I'm Kevin Biggar. I'm Kevin Biggar. And I'm Jamie Fitzgerald. And we're modern-day adventurers who have travelled all over NZ. In the past few years, we've traversed some of the most dangerous mountains,... I left my ice axe! ...wildest rivers, and rugged trails. Oh! Now we're stepping back in time, retracing the footsteps of early pioneers ` bringing the past back to life with tales of heroic rescue attempts,... Whoa! Whoa! Just take it slow, Kev! ...shipwrecks, and deadly pursuits. It's getting deep! Where human endurance is pushed to the absolute limit. (GRUNTS) SPLASH! SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC This week we're in the Auckland Islands in the sub-Antarctic region of the Southern Ocean ` one of the world's most remote and inhospitable landscapes. In a terrifying storm, the sailing ship Invercauld strikes a reef and sinks immediately. This last little bit's a bit curly. Oh! 19 survivors are cast away on a desolate island with no shelter and little to eat. Sea lions are fast and indestructible. Starving, they devised a shocking plan. The person with the shortest straw would get cooked and eaten by the others. Just what caused the men to resort to savagery so quickly? And could the crew have done more to save themselves? Here it comes. When all hope is lost, just how far will men go to survive? It's coming in the front. It's coming in the front. Oh no! Captions by Shelley Upchurch. Edited by Faith Hamblyn. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2014 We're in the middle of the Southern Ocean, 300 miles south of Stewart Island. Down here it's as inhospitable as it gets. The water is freezing cold, it's always windy, and what land there is is bleak and barren. Yet the tall ships used to come down here to the various fifties to find the winds to speed their passage around the globe. The three-masted barque Invercauld of Aberdeen in the command of Captain George Dalgarno, was on her maiden voyage from Australia to the Americas when she was smashed against the towering cliffs of the Auckland Islands. 25 crew found themselves in the water, battling huge waves and trying to make it to land. What happened next was documented at the time by the two senior officers. But recently a third, more controversial account has been uncovered. It was written by one of the lowest ranked members of the crew ` able seaman Robert Holding. Holding's account doesn't make for pretty reading. It's a story of hardship and despair, tinged with his thoughts that perhaps if they'd done things differently, more of those wrecked survivors could have been saved. So what went wrong? 19 people survived the first night, but yet only three remained to be rescued. We've come down to recreate the journey of those Invercauld survivors and see if Robert Holding was right ` if he and two others were saved, maybe more could have as well. There's only one place on the planet that holds the answers, and that's here on the Auckland Islands. Holding was English and had gone to sea for adventure. He'd spent time in the Australian bush and as a gold miner. He was fit, clever and resourceful. The ship he'd signed up on, the Invercauld, was modern for her day. She was rigged with steel masts and wire ropes, but it was those very innovations that took her straight to the bottom. Good luck, guys. Might see you in six months, eh? BOTH LAUGH She sank so fast six crew failed to make it to shore, and those that did escaped with little more than their lives. Oh, it's a pretty humble pile... Yeah! Yeah! I think this is the smallest amount of gear we've ever had! It's not gonna take us long. What have you got? It's not gonna take us long. What have you got? Just a shirt. Pants. Oh! Things are looking up. I've got a jacket. I love the buttons. I love the buttons. Captain Scarlet. (LAUGHS) We've got some boots. I haven't got a jacket. Hang on a second. I haven't got any boots! You... (LAUGHS) You... (LAUGHS) Oh no. What else have you got? A poxy little knife. Ooh! Oh. A couple of boxes of matches. That's one of the most useful things yet. That's probably the most useful. Let's keep them safe. Let's keep them safe. So no water, no charts. I kinda get vertigo just looking up. Well, better get dressed. Well, better get dressed. OK. The sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands are a group of volcanic islands with a combined area of 625 square kilometres. It's one of the most remote and inhospitable places on earth. The climate is wet, cold, windy and very cloudy, with the temperature averaging around just 7 degrees. While the crew had no real idea of their position, they had in fact washed up on a rocky cove on the north-west cape of the main island. As the last of the wreckage was being pounded on to the rocks by the surf, the sailors on the beach took stock of their situation. In many ways it couldn't have been worse. When dawn broke, they counted that 19 men had survived the wreck, but as they looked around, they probably wondered whether those who had drowned were the lucky ones. Many of the sailors, as they had fought their way out of the wreck, had kicked off their heavy sea boots. It saved them from being drowned, but it meant they were on a frozen rocky