Master Mariner

THE LIFE AND VOYAGES OF

AMASA DELANO

Captain Amasa Delano, 1763-1823



BY
JAMES B. CONNOLLY

1943

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CHAPTER XX

A Hard Night off Fernandez

AMASA HELPED HIMSELF to enough sealskins from the Pilgrim to make a full cargo for his own ship and set sail for the Canton market. Brother Samuel was left to continue the Pilgrim in the sealing for another season.

Due west from Amasa's part of departure was the island of Juan Fernández. It wasn't on the direct course to China, but it wasn't so very far out of the way, and Amasa was curious to see for himself the island whereon the castaway Robinson Crusoe lived with only his goats for company for so long a time.

Mas a Tierra (Robinson Crusoe Island)

To his officers he said: "There might be a few late seals left playing around the island and there's space for a few more skins below decks."

In the early morning of his third day out of Valparaiso Amasa hove to in a safe depth of water off the north side of the island and put off in the whaleboat. The wind was west at the time, and he foresaw no difficulties in landing on the north shore of the island.

There was a sail in the boat, but Amasa took it in when the wind threatened to capsize them. The wind held on, and the sea began to make. Before long Amasa was giving up hope of landing on the north shore. He would now have to land on the east side, the lee side, of the island. He should have returned to the ship--a more prudent man would have--but he wasn't turning back now until he had set foot on the island; so he signaled the ship to follow his boat and held on his way. The ship, as it turned out, missed the signal; and out where she was, with no shore lee whatever to aid her, she was having her troubles hanging on to her sail in the increasing breeze. The first officer could have reduced his tail, but he preferred not to do that in the absence of the captain.

Amasa continued rowing around the island, and at five o'clock in the afternoon he made the shelter of a little bay on the east side. He went ashore and was met at the landing pier by Governor O'Higgins, a nephew of the Irish-born Ambrose O'Higgins, the Ambrosio O'Higgins of Spanish history who had held, among other high offices, that of viceroy at Lima [Ambrosio's son, Bernardo O'Higgins, the Supreme Director of Chile, appointed Captain Paul Delano Commander in Chief of the Transport Division, which was to take the Liberation Army, under the command of General Jose de San Martin, to invade Peru].

O'Higgins demanded to know who Amasa was and what was he doing on the island. Amasa explained that he was Captain Delano of the American ship Perseverance, and he was after fruit and fresh vegetables for those of his crew who were sick with scurvy. The fruit and vegetables were an afterthought, but the scurvy among his crew was no afterthought. As doubtless he knew (Amasa speaking to the governor), the island of Juan Fernández was famous in the maritime world for its variety and plenitude of fruit and vegetables and he would guarantee that his men would give no trouble collecting a supply for the ship.

O'Higgins replied that the governor of the island before him, name of Santa Maria and owner of the island of that same name on the coast of Chile--possibly Captain Delano knew of Santa Maria? Yes? So? Well, Governor Santa Maria had been removed from his office because of his liberality toward English and American crews who had been allowed to land on the island and had damaged property thereon. Santa Maria was even then under arrest in Lima. There was also the trouble arising from English warships' putting in there and enticing English prisoners from the island. And he, Governor O'Higgins, was not eager now to get himself into trouble with his government on that possible account. No. His orders were to forbid the landing of any foreign seaman on the island. Captain Delano would have to return to his ship without delay.

Amasa pleaded for an abatement of the governor's severe instructions. He had his sick people to think of--Amasa envisioned them growing sicker as he talked. Also, he had known Governor Santa Maria, was on most friendly terms with him, had come away with many a boatload of sealskins from that same island of Santa Maria.

He further reminded O'Higgins that he had rendered favors to Spanish people at different times and secured the release of many such, who would, only for his intercession, have been sent to England and incarcerated in the terrible prisons there. Hadn't he heard of his doings in that line?

The governor had not heard? No? But surely the governor had heard of the American captain who had recaptured the Spanish slave ship, the Tyral, after the slaves hid massacred twenty-live of her crew? Well, he was that captain, Delano was the name--Captain Amasa Delano--surely, and he had been thanked for this service by the viceroy and was later to be decorated by His Catholic Majesty. Surely he had heard of Captain Delano in that respect?

No, Governor O'Higgins hadn't heard of the Tyral massacre of which Captain Delano spoke so movingly. It was of course true that many events transpired on the mainland of which he did not hear until long later on this desolate island. He regretted that he must carry out his orders, and his orders were to allow no foreign mariners to land on the islands.

But (Amasa again speaking) it was blowing a gale, a dangerous wind for a man to contend with in a small open boat. Even a ship would have to beware of it. Yes. Also by this time night was settling down. But the governor, who wasn't behaving at all like the Irishmen of Amasa's acquaintance, said no, no, and asked why did not the captain remain on his ship in such threatening weather?

Amasa spoke a few more words about the fresh vegetables for his scurvy-stricken crew. But O'Higgins wasn't to be moved. Said Amasa then: "Would you mind my taking a few stones to ballast my boat to help her to weather the gale?"

