. The work was slow. There were only 19 castaways left on the island, and they were all half-starved. But now, after two months, the boats are ready, their provisions are packed, and they cast off into the sea.

Midshipman Byron watches Wager Island disappear into the mist as Captain Cheap orders his men to row north. For two weeks, the men paddle up the Chilean coast, stopping only to sleep and scavenge for shellfish. Every day, cold rain hammers the boats, forcing the men to bail water with their hats and frozen hands. But then one morning, they reach a treacherous headland, where stormy seas converge with tidal currents. They try to force their way through, but after days of endless rowing against the wind, the men always seem to end up back where they started.

When one of the boats then capsizes and sinks, a dejected Captain Cheap abandons the mission. The men are shattered. They have no choice but to return to the only place they now know—Wager Island.

Back on these familiar shores, John Byron stares out at the ocean. He’s utterly exhausted and knows they’ll all be dead soon. Byron regrets his loyalty to the captain—perhaps he should have taken his chances with the mutineers. But as he watches the fog, two canoes miraculously appear. Byron can’t believe it. He leaps up, frantically waving his arms, hailing the mysterious boats over.

The canoes make landfall, and the voices call out in Spanish. The men in the boats explain that they are Chono, nomads of the sea, and they can guide the castaways north to a Spanish settlement on Chiloé Island.

Though their mission was to attack the Spanish, the shipwrecked English sailors gratefully accept. Their second voyage north is just as slow as the first, though. After 70 miles of hard rowing, they reach the headland where their last attempt failed. But their guides don’t even try to cross the water. Instead, they haul the canoes ashore, dismantle them, and carry them in pieces through a hidden mountain pass. On the other side, they reassemble the boats and continue north. But still days turn to weeks, until finally, one of the Chono points at a distant speck on the horizon—Chiloé Island.

By now, only Captain Cheap, Midshipman Byron, and two other men are still alive. When they reach solid land, they are taken to a village, where they are welcomed with fresh meat and local liquor. Back in the land of the living, but their relief doesn't last long. As soon as they leave the village, the castaways are ambushed by Spanish soldiers. The four Englishmen are hauled away to the Chilean mainland, where they are thrown into a Spanish prison.

For seven months, they are kept in a flea-ridden cell that’s so dark they can’t see each other’s faces. People from all over the region come to gawk at the disheveled foreigners, and the guards parade the Englishmen around like circus animals in exchange for bribes. But when the Governor of Santiago hears of their extraordinary ordeal, he grants them parole. They’re still technically prisoners of war, but the Governor treats them like gentlemen and allows them to mix with the Spanish colonial elite of his city.

It’s only when the active hostilities between Britain and Spain come to an end, and a prisoner exchange is negotiated, that Captain Cheap and his men are released. So, as Midshipman John Byron boards a ship bound for England, he ponders the fate of the rest of the crew. He wonders if the mutineers who left them on Wager Island ever made it through the Strait of Magellan as they planned.

It won’t be long before he finds out. But then he and everyone else in the loss of the Wager will have to account for what they have done.

Act Three: The Beast, or Us

It’s April 9th, 1745, in the English Channel, four years after the shipwreck of HMS Wager.

From the deck of a Dutch ship, Captain David Cheap looks out at the white cliffs of Dover—his first sight of England in almost half a decade. It’s a landmark Cheap thought he’d never see again. But at long last, he’s nearly home.

Still, Cheap can’t help feeling apprehensive. According to naval law, he knows a court-martial is now inevitable. The military trial will determine who was responsible for the loss of the HMS Wager. And if it decides against Cheap, his future could be bleak.

After coming ashore at Dover, Captain Cheap and his last surviving crewmen immediately head for London. But they quickly learn that they’re not the first survivors of HMS Wager to make it home.

The mutinous gunner, John Bulkeley, arrived in England two years ago. Bulkeley and his men had successfully navigated the treacherous Strait of Magellan. They’d battled starvation, storms, and scurvy before finally making landfall in Brazil. They gained passage on a ship across the Atlantic and reached England in January 1743. But still not all of them made it home. Of the 81 men who joined Bulkeley's rebellion, only 29 survived.

Still, they were greeted in England as heroes, and Bulkeley even wrote a book about their dramatic voyage home. But now Captain Cheap’s return sees them accused of mutiny, and they too will have to answer for their actions at the court-martial.

The tribunal begins in mid-April. Captain Cheap is the first to answer the judge’s questions. He describes the storms before the shipwreck and the injury that left him incapacitated. Satisfied with his conduct, the judges dismissed the Captain without punishment.

And Cheap is not the only one to escape unscathed. No charges of murder and mutiny are brought at all. It seems the Navy chiefs don’t want too many details emerging about the breakdown of discipline on Wager Island. And they’d rather avoid the embarrassment of having to prosecute England’s newfound national heroes.

So, Captain Cheap emerges from the trial with his reputation intact and is soon rewarded with the command of another ship. The mutineer John Bulkeley emigrates to America, while midshipman John Byron continues with a career at sea that will eventually see him reach the rank of Vice-Admiral.

But despite the Royal Navy’s attempt to bury the story of the Wager, it won’t be forgotten. This tale of survival will enter seafaring folklore and even inspire an epic poem by John Byron’s grandson, the great Romantic poet Lord Byron.

But even his honeyed words won’t be able to capture the true horror experienced by the men of the HMS Wager, an ordeal that finally came to an end when the last survivors of this shipwreck returned home on April 9th, 1745.

Outro

Next on History Daily. April 10th, 1815. The eruption of Mount Tambora in Southeast Asia lowers temperatures around the globe, creating what becomes known as “the year without summer.”

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Mollie Baack.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Angus Gavan McHarg.

Edited by William Simpson.

Managing producer Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.