HISTORY: The Wager Mutiny

0:00Speaker 1:Sailing across the ocean is dangerous today. Nearly 300 years ago, people were doing it with much less reliable information than we have now. They had maps that were flat out wrong and equipment that didn't really work if the weather was bad. They had to rely on the hope that nature would cooperate with their desire to make it to the other side of the world. Many men had the experience and drive to make the journey successfully. Sometimes, though, that prize would remain out of reach. The HMS Wager's ill-fated voyage was set against the backdrop of the War of Jenkins' Ear, a conflict that erupted between Britain and Spain in 1739. That particular name originated from an incident in 1731 when Spanish forces, accusing British Captain Robin Jenkins of smuggling, cut off his ear. Jenkins later presented his severed ear to the British Parliament, sparking outrage and ultimately leading to war. In response to the conflict, the British Admiralty devised a daring plan. In September of 1740, they dispatched a squadron under the command of Commodore George Anson with a secret mission, to attack Spanish possessions in the Pacific.

1:42Speaker 1:The primary objective was to intercept and capture the Manila Galleon. The ship was a Spanish trading vessel that sailed between Acapulco in Mexico and Manila in the Philippines. The ship would bring silver to Manila and would return with Asian luxury items such as spices and porcelain. Anson's expedition comprised of six warships and two transport vessels, manned by a total of 1,854 men. The mission was meant to be covert, providing the element of surprise. However, the Spanish had already caught wind of the plan, and a larger, more powerful armada was on the lookout for Anson's squadron. Among the ships in Anson's fleet was the HMS Wager, a vessel with a unique history and purpose. Originally built as an East India min in 1734, the Wager had made two voyages to India for the East India Company before the Royal Navy purchased her in 1739. The Admiralty bought and refitted the Wager specifically for Anson's expedition, rating her as a 28-gun, 6th-rate ship. The Wager was far from an ideal warship, though. Described as tubby and unwielding, the 123-foot vessel was considered the ugly duckling of the squadron. Despite

3:01Speaker 1:its ungainly appearance, the Wager had a crucial role, to carry additional stores of small arms, ammunition, and powder to arm shore-rating parties. Among the crew was 16-year-old John Byron, whose account of the voyage would later inspire his grandson, the famous poet Lord Byron. Unfortunately, the leadership struggled to find enough men to crew the ships. The Royal Navy began forcing sailors into service by quite literally kidnapping them and jailing them on the ship. Gangs of hunters would board merchant ships as soon as they returned to port and force them onto one of the ships bound for war.

3:41Speaker 1:Men would hide or even list themselves as deceased in muster books. The squadron was provided 143 marines by the government to assist with land invasions, and they could also assist while at sea. Then the navy rounded up 500 invalids from the Royal Hospital, which was a pensioner's home for men who were, quote, old, lame, or infirm in ye service of the crown. On August 23rd, 1740, the squadron attempted to leave England, but winds suddenly changed in the English Channel and the ships were forced to return to port. They made a few more unsuccessful attempts, but it wasn't until September 18th that they finally had a favorable wind. The ships made it out of the English Channel and headed south in the Atlantic Ocean. Commodore George Anson commanded the squadron from the Centurion, a ship with 400 men and 60 guns. The wager set sail from England with Captain Dandy Kidd in charge. Lieutenant David Cheap was in command of the smallest ship in the fleet, the Trial, which was a scout vessel with 70 men and 8 guns. The journey's first stop was in Funchal, Portugal, which is on the island of Madeira, southwest of mainland Portugal.

4:57Speaker 1:They arrived on October 25th and resupplied the ships with wood and water. One of the supply ships was not contracted to cross the Atlantic, so they dispersed the supplies to the other ships and returned to England. Then, the captain of the Gloucester, the second largest ship in the fleet, resigned due to illness. The captain of the Pearl was put in charge of the Gloucester, and Captain Dandy Kidd was moved to command the Pearl. Without any other captains, Lieutenant Sheep was promoted to captain and moved to the wagers. Cheap, described as a burly Scot with a strong sense of heroic destiny but poor interpersonal skills, would play a crucial role in the events that would curse the wager. After filling supplies and shuffling men, the remaining seven ships left the island and headed west to cross the Atlantic. After making it to the east coast of South America, the ships headed south to sail under the continent and into the Pacific. As the wager and its sister ships battled their way around Cape Horn, a more insidious enemy began to take its toll. Scurvy. That dreaded disease, which killed

6:03Speaker 1:more seamen than any other maritime dangers combined, ravaged the crew. The symptoms were horrific. Hair and teeth falling out, and in some cases, the disease got into their brains, driving men to madness. The scurvy epidemic limited the number of able-bodied sailors available to maintain the ship amid constant storms. That shortage of healthy crew members made it increasingly difficult to navigate the treacherous waters around Cape Horn, further jeopardizing the expedition's chances of success. Adding to the misery, typhus had broken out as the vessel crossed the Atlantic. The combination of scurvy and typhus created a perfect storm of disease that decimated the crew, leaving the ship critically undermanned with morale at rock bottom. On top of a reduction of functional crew, the lack of accurate charts for the west coast of South America and the absence of a reliable marine chronometer made navigation largely a matter of guesswork.

