DRAMATIC CLASSICAL MUSIC 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... Oh! ...and rugged trails. Whoa! Now we're stepping back in time, retracing the footsteps of early pioneers,... Whoa! ...bringing the past back to life with tales of heroic rescue attempts,... (GROANS) (GROANS) Just take it slow, Kev! ...shipwrecks... Oh no! ...and deadly pursuits,... It's getting deep! ...where human endurance is pushed to the absolute limit. (GROANS) This week, we're in the southern reaches of the Auckland Islands. A crew of five from the ship the Grafton is wrecked on this desolate shore. Everything breaks, eh? Everything breaks, eh? Oh! With no chance of rescue, they build their own craft to take on the world's roughest ocean. Could three men get on a tiny boat, set sail hundreds of kilometres for Stewart Island and hope to make it? We are heading for the Auckland Islands to find out. Copyright Able 2014 SLOW, OMINOUS MUSIC We've entered Carnley Harbour in the south-eastern tip of Auckland Islands. We're 500km south of any sort of civilisation. The land around here ` well, it's inhospitable, wet, cold and for most of the time, very windy. And yet it is here that five men were shipwrecked and somehow managed to live for 20 months. When the schooner Grafton hit the rocks, the storm was so severe that she was full of water, in just a quarter of an hour and had waves breaking over her, But the men managed to clamber to the highest part of the wreck and somehow stayed there until dawn. The good thing was the boat was stuck fast on the rocks, and the stretch of water between them and the beach was relatively calm. The fact she didn't sink completely probably saved their lives, but they were able to untie the ship's boat and row it to shore, taking with them as many of the supplies as they could. However, what makes this castaway story so amazing is that while the crew of the Grafton were marooned near the southern coast of the island, up north, a second ship, the Invercauld, was also wrecked. But the two groups of castaways less than 20km apart would never meet. The crew of the Invercauld, lacking leadership, would tear themselves apart in a disturbing story of violence and cannibalism. But for the men of the Grafton, their fate could not be more different. So was their survival and eventual rescue down to outstanding leadership, or was it just a matter of good fortune? DRAMATIC MUSIC The Grafton left Sydney in search of silver ore on the Campbell Islands on the 12th of November, 1863. The crew were Capt Thomas Musgrave, an American; a Frenchman, Francois Raynal, acting as mate; Norwegian Alick McLaren; George Harris, an English seaman, and Henry Forges, from Portugal, who had signed on as cook. Thanks, Hamish. Thanks, Hamish. No problem, Jamie. Good luck, Kevin. Musgrave was a master mariner, and the crew were mostly young and fit. It was the Frenchman, Raynal, who was the odd one out. Highly intelligent, he had travelled the world looking to make his fortune. Forming a consortium, it was he that was the driving force behind the search for the silver. Before leaving Sydney, he had received a guarantee from his business partners that, should the ship not return, a rescue mission would be launched. Still, he decided to salvage everything he could from the wreck of the Grafton to make their time before rescue a bit more comfortable. Look how small the pile is. Look how small the pile is. Brr, I feel shipwrecked already. Look how small the pile is. Brr, I feel shipwrecked already. Yeah. Here we go. Here's a bit` some sailcloth. Candles,... matches, boots. That's good. Jacket. I guess it's in pretty good nick cos they didn't have far to come from the wreck. Hang on a second. Check this out. Whoa. Whoa. A compass. Now, that's just what you need if you're gonna be planning an escape from here. This might be just what we're after. This might be just what we're after. Look at that. This might be just what we're after. Look at that. A sextant. Look how old it is. I think the world was flat when they used this. Look how old it is. I think the world was flat when they used this. (LAUGHS) It's a piece of art, isn't it? I'm pretty nervous about having to rely on how good we are at this. OK, I think we're better off with the compass. OK, I think we're better off with the compass. Right. And we better get changed and have a look around. DRAMATIC MUSIC The biggest contributing factor to the different fates of the Invercauld and Grafton crews was where the two ships were