"No stones. Nothing from this island. My orders," said O'Higgins.

Amasa drew out a handful of dollars and offered them in payment of the stones if the governor would allow him to gather some. The governor grimaced and shook his head violently. It was a mistake, Amasa saw, to offer the money; and yet it produced a good effect.

"Gather the stones," said the governor.

Amasa's men helped themselves to a dozen heavy stones, and Amasa shoved off. It was sunset time then by the clock, but they saw no sun, it being thick all about them and overcast above. The ship was not in sight, but Amasa steered the boat toward where they last saw her. When they finally descried her she was faintly outlined against a vaguely marked horizon. The ship could have soon made to the boat, the boat being to leeward of her, but she made no signal that she saw the boat, which wasn't surprising, she being so small a boat and sitting so low on the water.

The boat's crew continued to row to Amasa's urgings, but without making great headway in the wind and sea. After four hours of rowing, and the ship's sailing lights being lost in the dark night, Amasa fired off a musket. He continued firing the musket for as long as his powder stayed dry. Nothing came of the musket firing.

Amasa saw to it that the boat was held far enough from the island to save her from being tossed onto the shore by the high surf during the night. That would mean all hands lost. That boiling white water would smother them before ever they could make the beach.

Throughout that night the boat shipped water continuously. When the water would rise half up to her gunnels two men would drop their oars and bail her out.

Amasa's boat men were stout men at the oars, but they were growing terribly weary, and in their weariness they took to expressing their doubts of living the night through. All but one were so talking, and he, to Amasa's wonder, was one of the Botany Bay outlaws; and Amasa was left wondering what class of convict he was--murderer, highwayman, or political exile. Whichever he was, he agreed with Amasa that it looked like a bad night before them, but he wouldn't say it was a worse prospect than he had experienced in a king's boat which he and his companions stole when they ran away from their prison camp in Van Diemen's Land. Of course they had been exposed for only one hour in that boat, and here now it was hours already, and hours more before them by the looks.

It cheered Amasa to know that he had one optimist with him in this night of peril. He busied himself afresh with ways and means to keep the boat afloat till daylight, when, unless the weather were still thick, the ship would surely spy them and run down and pick them up.

Amasa began his preparation by ordering his crew to bunch their oars, lash them together, and make a rope fast to each end of them. He then secured the stones he had wangled from Governor O'Higgins to the middle of the lashed oars. He lashed the sail of the boat to the oars and paid the bundle so made out over the bow of the boat. "A sea anchor," said Amasa.

The weight of the stones held the oars and the sail just under water. The boat tailed off; and there she lay with her head to the wind and the onrushing seas. By now they were real, high seas, which came rolling high toward them--they could hear them--and broke backs across the sea anchor before they could roll farther and smother the whaleboat.

It was a night of stress and discomfort aplenty. They had all left the ship in clothing suitable for a warm climate; but that night wasn't at all warm. Long before morning they were all huddling together with the cold seawater drenching them continuously. They lay as close to the bottom of the boat as they could wiggle, the better to ballast her and so lessen the ceaseless danger of capsizing her. If she capsized they would never be able to get her back on an even keel, and the high seas would probably wash most of them clear--drown them--before morning.

While so huddled in the bottom of the boat they were doing their best--it took some managing--to keep her bailed out. She could half fill and live; but Amasa didn't dare to let her fill higher.

The long, black night passed; and there they were, looking like wraiths of men, but there they were, all present and accounted for when Amasa mustered them in the light of morning.

It was a dim morning light--low gray clouds and not the faintest sign of a sun showing anywhere behind the clouds.

And there was no sign of the ship. That could be accounted for, of course, when Amasa took time to think it out. No ship was staying hard by a lee shore in a gale of wind and a high running sea. Surely not on a black night.

A high sea was still running and a hard gale blowing; it was still thick below and overcast above, the island wasn't in sight, and they had no compass to guide them to where they had last sighted the ship. No bright prospect, that! If they only had something to eat to hearten them; but who could have guessed they would be adrift for twenty hours in their little boat between their ship and shore in a gale of wind?

There was nothing for it except lay to their sea anchor till the weather would lift.

At ten o'clock the air cleared. They saw the land; it was five leagues distant. And the ship? Still no ship.

At high sun--noon--the sea had moderated sufficiently for Amasa to risk taking in his sea anchor and start rowing for the island.

What the governor would have to say when he saw them again, Amasa did not try to guess. However, they weren't halfway to the island when the ship showed up. She was miles away; but the welcome sight she was, as down the wind she came asailing! She was under a close-reefed main-topsail and main and forecourse, which meant that her first officer, Mr. Lowe, had been having a care for her during the night.

When the boat's crew were taken aboard some of them could not stand upright.

Amasa Delano had been dismissing hurricanes as nothing to worry a captain while he had a ship's deck under him--a sound-built ship and sound gear, of course. But an open boat in heavy weather--a man should forelay against danger then. And he hadn't forelaid as he should. And so men's lives were imperiled. He mentioned his remissness, but not at any length. He was a bit ashamed, he a master mariner of nigh twenty years' standing.

