George Anson's voyage around the world

While Great Britain was fighting the War of Jenkins' Ear with Spain in 1740, Commodore George Anson led a squadron of eight ships on a mission to disrupt or capture the Pacific Ocean possessions of the Spanish Empire.

Before heading to South America, Anson was required to escort a huge fleet of transports and merchant vessels out of the English Channel and the initial attempt to get to sea was abandoned as ships crashed into each other.

[n 1] Had contact been made with Pizarro's squadron, the expedition likely would have ended since Anson's ships would have had to throw overboard the huge quantity of provisions cluttering the decks, which prevented the effective working of the guns.

The squadron reached Ilha de Santa Catarina (St Catherine's), a large island just off the coast of Portuguese southern Brazil on 21 December and the sick were sent ashore, eighty from Centurion alone.

Anson sailed 18 January 1741 intending to stop at Puerto San Julián (near the eastern entrance to the Strait of Magellan) where there was no European presence but supposedly bountiful supplies of salt.

The ships reached Strait of Le Maire, the entrance to the path around Cape Horn, on 7 March 1741 in unseasonably fine weather but shortly afterwards it turned to a violent gale from the south.

Since the deck cannon were getting continually doused, it would have been impossible to fire warning shots even if they had seen ice so Tryal was removed from this duty, and the Pearl took its place, leaving her Captain, Saumarez, to write that 'really life is not worth pursuing at the expense of such hardships'.

Another storm hit just as the Wager fell from sight and on 24 April, both Centurion and Gloucester reported that every sail was torn or loose, but the crew was too few and too weak to attempt repairs until the next day, by which time the ships were scattered.

Engravings from A voyage round the world, in the years MDCCXL, I, II, III, IV, by George Anson, Esq: Given the mortality rate on Centurion and Tryal, it seemed likely that the crews of the other ships would all be dead if they were unable to reach Juan Fernandez in the next few days.

After a month in Rio, Murray wanted to make another attempt to reach the Pacific but Legge, the more senior officer overruled him, saying that both ships still had insufficient able-bodied men and in any case, even if Anson had survived the storms, he may well be headed home by now.

Although in London there were some gossip of desertion, the official report of the voyage in 1748 made no such suggestion but instead spoke of the 'great joy' aboard the Centurion after it reached Canton and learned that the two ships had survived.

His lieutenant Robert Baynes and the gunner John Bulkeley had argued that it was too dangerous to approach a target on the lee shore in a disabled ship with just 12 men fit for duty and so they should instead head toward Juan Fernandez in the open ocean.

His hasty decision to shoot a drunken crew member on 10 June, followed by his refusal to allow the doctor to treat him meant that the victim took two weeks to die, alienating most of Cheap's remaining supporters.

Bulkeley read Narborough's account of the passage through the admittedly treacherous Strait of Magellan 400 miles (640 km) to the south and concluded it was their only viable option, as they could then sail north to Brazil.

Campbell elected not to take the offer but took a mule across the Andes and joined Admiral Pizarro in Montevideo on Asia, only to find Isaac Morris and the two seamen that had been abandoned in Freshwater Bay.

Now that the major players were all back in England, accusations flew but the official court martial only examined the loss of Wager in which Baynes, in nominal charge at the time, was acquitted of blame but reprimanded for omissions of duty.

Expecting a relatively quick voyage and with access to Spanish-held ports in Chile, Pizarro's ships had set out with only four months provisions but were hit by ferocious storms after rounding the Horn and were gradually pushed backwards.

Anson intended to demonstrate that he was a disciplined military officer rather than a ruthless buccaneer, and so treated his prisoners well, including assigning a guard for the women and allowing them to keep their cabins.

Since the Spanish were now on alert for his squadron, it was obvious that the way home would be by way of China to either the Portuguese colony at Macau or further up the river to Canton, a base for the English East India company, rather than back around Cape Horn.

However, when the full details emerged, Anson saw there were no alternative but to salvage whatever possible from Gloucester (not much except the captured bullion), transfer the crew and then set the ship on fire to ensure that the hulk did not drift into Spanish-held Guam.

The island was a lush tropical paradise with an abundance of fruit and other edible greens near the beach, but also fresh water and cattle which had been brought there to provide meat for the Spanish garrison on Guam.

The high praise given it by Dampier's earlier expedition and the crew of Centurion later prompted Joseph Banks to send HMS Bounty on an ill-fated voyage to take the plant to grow in the British West Indies.

The crew had battled heroically to keep her afloat contending with unlashed cannons rolling about, open gun ports allowing the ocean to surge in, the anchor dangling below and only having the mizzenmast rigged, all the while dealing with the original leak in the hull.

Amongst the Chinese merchants, Centurion was regarded as some sort of pirate vessel, having destroyed other ships and disrupted Pacific trade by keeping the Acapulco galleon in port, a view apparently promoted by European rivals.

Although Anson had made it known that the ship would be leaving for Jakarta and thence to England, he had decided that having failed so dismally to fulfill the ambitious orders given to him, he would attempt to salvage something of the expedition and seize the galleon just before it arrived in the Philippines.

In an occasion marked by great ceremony, Anson noted through an interpreter the many attempts he had made to secure an audience through intermediaries but since they had been insincere, he had been forced to send his officer to the city gate with a letter to be delivered directly to the Viceroy.

By the Admiralty rule books, they lost their rank and were effectively just ordinary seamen, but it seems obvious that without the transfer of experienced officers from the other ships, the Centurion would not have survived the Pacific or been able to capture the galleon.

The final words from the authorized account were:Thus was this expedition finished, when it had lasted three years and nine months, after having, by its event, strongly evinced this important truth: That though prudence, intrepidity, and perseverance united are not exempted from the blows of adverse fortune, yet in a long series of transactions they usually rise superior to its power, and in the end rarely fail of proving successful.

It is claimed as known "mostly only to the eruditi"[27] that the ghost writer, in whole or in part,[28] of the work was the mathematician Benjamin Robins,[24] who had previously written under Anson's patronage on the subject of artillery reform in the Royal Navy.

Lord Anson's chaplain Richard Walter (c.1716-1785), who had been a member of the voyage until December 1742, after the fleet's arrival in Macau,[29] was credited as the author on the title page and dedication, having instigated the project, whilst Benjamin Robins is said to have been paid £1,000 for his work.