This “Gentleman” was later to become the grandfather of Lord Byron the poet, which means he survives the journey, which is a good thing! Of the 240 on The Wager, 33 survived, cast ashore in two separate rafts, one raft ending up in Brazil, the other in Chile.
Byron was the second son of a noble. His elder brother inherited the title and the property. He could have become a cleric, like his younger brother, but he chose to go to sea. He was 16 (imagine thinking a 16-year-old was capable of making such a decision. Most American 16-year-olds have their minds . . . elsewhere)
They were now off Patagonia, and were seeing strange animals: penguins (“half fish, half fowl”), right whales and humpbacks.
The impressionable Byron later wrote of these southern seas, “It is incredible the number of whales that are here, it makes it dangerous for a ship, we were very near striking upon one, and another blew the water in upon the quarterdeck and they are of the largest kind we have ever seen.” Then there was the sea lion, which he considered “rather a dangerous animal,” noting “I was attacked by one when I least expected it, and had much ado to get clear of him, they are of a monstrous size and when angered make a dreadful roaring.”
— The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder, p. 67
Reading at a good clip. This is all I’ve done all day, other than water the plants. It wasn’t as hot as everyone predicted it would be. It’s supposed to be less hot tomorrow.
Stay tuned.