7:03Speaker 1:The navigators would end up using a method called dead reckoning in order to figure out their positions. That's the process of using the previously determined position of a stationary object to calculate the position of a moving object. Unfortunately, it's not a very accurate way to determine a ship's position, especially in the poor weather conditions the squadron was facing and would ultimately lead to improper navigation. Terrible weather scattered the ships as they rounded Cape Horn and the wager became separated from the rest of the fleet. Poor visibility further complicated matters, making it nearly impossible for the crew to maintain their bearings or reunite with the rest of the fleet. As the crew sailed alone, trying to rendezvous with the rest of the ships, disagreements broke out among them about the proper time to turn north. The ship would end up turning north before sailing far enough west, bringing it dangerously close to the coast of modern-day Chile.

8:01Speaker 1:Captain Cheap decided that he was going to sail to Gwamblin Island, up the coast of Chile, where they could repair the ship and the men could recuperate. The ship had been battered by storms and the main mast had broken and fallen down like a tree. Sails were torn and there were bad leaks. Gunner John Bulkley disagreed with the captain and suggested they sail to the island of Juan Fernandez, which was the next stop for the entire fleet. The area around Guamblin Island was poorly charted and the chance of shipwreck was much higher. On May 13th, 1741, the HMS Wager's fate took a dramatic turn. At 9 a.m., the ship's carpenter caught a fleeting glimpse of land to the west, but Lieutenant Bays, also on deck, saw nothing.

8:46Speaker 1:That missed opportunity would prove costly, as the Wager had unknowingly entered a large uncharted bay known as the Gulf of Penas. By 2 p.m., land was positively sighted to the west and northwest. As the crew scrambled to turn the ship southwest, disaster struck. Captain Cheap fell down the quarter-deck ladder, dislocating his shoulder and confining him below deck. That unfortunate accident left the ship without its commanding officer during a critical moment. The night that followed was one of terrible weather, with the wager's lack of maintenance leaving her hull and rigging at breaking point. At 4.30 a.m.

9:24Speaker 1:on May 14th, the ship struck rocks repeatedly, breaking her tiller and puncturing the hull. Water quickly flooded the lower decks, drowning dozens of ill and disabled crewmen who were too sick to escape their hammocks. The wager struck the coast of what would later be known as Wager Island, located in the Gayaneco Archipelago. As the ship ran aground, chaos ensued. Some crew members broke into the spirit room, getting drunk and arming themselves. They begin looting, dressing up in officers' clothes, and fighting amongst themselves. Meanwhile, 140 men... and officers managed to take the boats and make it safely to shore.

10:04Speaker 1:Their prospects were desperate as they found themselves shipwrecked far into the southern latitudes at the start of winter. The island was desolate, with little food and few resources to sustain them. The following day, May 15th, the ship bilged amid ships, causing many of the drunken crew still on board to drown. The survivors on the island faced a grim reality. They were divided and demoralized, with many blaming Captain Sheep for their predicament. As days turned into weeks, conditions on Wager Island deteriorated rapidly. The survivors were able to salvage some food from the wreck, as the Wager had been the store vessel for the squadron. However, that limited supply would not last long. Discipline among the survivors broke down quickly. The crew was dangerously divided, and dissent and insubordination grew. A dispute arose regarding Captain Cheap's powers of command over the soldiers who had been on board and the sailors who, once their ship was wrecked, were no longer paid by the Navy. As tensions rose amongst the survivors, a pivotal moment occurred on June 10th, 1741.

11:14Speaker 1:Midshipman Henry Cousins, known for his occasional quarrels with officers, confronted the purser, Thomas Harvey, over the stoppage of rations for one of the men. The purser is the person who is responsible for handling the ship's money and supplies. The situation quickly escalated when Harvey accused Cousins of mutiny and attempted to shoot him. Upon hearing the shot, Captain Cheap, already on edge and fearing insurrection, rushed out of his tent in a rage. Without asking any questions or seeking clarification, Cheap raised his pistol and shot Cousins directly in the face at point-blank range. Eyewitnesses later revealed that Cousins had not fired the initial shot, which had actually come from Harvey during their heated confrontation over rations. The shooting left Cousins grievously wounded, with blood gushing from under his right eye.