Amasa now laid his course for the Galapagos Islands. To his officers he said: "They're on the road to Canton [which they were--almost] and we may pick up a few skins there." He did not expect a real catch of seals there. He was curious to see the island again--no island quite like the Galapagos.

"Gallipago Islands: When bound to the northward, or to the westward for China from these islands, I have steered nearest a north west course, till in the latitude of 10° north, then more to the westward, so as to bring me, when I was in the latitude of 15° north, to be 115° west longitude; from which I sailed nearly on a north west course till I was in latitude 20° north, and longitude 120° west."

The Galapagos certainly did have the most interesting creature life: iguanas, the land and sea sort, with four legs like an alligator; lizards and snakes aplenty--harmless snakes --and here were his old friends the pelicans, the most clumsy birds that Amasa ever saw.

Galapagos land iguana

"When in the act of diving they make the most awkward appearance that can be imagined; which cannot be better described than by comparing it to the manner in which a sailor washes his clothes, by making them fast to the end of a rope and throwing them from the forecastle into the sea. When they strike the water, the clothes spread out, with the trousers in one direction, the shirt in another, and the jacket in a third. The pelican makes a plunge into the water with wings extended, its mouth open, and its bill expanded; and with two enormously large feet spread out behind exhibits itself in a very ludicrous and sprawling manner."

There was that bird called the diver. After watching the clumsy pelicans Amasa was all admiration for the divers.

"They fly round in a circle and continue to rise till they get to the height of from sixty to a hundred yards in the air, when one of them makes a pitch to dive, at which motion every one follows, and they fly down with remarkable swiftness, till within four or five yards of the surface, and then suddenly clasp their wings together and go into the water with the greatest velocity that can be conceived of, exceeding any thing of the kind that I ever witnessed. I have often stood upon the ship's taffrail, and sometimes have gone into one of the tops, to observe the motions of these birds whilst they were diving. They go into the water with such force as to form a curve of thirty or forty yards in length before coming to the top again. They glide under water at almost as great a degree of swiftness as when flying in the air. The water was so very transparent where the ship lay, that they could very plainly be seen during all their submarine course."

Fresh water was scarce as ever in the Galapagos. At one island Amasa noted a series of trenches cut into the rocks at the head of a cove. The trenches were draining from the sides of two of the rocky hills higher up into a natural basin lower down. He scooped up fifteen gallons of fresh water from the first basin, but to fill all his water casks called for invention. He floated his empty casks to the shore, hoisted them onto the top of the rocks by a ship's whip, placed the casks beside the basins, and left men standing by them night and day to dip up the water as fast as the basins filled. In that way his crew collected three hundred gallons of water in twenty-four hours. The filled casks were then let down the side of the rock by a line. That called for great care when the sea was surging against the rocks. The ship's boats then towed the casks to the ship. The big butts settling deep in the water called for a toilsome job of towing, at which nobody growled, fresh sweet water aboard-ship being a precious, life-saving thing.

While at that water basin Amasa witnessed a spectacle like nothing he had ever seen or heard or read of in all his life before.

"Our boat was coming from the watering place between sunset and dark, when we saw a large black cloud gathering over the highest mountain on a nearby island. The cloud formed a spire or pike similar to that of a cloud when about to meet a waterspout. The spire descended to the top of the mountain, with a body of fire following it of the size of the largest part of the steeple of a meetinghouse. After the fire had descended to the top of the mountain, it continued some seconds, when it broke like a water spout and continued for near half an hour before it wholly disappeared."

Amasa continued to coast the Galapagos with a sharper eye out for aids to mariners than for seals. Of one island he notes:

"The watering places are to be found on the south east side of the cove, and are eight and ten in number. They are formed by holes, which are cut (worn) out of the rock above the surf, and will contain about one barrel each. They are situated directly underneath some little hillocks or knolls, which will be a good mark to find them by. There are likewise two or three little gullies near them, in which water sometimes runs. By standing by night and day a ship may fill at this place from fifty to one hundred and fifty barrels in twenty-four hours. Plenty of wood can be procured to the northward of the head, from the green mangroves before mentioned, or from Mar-borough Island. This little cove is as snug a place as any I know amongst the islands for a ship to lie in and overhaul her rigging, or make any repairs that may be found necessary."

Such information is useful. To know such things in those old sailing ship days might save a parched ship's crew from extreme suffering. Amasa enjoyed his Galapagos turtles and diving birds, but not even those as he enjoyed his discoveries of new, fresh, sweet watering places.

Where wood and fresh meat were to be had was also useful to know. Whalers were regularly hunting the Galapagos. After looking in on another island Amasa informs whaling captains that here is a spot worth their putting in to when in need:

"There are many advantages which unite about this place, and are seldom to be found anywhere else. The plentiful supply of the best of fresh meat; together with good eating fresh fish, which are as plenty as in any place I ever was at; and good wood for fuel which is easily obtained; and all to be procured without an expense, and with very little trouble. It is considered to be as good whaling ground as any island in these seas."