Survivors owe lives to ‘triumph of ingenuity’
The way we were
WHEN the British ship Doddington (bound for India) struck a rock in Algoa Bay during a winter storm in 1755, only 23 of the 280 souls aboard reached the dubious safety of a small, guano-encrusted island.
Injured and dejected, they had almost given up hope of survival when the ship’s carpenter, Richard Topping, volunteered to build a 10m-long sloop from the wreckage, provided he had the right tools.
At the same time, a Swedish sailor found an old pair of bellows and mentioned that he had once been a blacksmith’s assistant.
The tools were made and hope revived. Topping and his helpers spent the next seven months building the Happy Deliverance, while the rest fished, hunted seabirds, collected rainwater and foraged for eggs during the breeding season.
Their ship, a triumph of ingenuity, left Bird Island on February 18, 1756 carrying 22 survivors and two live hogs. The men chose not to land in Algoa Bay because of the rough surf and their mistaken belief that the local inhabitants were hostile.
However, they failed to take their small sails and the speed of the Agulhas Current into account, both of which impeded their progress. As a result, their journey to Delagoa Bay (now Maputo) took 61 days.
Their home during this period was twice as long as a Nissan Hardbody bakkie, with a beam that was twice as wide. Although they had saved stores for the journey, the Happy Deliverance was poorly stocked with food and water.
Buffeted by contrary winds and frightening waves, they made little progress and their first attempt to barter with black people ashore was marred by misunderstanding.
They were reduced to eating tiny portions of stinking salt pork when they saw a river mouth and decided to enter it, sending their small rowing boat ahead to reconnoitre the bar.
The locals were friendly and were happy to trade bullocks, milk and grain for brass buttons and other metal items, so they stayed for two weeks to recuperate and then sailed to St Lucia, where they also traded for supplies. At this point the party split, nine men preferring to take their chances walking along the beach (five of them subsequently died, possibly of malaria).
The 13 survivors sailed the sloop over the bar on April 18, 1756 and headed north, reaching the Delagoa River three days later. There they found two small English trading vessels commanded by Captain Chandler, who promised them berths aboard his ship the Rose.
There was some unfinished business involving salvaged money and valuables that had disappeared on the island, but the missing items were recovered after the sloop was thoroughly searched. The carpenter sold the Happy Deliverance to Captain Chandler for 500 rupees and the survivors sailed to Madagascar and Madras and out of the pages of history.