HMS Wager (1739)
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HMS Wager was a vessel in the Royal Navy.[1] She was one of the vessels that set out on George Anson's voyage around the world.
Anson's vessels were scattered during the dangerous rounding of Cape Horn.[1] The Wager was wrecked on the far Southern coast of Chile in 1741. The wreck of HMS Wager, 28 guns, in May 1741 and the survival of a number of her officers and crew is one of the great sagas of the sea. Whilst part of a British Squadron of Warships under Commodore Anson, HMS Wager struck rocks close to a remote island in Chilean Patagonia, now named Isla Wager. Many of her crew reached the island safely and as the ship was the store vessel for the Squadron, they were able to salvage sufficient food to exist on the island for many months.
In 1748 George Anson, 1st Baron Anson, the officer who commanded the squadron which included the Wager, was a senior administrator who was in a position to reform the Navy.[1] One of his reforms changed the basis of Naval discipline, so it still applied to ships' crews if the vessels were wrecked or captured.
[edit] Surviving the wreck
Once the vessel was wrecked there was a dispute over leadership of the survivors.[1] At that time once a vessel was wrecked the seamen were no longer paid. The seamen told their officers that their authority over them had ended when the vessel was wrecked.
Once ashore a dispute arose regarding the Captain's powers of command over the soldiers who had been aboard and the sailors who, once their ship was wrecked, were no longer paid by the Navy. To some eyes, what now happened amounted to mutiny and after the Captain had shot dead a Midshipman the survivors split into two groups.
The Captain and a party of officers and men, numbering around 20, eventually sailed northward in open boats hoping to reach civilization. Some 80 of the crew and soldiers went south in an extended long boat, through the Straits of Magellan to Brazil and thence to Britain.
Only 12 survived this perilous voyage. Some died of starvation, others drowned and several were murdered by indigenous peoples.
The Captain's party, which included Midshipman Byron, later Admiral the Lord Byron, grandfather of the famous poet, suffered unimaginable privations before being helped by a friendly Chunos indian chief named Martin, who took the remaining last four survivors in canoes to the island of Chiloe.
There, thanks partly to the civilized and kind manner in which Commodore Anson had treated Spanish prisoners and largely to the natural friendliness of the local people, the four officers, including Byron, were cared for extremely well.
A local beauty begged the handsome Byron to marry her, and her uncle a rich priest offered Byron a huge treasure if he would. Byron, a staunch naval officer, believed it his duty to return to England and declined.
After many months in Chiloe the survivors were sent to Valpariso and then Santiago where again, they were treated with much kindness. Even the Spanish Admiral, sent to defeat Anson took a liking to them. Considering that Britain was at war with Spain, this was remarkable.
Eventually the four reached England, by which time Anson had returned in triumph and was now an Admiral. A Court Martial absolved the Captain of blame for the loss of HMS Wager and no action was taken against those members of the crew who had disobeyed his orders.
However, to avoid such a situation reoccuring, Admiral Anson introduced an Act of Parliament in 1748 extending Naval discipline to crews wrecked, lost or captured. This was one of the rehaznos that led to the formation of the Marines, now the Royal Marines in 1755.
Byron later returned to the area leading a voyage of exploration and also searched for survivors of HMS Wager, but found only blue eyed, fair haired children!
An expedition was mounted in November 2006 with the Scientific Exploration Society under the command of Colonel Sir John Blashford-Snell and the Armada de Chile to locate the wreck and find remnants from the survivors camp on Isla Wager.
The atrocious conditions experienced by the original crew continued to hamper search efforts of the expedition. But a sever 4 day storm washed away the expedition campsite only to reveal part of the wreck on land and under the campsite!
This part of the wreck and further exploration of the island is currently on-going.
