Wager Mutiny - Bulkley & The Speedwell Survivors Return To England

Bulkley & The Speedwell Survivors Return To England

The 30 mutineers had an anxious time before eventually securing passage to Rio de Janeiro on the brigantine Saint Catherine which set sail on Sunday 28 March 1742. Once in Rio de Janeiro internal and external diplomatic wrangling continually threatened to terminally complicate either their lives, or at least their return to England. John King did not help. He formed a violent gang that spent most of its time repeatedly terrorising his former shipmates on various pretexts, who in turn spent most of their time moving to the opposite side of Rio to wherever King was. After many episodes of fleeing their accommodation in terror from King and his gang (who now referred to him as their 'commander'), Bulkley, Cummins and the cooper, John Young, eventually sought protection from the Portuguese authorities. Captain S W C Pack describes these events:

"As soon as the ruffians had gone, the terrified occupants left their house via the back wall and fled into the country. Early the next morning they called on the consul and asked for protection. He readily understood that they were all in mortal peril from the mad designs of the boatswain and placed them under protection and undertook to get them on board a ship where they could work their passage."

They eventually secured passage to Bahia in the Saint Tubes, which set sail on 20 May 1742, where with great relief they left the boatswain John King behind to continue causing criminal havoc in Rio de Janeiro. On 11 September 1742, the Saint Tubes left Bahia bound for Lisbon, and from there they embarked in HMS Stirling Castle on 20 December bound for Spithead, England, arriving on New Year's Day 1743, after an absence of more than two years.

Events were also reported back to London from the British Consul in Lisbon as follows on a dispatch dated 1 October 1742 (see images):

"Last week four officers of the Wager which went out with Mr Anson, viz the Lieutenant of the ship , two lieutenants of marines and four sailors arrived here in a Portuguese vessel; they say they were cast away upon an uninhabited island in the South Seas in May last twelvemonth, after they had lost their ship they lengthened their longboat and threw a deck over her in which & two open boats the whole crew being 81 in number resorted to put to sea, except their Captain who said it was as well to starve as be drowned which he was persuaded would be their fate . One of the boats put back back again immediately, the others proceeded, sailed the Straights of Magellan, kept along the coast 'till they got to Rio Grande, where they say they were well received by the Portuguese. But before they got there several of the people died in the voyage, others ran away there . The rest sailed again from thence and went to Rio de Janeiro, what numbers landed there they do not remember. The whole event the Lieutenant says must be very important for the sailors were become masters and would not suffer him to keep a journal. When they got to the Rio de Janeiro they're were lots of their companions who left them at Rio Grande had been there & were gone away in His Majesty's ship commanded by Captain Smith who sailed for the West Indies seven or eight days before they got in. The officers gone home of this Packet & the sailors are put on board His Majesty's ship the Greyhound."

SWC Pack's book describes a similar report which was also sent as:

"Arrival of some of the castaways from the loss of H.M.S. Wager in the South Pacific. Were well treated by Portuguese at Rio de Janeiro, but sailors were mutinous against their officers. King of Portugal has had another seizure and his departure for Caldas is postponed... etc."

Lieutenant Baynes, in order to exonerate himself, rushed ahead of Bulkley and Cummins to the Admiralty in London and gave an account of what happened to Wager which reflected badly on Bulkley and Cummins but not himself. This behaviour was not out of character, Baynes was a weak man and an incompetent officer, as has already been frequently referenced and recorded by all those who provided a narrative of these events. As a result of Baynes' report, Bulkley and Cummins were detained aboard HMS Stirling Castle for two weeks whilst the Admiralty decided how to act. It was eventually decided to release them and defer any formal court martial proceedings until the return of either Commodore Anson or Captain Cheap. When Anson did return in 1744 it was decided that no trial would proceed until Cheap returned. Bulkley then asked the Admiralty for permission to publish his journal, whereby the reply came to the effect that it was his business and he could do as he liked. He duly released a book containing his journal, but the initial reaction from some who read it was not what he expected, namely that he should be hanged as a mutineer.

Bulkley found employment when he assumed command of a forty-gun privateer Saphire. It was not long before Bulkley's competence and nerve found him success as he tricked his way around a superior force of French frigates which his vessel encountered when cruising. As a result, Bulkley soon found his antics being reported in popular London papers and that he was a bit of a celebrity around town. He began thinking that it was would not be long before the Admiralty would offer him the coveted command of a Royal Navy ship. On 9 April 1745 however Cheap arrived back in England.