Ansons Voyage Round the World | Page 4

from their age, wounds, or other infirmities, are
incapable of service in marching regiments, Mr. Anson was greatly
chagrined at having such a decrepit detachment allotted to him; for he
was fully persuaded that the greatest part of them would perish long
before they arrived at the scene of action, since the delays he had
already encountered necessarily confined his passage round Cape Horn
to the most vigorous season of the year.** They were ordered on board
the squadron on the 5th of August; but instead of 500 there came on
board no more than 259; for all those who had limbs and strength to
walk out of Portsmouth deserted, leaving behind them only such as
were literally invalids, most of them being sixty years of age, and some
of them upwards of seventy.

(*Note. A local name for Chelsea Hospital, a home for old and disabled
soldiers. It was founded by Charles II and the buildings were designed
by Wren.)
(**Note. The squadron did not reach the neighbourhood of Cape Horn
until March when the autumn of the Southern Hemisphere had begun
and with it the stormy season.)
To supply the place of the 240 invalids which had deserted there were
ordered on board 210 marines detached from different regiments. These
were raw and undisciplined men, for they were just raised, and had
scarcely anything more of the soldier than their regimentals, none of
them having been so far trained as to be permitted to fire. The last
detachment of these marines came on board the 8th of August, and on
the 10th the squadron sailed from Spithead to St. Helens, there to wait
for a wind to proceed on the expedition.
But the diminishing the strength of the squadron was not the greatest
inconvenience which attended these alterations, for the contests,
representations, and difficulties which they continually produced
occasioned a delay and waste of time which in its consequences was
the source of all the disasters to which this enterprise was afterwards
exposed. For by this means we were obliged to make our passage round
Cape Horn in the most tempestuous season of the year, whence
proceeded the separation of our squadron, the loss of numbers of our
men, and the imminent hazard of our total destruction. And by this
delay, too, the enemy had been so well informed of our designs that a
person who had been employed in the South Sea Company's* service,
and arrived from Panama three or four days before we left Portsmouth,
was able to relate to Mr. Anson most of the particulars of the
destination and strength of our squadron from what he had learned
among the Spaniards before he left them. And this was afterwards
confirmed by a more extraordinary circumstance; for we shall find that
when the Spaniards (fully satisfied that our expedition was intended for
the South Seas) had fitted out a squadron to oppose us, which had so
far got the start of us as to arrive before us off the island of Madeira,
the Commander of this squadron was so well instructed in the form and

make of Mr. Anson's broad pennant, and had imitated it so exactly that
he thereby decoyed the "Pearl", one of our squadron, within gunshot of
him before the captain of the Pearl was able to discover his mistake.
(*Note. The South Sea Company was formed in 1711 on the model of
the East India Company to trade in the Pacific; and on the conclusion
of the Treaty of Utrecht it was given the monopoly of the English trade
with the Spanish coasts of America. The grant of certain privileges by
Government led to wild speculation in its shares which gave rise to the
famous South Sea Bubble of 1720.)
On the 18th of September, 1740, the squadron weighed from St. Helens
with a contrary wind. It consisted of five men-of-war, a sloop-of-war,
and two victualling ships. They were the Centurion, of 60 guns, 400
men, George Anson, Esquire, commander; the "Gloucester", of 50 guns,
300 men, Richard Norris, commander; the "Severn", of 50 guns, 300
men, the Honourable Edward Legg, commander; the Pearl, of 40 guns,
250 men, Matthew Mitchel, commander; the "Wager", of 28 guns, 160
men, Dandy Kidd, commander; and the "Trial", sloop, of 8 guns, 100
men, the Honourable John Murray, commander. The two victuallers
were pinks, the largest about 400 and the other about 200 tons burthen;
these were to attend us till the provisions we had taken on board were
so far consumed as to make room for the additional quantity they
carried with them, which when we had taken into our ships they were
to be discharged. Besides the complement of men borne by the
above-mentioned ships as their crews, there were embarked on board
the squadron