island without any shoes. The other big problem they had was a lack of leadership. Captain Dalgarno just seemed completely paralysed after losing his ship. It just left a big vacuum where decisions could have been made about food and shelter and, well, maybe saving many lives. The narrow beach that they were stranded on was enclosed on all sides by a towering cliff that rose up over 100m. For five days and nights, all they did was huddle round a small fire at the base of the cliff. They were in utter despair. The captain seemed unable to make any choices. The only plan seemed to be to wait for rescue. It was never gonna come. Holding realised that their only option was to try... and get up to the top and see what lay beyond. He knew that it would be incredibly difficult to get all the men up there, especially in bare feet, but to stay here on the beach was certain death. Oh. What do you think? It's gonna be just about certain death. Might be slightly better. And I think since you've got the shoes you should go first. I've never been more pleased to have an old pair of leather crusty boots on my feet. You all right? You all right? Yup. The combination of volcanic rock and the extreme wind and rain is a bad one. It makes the rock almost powdery in places. Every hand and foothold requires a thorough examination before committing your life. It makes for an agonisingly slow climb. How's it going? < Yeah, it's OK. It's just breaking apart. Watch out! Rock! Keep it up! Holding, despite being one of the most lowly ranked crew members, lead the climb. Picking the best route, he tried hard to clear the way to make it easier for the others. This whole mountain's coming apart. For the crew, most of whom had no shoes, the climb was even more difficult. Pretty tough on the feet! Ooh. In the absence of any leadership from Dalgarno and the other officers, Holding took it upon himself to get the other 18, mostly in bare feet, up the cliff. And now I really appreciate what an incredible effort that was. Hey, Kev! Hey, Kev! Yeah! Hey, Kev! Yeah! I've just reached the top. This last little bit's a bit curly, but the footholds are pretty good. but the footholds are pretty good. OK. If there's one positive, it's that when climbing a face like this, you don't have to look down. Sometimes it's just better not to know what awaits you if you do happen to make that one tiny slip. Come on up, mate! Oh! Show me your fingers. Mine are` Mine feel munted! That was so spooky. Were you looking down? Yeah, I was scared to look. I never looked down. When Holding and the others made it up, it must have been a huge relief. But the island was by no means finished with them yet. They didn't get very far at all before a cold, drenching rain began. And they stopped where they were. Holding tried to get them to move, but they wouldn't. After they collapsed on the ground, they realised that they couldn't go any further, so they just made camp under whatever they could find. I'm getting cold. I'm getting cold. Yeah. Let's get going. For the first time since the wreck, the crew had a piece of luck ` they were able to capture and kill a small wild pig. It must have given them hope that the islands were possibly inhabited, but it was already becoming clear it was every man for himself. The Invercauld had been on its maiden voyage, so the crew barely knew each other. To hold them together, they badly needed a leader. Holding knew that as just a sailor he lacked the authority and the power to move the men. Must have been very frustrating for him knowing that his captain was doing nothing to help the situation. Dalgarno's paralysis... was mirrored by the other surviving officers too, but that didn't stop Holding... from deciding to set out and explore the island if that meant saving them. But what he saw, though, would have really shaken his resolve ` these vast fields of dense, sharp... vegetation over a bog. Holding discovered that travelling anywhere on this island involved a huge amount of effort. This stuff is miserable, isn't it? But he still held hope that the island was inhabited. And incredibly, it was ` of sorts ` because 20km away and at the other end of the island, were five other castaways ` survivors from the ship the Grafton, which had founded four months earlier. The Grafton five and the Invercauld 19 would never meet on the island. The fate of the other castaways is a story for another time, but discovering another set of survivors was the last thing on Holding's mind. He was looking for shelter. He needed a better vantage point, so that meant climbing. The higher the better. The thought of the other 18 men huddled together... (GRUNTS) must have surely spurred him on. Oh yeah. Magnificent. What a view! What a view! Oh, gorgeous! What Holding saw before him... looked really promising and far better than what was behind him. And up ahead he could see bays to the north-east, and the slopes were gently going down toward the beach. The last of the ship's food was long gone. Everyone was close to starvation, but Holding knew that a beach that gave access to the sea would be a godsend. Cos there'd be shellfish down there and maybe even seals. Oh, it's just nothing like what it was like on the