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Updated: July 2, 2025
On the 19th at night, there arose a violent storm, and on the 20th the storm abated about two in the afternoon, when Captain Clipperton in the Success made sail, steering S. by E. while Captain Shelvocke in the Speedwell bore away N.W. So that they never again saw each other, till they afterwards met by mere accident in the South Sea.
Discovering a sail about seven in the evening, they gave chase and sent their pinnace to board, which came up with the chase about eleven. On the return of the pinnace, her people reported that this was a Spanish ship named the Jesu Maria, but now in possession of Captain Shelvocke, who had now only forty of his men remaining, all the rest being dead or dispersed.
It was therefore resolved upon to put this plan into immediate execution, without any farther consultation with Shelvocke, and to leave the coast of America directly. They were now to the S.S.E. of Port Marquis, in lat. 16°50'N. and accordingly on the 18th March shaped their course for crossing the Pacific ocean towards the Ladrone islands.
In the new scheme of the voyage, Captain Shelvocke retained the command of the Speedwell, carrying twenty-four guns and 106 men, Mr Simon Hately being his second captain, an officer who has a good character given of him in the account of the former voyage by Captain Rogers. The marines were under the command of Captain William Betagh.
Even the chief officers, among the rest, had concurred in electing one Morphew to be their champion and speaker, who addressed the assembly to the following purport: "That they were now their own masters, and servants to none: and as Mr Shelvocke, their former captain, took upon him still to command, he ought to be informed, that whoever was now to be their commander, must be so through their own courtesy.
The Speedwell carried twenty-four guns and 106 men, and the Success thirty-six guns and 180 men; the former commanded by Captain George Shelvocke, who was to have had the chief command in the expedition, and the other by Captain John Clipperton, who had formerly sailed with Dampier as mate, and of whose adventures after his separation from Dampier, an account has been already given.
Hence, in "disowning his obligations to Shelvocke," he may not by any means have intended to suggest that the albatross incident was his own thought. Moreover, De Quincey himself supplies another explanation of the matter, which we know, from the above-quoted notes of Wordsworth's, to be founded upon fact.
That same evening they brought on board all the goats-flesh they had salted, together with four casks of seal-oil, and every thing else they had on shore. A cross was set up on shore, at the foot of which a bottle was buried, containing a letter for Captain Shelvocke, appointing another place of rendezvous, with certain signals by which to know each other if they happened to meet at sea.
That, although they were not now in the hands of our enemies, no one could tell how soon others might come upon them: and, if they ever looked to get back to England, there was no other way but by going round the world, for which there was no one capable of undertaking the charge except Captain Shelvocke.
On the 15th, in another consultation, Captain Clipperton and his officers agreed to certain articles, which were sent to Captain Shelvocke, proposing, if he and his crew would refund all the money they had shared among themselves, contrary to the articles agreed upon with the owners, and put the whole into a joint stock, thus all their faults should be forgiven, both companies uniting, and should then proceed together to cruise for the Acapulco ship.
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