12:05Speaker 1:In a shocking display of callousness, Captain Cheap refused to allow medical aid for the injured midshipman. Cousins lingered for ten agonizing days before succumbing to his wound. That act of violence served as a catalyst for the growing discontent among the survivors. The crew, already struggling with chronic starvation and the psychological toll of their predicament, now faced the reality of a captain who seemed to have lost control. As the days wore on, murmurs of desertion and mutiny began to surface. The shooting of Cousins had shattered what little trust remained between the officers and the crew. Many began to question whether naval rules and regulations should still apply in their desperate situation. John Bulkley emerged as a leader among those who sought an alternative to Captain Cheap's leadership.

12:55Speaker 1:On August 4th, 1741, nearly three months after the shipwreck, Bulkeley presented a document to the captain proposing a plan to sail south through the Straits of Magellan in hopes of reaching England. Initially, most of the sick and starving sailors supported Bulkeley's plan. However, Captain Sheep, desperate to cling to his command and determined to hold on to the power he had long sought, began to employ tactics to sway opinion. Purser Harvey, under Cheap's direction, started handing out extra rations of rum and brandy to any man who would side with the captain. That manipulation further divided the survivors into two factions, those loyal to Captain Cheap and those supporting Gunner Bulkley's plan. The situation had devolved into what Bulkley referred to as a, quote, rebellion against his own, more respectable rebellion. As the weeks passed, the question of whether naval hierarchy should still apply on land became a point of fierce debate. Some castaways saw their situation as an escape clause from naval regulations, while Captain Cheap steadfastly maintained that his authority remained absolute. The fatal decision to

14:06Speaker 1:shoot midshipman Cousins had set in motion a chain of events that would ultimately lead to the complete breakdown of order among the wager's survivors. What began as a struggle for survival had transformed into a complex web of power struggles, mutiny, and moral dilemmas that would test the very foundations of naval discipline and human nature. Even before the shipwreck, John Bulkley had emerged as a natural leader. In stark contrast to Captain Sheep's failures, Bulkley's approach made a compelling case for allowing leadership to develop organically. From the start of the voyage, Bulkley positioned himself as Cheap's opposite, focusing on quality work as the ship's gunner rather than personal ambitions or flattery to superiors. After the shipwreck, Bulkley continued to prioritize the group's needs over his own ego and naval hierarchy.

14:59Speaker 1:He took the initiative to improve the castaway's quality of life whenever possible, demonstrating a commitment to collective survival. That approach gained him the trust and respect of his fellow survivors, setting the stage for the mutiny that would follow. As the situation on Wager Island deteriorated, with over 40 additional men dying of starvation, disease, or internal strife, the survivors realized their only chance of survival lay in escaping the island.

15:27Speaker 1:That's when Bulkeley devised his plan to sail south through the Straits of Magellan, hoping to reach Portuguese-controlled Brazil. To legitimize the plan, Bulkeley drafted a letter for Captain Cheap to sign, outlining the agreed-upon course of action. The letter read, in part, Whereas upon a general consultation, it has been agreed to go from this place through the Straits of Magellan for the coast of Brazil, in our way for England. We do not, notwithstanding, find the people separating into parties, which must consequently end in the destruction of the whole body.

16:02Speaker 1:When Cheap refused to sign, the mutineers took action. On October 9, 1741, armed seamen entered Cheap's hut, bound him, and declared him their prisoner to be taken to England for trial for the murder of midshipman Cousins. The final act of mutiny unfolded on October 13. The survivors had lengthened the ship's longboat, transforming it to a schooner they named the Speedwell. As they prepared to set sail, Captain Cheap refused to join them. To the mutineer's relief, Cheap agreed to be left behind on the island with a handful of other men who refused to betray the captain.

16:40Speaker 1:In October of 1741, 81 men set out from Wager Island, but the voyage got off to a rocky start. The crew faced repeated setbacks, including split sails that forced them to send the barge back to the island for additional supplies. As they entered the Straits of Magellan, the Speedwell encountered monstrous seas that threatened to capsize the boat with every swell. The crew battled extreme hunger and many succumbed to starvation. The harsh conditions took a severe toll on the men, with deaths occurring regularly. Despite those incredible difficulties and dangers, the survivors pressed on, determined to make it through the treacherous waters. As the journey progressed, the number of survivors dwindled rapidly. The crew faced not only the perils of the sea, but also the darker aspects of human nature. Starvation, accidents, murder, and even abduction plagued the group. In a particularly grim incident, eight men were sent ashore to collect water in Argentine Patagonia.