west coast, eh? No. It's beautiful. No. It's beautiful. Would've been a really nice surprise. Holding had no way of knowing that this beach would become centre stage for one of the most shocking acts in NZ maritime history. In 1864, a shipwreck left 19 men cast away on the Auckland Islands ` one of the most desolate, isolated and miserable places in the world. As the survivors entered their second week, they realised there was little to eat on the island. The chain of command had broken down completely. Only Robert Holding, a lowly ranked able seaman, was providing any form of leadership. Holding had virtually dragged his fellow crewmates up a cliff to safety. And now he alone was out exploring, looking for anything to ease their suffering. By now, Holding was obsessed with food, so he hurried down to the beach. Sure enough, there were seals there, but he was by himself and he didn't really know how to catch them, so he left them alone ` for now. It must have been a huge relief for him to have made it back to the water's edge, but what made it better was that he found plenty of shellfish. And that first meal for him ` he would have been like a pig in muck, after 10 days of starvation. (SIGHS) There's heaps of them, isn't there? Heaps, all right. Heaps, all right. Just little ones, though. You'd take a few to fill you up. Holding grasped that the beach offered the best chance of food, so he hurried back to the crew with the news. As the rain continued to pour down,... the temperature was hovering around freezing. Even Holding's enthusiasm wasn't enough to motivate the men. and as they straggled through the soggy landscape, he just tried to keep them going as best he could, and the going was tough. The undergrowth was dense, many had no shoes, and the weather was shocking. As it got darker, it became impossible to move the men just another step, even though Holding knew the relative safety of the beach was just 200m away. (PANTS) As Holding battled to light a fire, he noticed that the cook was missing. The cook was discovered the next day. Too weak to keep up, he had laid down in the tussock, and had died in the night from exposure. Still the crew refused to move forward to the beach, and instead began to eat plants. There was nothing that Holden could do or say to get the men to move. In his own words he said, 'The fate of all hung in the balance. They just couldn't recognise it.' So Holding made the incredibly brave decision to go back down to the wreck site and see if anything had been washed up from the boat. The boatswain asked if he could come too, and Holding agreed because he was one of the few strong men left. I have to admit, the thought of tackling that cliff again fills me with dread. It's much harder than climbing up, but the worst part is unlike before, there's no choice but to look down. Oh! Very hard when you're going over an outcrop to find where your feet are gonna go. All... (PANTS) a bit of act of faith. Holy moly! (GRUNTS, PANTS) The tiny footholds... that the guys had... on the way up ` well, on the way down they wouldn't have been much use. And they certainly would have been wondering if at the beach there was anything worth collecting. They must have been very desperate men to put themselves through this. The prospect of down climbing would have been absolutely daunting. It had taken a huge effort to climb up,... and now they were that much weaker. They were really counting on finding some food at the wreck. (PANTS, SNIFFS) (PANTS) Nice one. Last one, buddy. Nice one. Last one, buddy. Oh, that was so good. Feels so good to be down. How are those arms? How are those arms? How are the feet, you mean (!) It's all right for you! Oh, gee. When the boatswain and Holding finally made it down... after an agonising and exhausting down climb, all they found was a pile of... wood they described as splinters... as high as their heads. They searched the wreckage desperately for food, and they did find some meat, but it was putrid. Nevertheless, they didn't bat an eye. They put it on the fire, cooked it and ate it. The next day, four other sailors... who braved the effort of getting down also joined them. TENSE MUSIC Once the food was gone, and with most now too weak to climb the cliff, the five came to Holding with an extraordinary proposition. Holding probably should have guessed that this was going to come up, but it was the boatswain... who came to him and said they were gonna draw straws. The person with the shortest straw would get cooked and eaten by the others. Oh. The idea of cannibalism revolted Holding, but it didn't stop him from thinking that he might have been the next meal. He didn't sleep much that night. In fact, when he woke up, though, he had an interesting offer made to him. Two of them suggested that they join him to help him up the hill. He turned down their kind offer and took off up the hill as fast as his weak, tired and exhausted body could carry him. The five others remained on the beach. Holding could only speculate as to what happened next, as they were never seen again. TENSE MUSIC Of the 19 that had washed ashore, six hadn't survived the first two weeks. Cold, weak and starving, things were about to get a whole lot