wrecked. The Invercauld had sunk in heavy seas and at a depth that made salvage impossible. The Grafton, driven on to the rocks in a harbour, was easy to loot. Nonetheless, both crews found themselves on a desolate, windy island ` a place where time had seemed to have stopped. Wow, look at it! Wow, look at it! (LAUGHS) Wow, look at it! (LAUGHS) This is amazing. This is the wreck of the Grafton. You know, for so many of the journeys that we do, it's so hard to find actual relics of what they had or the tools that they used, but here, I mean, it's real. It's right in front of us. So real. It's amazing that there is so much left. It's spent 150 years exposed to the storms and the winds. But it's hard to, sort of, get a real picture of how big the Grafton was. We know it was a schooner, so it was a two-masted boat, with the rear mast higher than the front mast. We know that five people could work it, so it can't have been the hugest boat, but it looks strong. Look how thick these timbers are and how close they are. You know what? If you put the bungs in this, put a lick of paint round the outside, she'll be as good as new. (LAUGHS) Maybe not. Maybe not. Let's have a look and see what else we can find. Stripping the Grafton, they set to work building themselves a tent out of the rigging and sails, but the weather was terrible. After a few miserable nights battling hurricane-strength winds, they realised they needed to find a more sheltered place to call home. As soon as the weather improved, they began to explore their immediate surroundings, only to discover, as they feared, they were completely alone. The nearest inhabited land was NZ, but that was almost 300 miles away. They didn't find any shelter. They were a little bit spooked by the weird landscape and strangely twisted trees. The wind-damaged trees were a setback. Raynal had planned to construct a log cabin, but there was simply no straight timber to build with. But he did understand that whatever they made, it would need to stand up to the extreme gales. It was right here that they made their first camp. They built a house out of any wood that they could salvage from the wreck, any of the rata they could get from nearby and all of the stones and rocks they could find from down on the beach. It was a pretty sturdy affair. It even had its own fireplace stuck together with cement that Raynal had cleverly made using sand and crushed shells from the beach. Well, you can just see some of the wood and some of the panels that had come from the boat. I mean, this must have been the width and then it went that way, right, cos it seems a bit flatter. At least to here, at least. I wonder if even then they were realising they might be here for a while. They had to get through winter. They arrived in summer and knew it was getting worse. And they chose a great spot for it. The wind's howling out there now, but inside here, it's really quiet. And of course they sited it close to the sea, because they wanted to be looking out the window all the time to see if there were any ships passing by. After they finished the build of the house, they sat down and then named it Epigwaitt, which Musgrave described as meaning, 'Near the great waters.' Once settled, the captain set himself the task of exploring the island. He discovered mountains stretching to the north and east, covered with long, coarse grass and a multitude of waterfalls dashing down granite ravines. It was a daunting landscape, far from the touch of man, but crucially, he did discover seals. Although sealing gangs decades earlier had decimated the main colony, there seemed to be enough stragglers to offer a steady supply of meat. But as the weeks turned to months, the crew began to lose hope that Raynal's business partners would honour their word and send a rescue ship. In the meantime, there was little to do but keep exploring the island. They used their trips through the inhospitable landscape as a distraction from the endless boredom of subsisting on a deserted island. Raynal was able to find his gun from the wreck, so most of their trips were about finding food. (PANTS) Everything breaks, eh? Everything breaks, eh? Oof! It's pretty slippery, though. Yeah. Everything's rotten here, eh? Everything's rotten here, eh? Yeah, it is. Time and time again, Raynal would make discoveries on these trips. He found an edible root vegetable to aid in their diet and stopped them getting scurvy. He made soap and tanned the seal hide to make leather for shoes. Thanks to