John Williams Wilson was born in Bristol, England, to a family with a long seafaring tradition.

As a young man, he traveled to South America to enter the newly organized Chilean Navy in 1824, directed by the British Lord Cochrane.

In 1843 Don Manuel Bulnes Prieto, the President of the Republic, ordered him to mount a naval expedition to Magallanes.

The next day the French schooner Phaeton put in and, after saluting the Chilean flag, departed for Oceania.

The government intended to develop a settlement, but the location was too isolated, and the population was later moved to Punta Arenas.