worse. We're in the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands, examining the aftermath of the 1864 wreck of the sailing ship the Invercauld. Having escaped the cannibalistic splinter group, Holding joined back up with what was left of the officers and crew, at last finding an ally with first mate Andrew Smith. He finally persuaded the others to move to higher ground in the hope of finding some relief. It was a slow and torturous procession, with a further three men dying in the process. The living had no energy to bury the dead ` the corpses being left out in the open to rot. Of the 19 that had washed ashore, now only 10 remained. Still with no real idea of where to go, Holding began to head for higher ground. And as they were making their way up the hill they found the most amazing thing ` a group of bushes... that looked like they'd just been pruned. This was certainly a sign of other humans. (PANTS) Holding got incredibly excited, and for the group it took their mind off what was such a horrible predicament that they were in. How does it look? How does it look? Oh,... open. How does it look? Oh,... open. Yeah? When they got to the top they scouted around trying to find any other sign of humans. I mean, maybe they were still around. And then Andrew Smith found a faint track that zigzagged down the ridge. With little to no wildlife on the island, they were sure the trail must have been man-made. As they travelled along the track, Holding found even more signs... that people had been here ` things just like this, where branches had been cut off. Would've seemed like a sign from heaven. Would've seemed like a sign from heaven. A whole stump that's been cut off. Yeah. Been cut off with something. You know, if you're an optimist, there would have been no hesitation to say that this was definitely a sign` That people had been here! But were they still here? That was the main thing. Everything pointed to this being a settlement. It was an elevated site with clear views over the harbour. (PANTS) Smith was up ahead, and then suddenly he yelled out to the others, saying he could see a chimney. A chimney? A chimney meant a house. They were as good as rescued ` they just needed to get down the hill. As they ran down, they called out, hoping to try and get the attention of their would-be rescuers. The sight of the chimney seemed to reinvigorate the crew. They suddenly started running, each man wanting to be the first to touch civilisation. DRAMATIC MUSIC When they finally reached the chimney, all they found was the remains... of a settlement that had been abandoned more than 10 years before. It threw up more questions for the castaways. Where were the inhabitants, and what had happened to them? And if people had lived here once, would they come back? It must have seemed like a cruel mystery. It would be years before Holding discovered the real story behind the ruins. It doesn't look like much now, but we're actually walking up the main street of Hardwicke. What Holding and the others had just discovered was in fact an attempt at a settlement on Auckland Islands. Abandoned 12 years before, it once consisted of 18 houses... and even a 14-room government mansion. But it was a disaster. The farming was hopeless,... and the expected whales ` well, they never showed up. All of the buildings and all of its people... were finally removed in 1852. But at least there was still timber and other scattered building materials in abundance. You can see plenty, just all around the surface, all around here. You can see plenty, just all around the surface, all around here. Lots of old bricks. There's even an old plate. You can see the scratch marks on it. Fantastic. For Holding and the crew, this could have been a secure base for them to establish themselves for what was looking like it was gonna be a long time at least before they got saved. Searching the ruins they found an adze and a hatchet, and then tins to use to boil water. They now had the tools they needed to go seal hunting. But first, they finally had a chance to improve their living conditions. Around the back of the ruined house they found another building ` an old lean-to. According to Holding, you know, this proved to be a far better prospect than the derelict house. It was slightly smaller, easier to warm up, maybe, but there was one other thing ` the front wall had collapsed down, which provided them with a floor. It wasn't very flash, but it sure beat sleeping under a log in the pouring rain. in the pouring rain. Yeah. But they were still very very hungry, they were wet, but if there was one thing that maybe they held on to, was that under the lean-to they might have had a chance to dry themselves off. I think we might have treated ourselves a little bit here. I dunno, Kev. Feels a bit draughty. Feels a bit short. I think my feet are gonna stay wet. This coat's nice and warm, though. Oh, yeah, my toes are warm too. BOTH LAUGH I've got more sympathy for them now, about why they would wanna to stay in the same place and not move. Because bare feet out here is just no fun. No. And they talked about snow and sleet and things like that. Yeah. In winter time it would be grim as. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A miserable way to die. Makes you wonder, though. There were so many days they delayed before they found this place, though. That was a big mistake to wait for five days on the coast. You know, they got to this place which could have been their salvation, and yet, they'd spent so many days, just, well... Hanging out in the forest. Hanging out in the forest. Well, just hanging out feeling, well, feeling sorry for themselves. Catching colds. (COUGHS) Catching colds. (COUGHS) Yeah. Speaking of catching colds... Time to cuddle up, I think. Sorry, buddy. You must be freezing. I'll share your bootlace with you. I'll share your bootlace with you. BOTH LAUGH GENTLE MUSIC By now, the stranded sailors... had been out here on the island for two months. Some sailors had hardly moved from what remained of the old house, and the fire inside was probably the only thing keeping them alive. It may have been apathy or just complete exhaustion, but they didn't even go outside and bother looking for food. Two men ` Fritz Hansen and William Horrey ` got into a fist fight. Fritz hit the ground face first... and was found dead in that position the next morning. Several days later, Holding discovered... that Horrey had started eating Fritz. All the rules of civilisation had now disappeared. By the end of the first month, of the 25 crew, only four were still alive. We're in the Auckland Islands, exploring the story of the survivors... from the wrecked ship the Invercauld. After weeks of lethargy and in-fighting, after near starvation and cannibalism, only four of the 25 crew remained alive ` three officers ` Captain George Dalgarno, first mate Andrew Smith and second mate John Mahoney; and one able seaman ` Robert Holding. Once again, it was Holding who now took the lead. Armed with some tools scavenged from the settlement, he began to formulate a plan. If they were to survive the winter, they needed a more substantial source of food. Holding, full of determination, set off with second mate Mahoney, trying to find something. They made their way around the island, and then finally they found exactly what they were looking for ` a sea lion. TENSE MUSIC But neither of them knew what to do next. Sea lions are big, fast, and seemingly indestructible. They look a lot like that one. They look a lot like that one. They do. Holding didn't wanna give up. He picked up a piece of driftwood and used his own knife, and without thinking any more of it, went up and dispatched it. Not only did the sea lion provide their first meal of any substance; its hide would prove to be a godsend. SEA LION GROWLS Have you got enough room for the other one? Have you got enough room for the other one? Yeah, I think so. Just enough. They had no way of tanning the seal hide to make it tough, but even soft seal skin is a lot better than nothing when it comes to sandals. Using pieces they had found abandoned in the ruins, they were able to fashion their own form of moccasins. Just about there. Just about there. Yup. Just about there. Yup. How about you? I don't quite know what we've made here. We've got, like, a gumboot on one foot, and then something from the Bolshoi on the other. Moment of truth, though. Moment of truth, though. As long as it keeps the rocks off my feet. It's pretty good! It's pretty good! Yeah? It's pretty good! Yeah? Yeah, we'll try it on the rocks. Can you fee,l you know, the knots and stuff all around your...? Oh, it's not perfect, but it's just a huge improvement, huge improvement from bare feet. So much warmer. They might take me two hours to put on each day,... (LAUGHS) but I'll be able to move that much quicker. They hoped sea lions would be the answer to their prayers, but it was not to be. There were plenty of seals swimming around, but only the occasional straggler came on shore. The main colony seemed to be on an offshore island. With the shellfish almost completely gone... and the seals few and far between, the hunt for food took up almost every waking hour. But then, incredibly, they found a large spar... that had come from a ship that had previously been washed ashore. And immediately, they had the idea of cutting it into pieces and building a raft, so that they could hunt for shellfish further afield. Using their broken down adze which had seen much better days, they chopped up the spar into different lengths. Then after that, they just found what they could to try and bind the pieces together,... and then, miraculously, they had themselves a bit of a boat that they could use. Easy as that, right? Calling it a boat, however, is a definite overstatement. The raft would be big enough to stop its passenger from sinking to the bottom, but it's nowhere buoyant enough to keep them above water. The good news is that it's only big enough for one person. Here we go. Moment of truth. Here we go. Moment of truth. Yeah. I'm pretty sure this will work. Yeah, it should float. It's not like we've drilled holes in it. Yeah. Well, there you go. All right. OK. The loser goes. Yeah, absolutely. Let me just think about it for a second. Let me just think about it for a second. Don't try and overcomplicate it! Yeah. See ya! See ya! I can't believe that! You always go