17:42Speaker 1:Bulkeley made the decision to set sail, abandoning the men on a desolate shore 300 miles or 480 kilometers south of Buenos Aires. That cruel act of survival highlighted the extreme measures some were willing to take to ensure their own safety. The crew made a brief stop at a Portuguese outpost on River Plate, hoping to replenish their meager supplies. However, they found a little relief there. The locals took advantage of their desperate situation, overcharging them for provisions. Even a priest betrayed their trust, disappearing with their shotguns after promising to return with game. Despite those setbacks, the remaining survivors pushed on. After an arduous 107-day voyage covering 2,500 nautical miles, the survivors of the HMS Wager Mutiny finally reached the coast of Brazil. Of the 81 men who had set out from Wager Island, only 30 made it to Brazil, their condition described as desperate. Despite their harrowing journey, the survivors found a warm welcome in Brazil. They received a hospitable reception and entertainment in Rio Grande, which provided a much-needed respite from their ordeal. However, their troubles were far

18:55Speaker 1:from over. In Rio de Janeiro, the group faced new challenges as tensions within the crew resurfaced. Bulkley, Cummins, and Cooper John Young had to seek protection from Portuguese authorities when they found themselves in mortal peril from the wager's boatswain. John King. Once in Rio, King and some other survivors had formed a violent gang and began threatening his former shipmates. The consul understood their predicament and placed them under protection, arranging for their passage on a ship where they could work their way home. The survivors' journey home began on May 20th, 1742, when they secured passage to Bahia in northern Brazil. They gladly left the troublesome King behind in Rio.

19:39Speaker 1:On September 11, they set sail from Bahia, bound for Lisbon. From there, they embarked on HMS Stirling Castle on December 20th, headed for Spithead, England. After more than two years away from home, the survivors finally arrived in England on New Year's Day of 1743. However, their return was not the joyous homecoming they might have hoped for. They found their names blackened and faced the prospect of an admiralty inquiry. Lieutenant Baines, who had rushed ahead to the Admiralty, gave an account of the wager incident that reflected poorly on Bulkeley and Cummins. As a result, they were both detained aboard Stirling Castle for two weeks while the Admiralty decided how to proceed. The Admiralty ultimately decided to defer any formal court-martial proceedings until the return of either Commodore Anson or Captain Cheap. When Anson returned in 1744, it was decided that no trial would proceed until Cheap's return. In the meantime, Bulkley sought permission to publish his journal, which the Admiralty allowed, stating it was his business. Captain Sheep remained on Wager Island with 19 other men. By the

20:48Speaker 1:time they decided to take a barge up the coast to Chile to a populated area, two men had died. The barge wasn't large enough for everyone to fit, so four more men were left behind since they were already not doing well health-wise. They tried to head north, but weren't able to make it far enough and returned to the island. Once back on Wager Island, they searched for the four men who had been left behind, but never found them. Fifteen days later, a group of indigenous nomads arrived on the island and were surprised to find the castaways.

21:20Speaker 1:They led the Englishmen up the coast into a Spanish settlement. The journey took four months, and by the time they arrived, only four men remained. Captain Cheap, Lieutenant Hamilton, and Midshipmen Byron and Campbell. After almost a year of being held prisoner by the Spanish, the group was taken by ship to Europe, where they were then abandoned on the shores of France. After surviving for six months in Brest, France, the men were able to negotiate a ride from a Dutch ship heading to England. The publication of Bulkley's journal was met with mixed reactions. Some initial responses suggested he should be hanged as a mutineer. The situation was further complicated by the return of Captain Cheap and the remaining survivors.

22:04Speaker 1:Captain Cheap was able to give his version of events, which obviously contradicted the story that Bulkley had told. Still, a full court-martial was initiated against Cheap for losing the wager. Despite the controversy, a court-martial eventually absolved Captain Sheep of blame for the loss of HMS Wager. Surprisingly, no action was taken against the crew members who had disobeyed his orders. That outcome led to significant changes in naval policy. To prevent similar situations in the future, then-Admiral Anson introduced an Act of Parliament in 1748 that extended naval discipline to crews who were wrecked, lost, or captured. That act ultimately led to the formation of the Marines, now known as the Royal Marines, in 1755. The tale of the HMS Wager Mutiny stands as a stark reminder of the fragility of human nature in the face of extreme adversity. From the ill-fated voyage to the harrowing journey to Brazil, the survivors endured unimaginable hardships that pushed them to their limits.

23:10Speaker 1:Their ordeal had a profound impact on naval policy, leading to significant changes in how shipwrecked crews were treated under military law. Even today, with much more accurate maps and high-tech equipment, the sea is not something to be underestimated. If you have a suggestion for a case you think I should cover, leave it in the comments. You can also follow the channel on Instagram at thisis _ _ monsters and purchase merch at thisismonsters.com. Thanks so much, and be safe.