rock! You always go rock! You always get in the water. OK. It'd be great if the ocean was only that deep. You might have to use it as more of a safety device. Yeah. I think this end is still on a rock. (LAUGHS) That's why it was up in the air. Working? Oh, yeah, nah, you're doing good! Most sailors of the era couldn't swim. The raft provided just enough support to make the short journey safe, if not very comfortable. Is there any shellfish over there? Yep, there's heaps, and they're big and they're fat. And I don't think I can bring any back (!) < (LAUGHS) The raft worked well, until Holding lent it to the officers. They tethered it with a sealskin rope to a tree,... but at high tide it broke loose and was taken away by the current. < Good job! Once again they've lost a major source of food. What was clear was that the best thing to do... was to move camp further down the coastline. Holding, Dalgarno and Smith went first. Second mate Mahoney stayed behind, and when after a few days he hadn't shown up, Holding went looking for him. He found him dead ` his body too decomposed to even move. When Holding returned to the others... with the news of Mahoney's death, the reaction by Dalgarno and Smith... was way out of proportion to the news. It was as if the death of this first officer... was far more important than all of the other seamen. It put a real strain on the relationship. But the final straw came when Holding made a large catch of fish and asked Smith to help him get it back up to camp. Smith refused. The men had a fight, and in the end,... Dalgarno and Smith set up a different camp... just 60yds away. Despite them heading away, they still expected Holding to defer to them for making any decisions. He refused because in these circumstances,... he expected that he was at least their equal, if not their better. It was now November ` six months after the ship had been wrecked. And while it was still cold, the coming of summer meant longer days, and Holding was inspired by new thoughts of rescue. He used to spend a lot of time ` hours and hours ` right here, looking out to this island in the distance. The Pacific Ocean is right there. If he could get out there, he had a much better chance of flagging down any passing ships. It would be much more likely to be out there rather than come into the harbour here. And those seals in the distance on the beaches ` they looked pretty tasty, too. The only problem was how to get from here to there ` 500m away in a pretty vicious tidal rip. Oh dear. The solution they came up with was purely Robinson Crusoe ` build a canoe out of sticks and whatever they could find. It was gonna be too big a job for Holding to do by himself, but he had no trouble convincing the two officers to help him out. I mean, they could definitely see the advantages of this plan. Yeah. Now, Holding later on... said that he'd never seen a Canadian canoe. But actually it turned out to be pretty similar to one. You happy with yours? You happy with yours? Yeah. Time for the seal skin. They always made a point of keeping the hides of all the seals they caught, and so they stitched together five of the best hides from the bull seals, cos they were the strongest, and made the boat to fit. And you kind of hope that if a seal's waterproof,... their boat was probably meant to be as well, right? Ready? One, two,... three. three. Oh! There you go. Now we're talking. Now we're talking. You can see it coming together. All right, all we need to do now is just tie it down the top... All right, all we need to do now is just tie it down the top... Yup. OK. ...and push it down. Although officers Dalgarno and Smith had shared in the canoe's construction, it was still left to Holding alone... to make the first crossing of the dangerous strait. He said he'd make it or die in the attempt, and funnily enough he misjudged the tide which was whizzing out, and almost took him out into the Southern Ocean. The boat nearly overturned, and he almost drowned. And as it turns out, coincidentally for us,... the tide is whizzing that way as well. Nine months after having first dragged themselves ashore on to the desolate Auckland Islands... (GRUNTS) ...and having braved an incredibly dangerous climb from the beach,... This whole mountain's coming apart. ...the never-ending search for food and shelter and the pain of slowly watching their crew mates starve to death, the last three survivors of the Invercauld had finally built a canoe. Once again, it was up to Holding to make the first crossing to Rose Island and to hopefully find a more abundant supply of food. Our canoe is bigger than Holding's, as we've designed it to carry the both of us. But if the current takes us out to sea before we reach Rose Island, then our next stop is right back here ` having first circumnavigated the globe. It's very close to coming in the back. I'll just move forward a bit. At first it works well, but the canoe does slowly take in water. It lowers the freeboard. That means the smallest wave... now threatens to sink us. This kelp! OK. Need me to give a boost up, Kev? OK. Need me to give a boost up, Kev? Yup. We're nearly at the island. With only a tin can to help bail, our best chance is to try and paddle as fast as we can before we go under. It's a solid enough plan ` it just doesn't work. It's coming in the front. It's coming in the front. It's coming in! It's coming in the front. It's coming in! OK, it's gonna get shallower. Oh no! After a lot of effort, we're able to get both ourselves... and our canoe out of the main channel and to shore. Oh! So heavy. One, two... Oh. Oh! It wasn't what we were expect` Well, it wasn't what we were hoping. So close! So close. It was all the kelp that got stuck around us. Yeah. Yeah. Did you feel the current, eh? It was just slowly sinking up too much water. The skins were just a little bit too porous. Hey! There's a big wave. There we go. That's what we needed. Once Holding had explored the landscape, he made a return crossing and convinced the others that Rose Island was a much better place for them all to live. A reconciliation of sorts meant that they could at least all work together again. Now experienced survivors, the daily routine included hunting for seals and birds and always looking out to sea for any sign of human life. The move to Rose Island meant that they were staring right out to the ocean to the north and that they could look around for more food. But with little else to do, they basically spent most of their time staring out to sea. DRAMATIC MUSIC Another three months passed. Slowly, as the thought of another winter overwhelmed them, they began to lose hope. It had been 12 months since the Invercauld had crashed into the rocks and left the men stranded. Then one day Holding was returned from a hunting expedition when he saw the captain coming the other way along the beach, screaming like a madman. Holding didn't know what he was saying, but then suddenly the words became clear. A ship! A ship! A ship! As they got closer, the captain was shouting out explaining that he had seen a tall ship round the point of the land and enter into the bay. But Holding ` he didn't see anything. Eventually, Holding and Smith did see the ship. It appeared from behind the peninsula and was about 3 miles out. It was too far away to attract attention by waving, so they lit a fire and tried to make as much smoke as they could by putting green leaves, and then pouring seal fat on it. The ship continued off into the distance. But just as the guys were losing hope, they could see and hear a canon blast, and then a boat being lowered off the side. And then, strangely, Captain Dalgarno seemed to spring back to life. He turned to Holding and he said, 'Now, you keep quiet.' Cos the captain was gonna do all of the talking. When the ship's boat reached them, they discovered the crew did not speak any English, but they did learn they'd been rescued by the Portuguese ship the Julian. They had been marooned 12 months and 10 days. As they were welcomed aboard, the officers Dalgarno and Smith... were received into the captain's cabin. Holding, however, was once again... just an ordinary seaman and was given room in the deckhouse... with the other lower ranks. For over 120 years, only Dalgarno and Smith's version of the tale was in print. Only in the mid-1980s... was Holding's unpublished manuscript discovered. The true story of the wreck of the Invercauld... was finally revealed. So you've had a taste of being Robinson Crusoe on a deserted island out here. Could you handle it for a year? Could you handle it for a year? Not a chance. You know, these cotton shirts and the ice-cold wind ` it's just been a misery. You've done very well. This is such a marginal place to be shipwrecked. It's so hostile, so windy, so bleak. Oh yeah. And where they hit their ship against the rocks... in those jaws of death on the west coast. That is the worst place in the worst place to be shipwrecked, I think, in the world. Having to go up and down the cliffs there and across the scrub... Through that mad tussocky boggy stuff, and then down, and then to spend the nights in the bush freezing cold. It would have been a miracle if no one had died, but did so many people have to die? I kinda think that no. I mean, certainly, they were desperate to survive, but I just think more of them were more hopeless than they needed to be. Holding was the only one with the character to say, 'We're gonna push on'. Within the group, they had all the skills they needed to survive, but the teamwork broke down so quick. It was dog eat dog, man eat man. And this is strange because it was a group of people as a crew that were used to taking orders. You've gotta lay a lot of blame on the feet of Captain Dalgarno. He didn't rise to the challenge at all. And you know what? If it hadn't have been for Holding, Dalgarno and Smith would've died probably long ago. That's the ironic thing, isn't it? Dalgarno was who recognised the leadership skills in Holding, and that's how he survived. and that's how he survived. That's right. So, how are your feet? Pretty munted, actually. I tell you what. Uh, how about we do a spell? Uh, I'll trade you my jacket for your boots. No way! I want the modern stuff back. Come on! DRAMATIC MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUES 1 Captions by Shelley Upchurch. Edited by Faith Hamblyn. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2014