Raynal's ingenuity, the five men were in good enough physical condition, but mentally, they were falling apart. Raynal understood that what the men really needed most was hope. They'd been stranded on the island for 12 long months, always hoping for, but never seeing, any sign of outside help. But maybe it was the Christmas spirit that got to Raynal, but he suddenly turned to the others and said,... (FRENCH ACCENT) 'We're going to NZ.' Now, the others didn't respond quite as enthusiastically as he'd hoped, but you can't blame them. It meant crossing the Southern Ocean again in a home-built boat. It would have to be a home-built boat, because they couldn't repair their old ship. The ship's boat was too small. They had no tools to do that. Now, forever the creative one, Raynal ` he just figured he'd do something about it himself. Now, to build a seaworthy boat was gonna require new tools and lots of nails. They had plenty of iron from the wreck, but no way of working it. What they needed was a forge. But was what Raynal proposing even possible? As clever as he was, could he really build a boat with just raw materials? As a wave of excitement overcame the crew, Raynal realised he had no idea at all how he was gonna pull it off. PEOPLE CHATTER, DANCE MUSIC PULSATES They've been on the sauce. They've been on the sauce. Your party! They've been on the sauce. Your party! That's Mary's boy, isn't it? Yeah. Maybe you should say something. Maybe you should say something. Nah. I'm crap at that kind of thing, Barry. Yeah, but they're just kids. If we don't say something... (GROANS) Hey, boys? Boys? Why don't you get a lift home tonight? Oh, whatever, mate. I've only had a couple. No, no, no, no. It's too late now. I've spoken to you and I know your mum, so that means our fates are aligned. You get into that car and you get yourself killed or you kill someone else, I become part of it too. How? How? Well, it's like, um, my balls are in your hands. BOYS LAUGH, SNORT BOY: Oh, you want the balls! BOY: Oh, you want the balls! Nobody wants that. Hey, how about I drive you? What? Oh. What? Oh. BOYS LAUGH, DANCE MUSIC PLAYS ON RADIO (SWITCHES RADIO STATION) (SWITCHES RADIO STATION) YODELLING MUSIC PLAYS I like it. DRAMATIC MUSIC We've come to the subantarctic Auckland Islands to retrace the incredible story of the survivors from the sailing ship the Grafton. After a year cast away at the end of the world, the five-man crew had lost all hope of rescue, but the brilliant first mate, Francois Raynal, had come up with a plan. They would build a whole new boat, and the five of them would sail the 460km to NZ, but to do that, they would first need tools, and the only way to get tools was to cast them out of iron. So, the most difficult part of making a forge, in Raynal's view, was to design and build some sort of bellows, so that's where he started. And with just a few things he'd managed to salvage from the wreck, he created a really ingenious solution. So we're gonna have a crack at that too. I don't know how we're gonna go. I don't know how we're gonna go. If a forge is basically a really hot oven to be able to work with metal, you need a bellows, which are the fan. you need a bellows, which are the fan. Yeah, that's right. It was an extraordinary feat of engineering in an impossible environment. Oh, come on. We cut the panels and created a hinge from the pieces of rigging. Tubes salvaged from the wreck were also added. That's kind of lopped off... That's kind of lopped off... ...ish. That's kind of lopped off... ...ish. Yeah, ish. We're gonna have to s put some sort of valve in it, so when you open it up, it doesn't suck the air back in. When you just lift it up,... When you just lift it up,... ...the bag opens and the air will come in, and then when the air comes out, whoosh. Finally, he completed his incredible contraption by covering the sides with seal skin and nailing down the edges. Oh dear. So, the other way around? Oh dear. So, the other way around? Other was around, so the flap's at the bottom. OK. Maybe just give it half-strength though. Half-strength. Half-strength. OK. You ready? You ready? Yep. (SHOUTS) (SHOUTS) (LAUGHS) It's incredible. Very powerful. Can you feel anything? Can you feel anything? Yeah, you can, you can. Yeah, I'm serious. Cool. Cool. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. OK. Well, Raynal said that was one of the trickiest parts of the forge process. I'm hoping it does get easier. (LAUGHS) I'm hoping it does get easier. (LAUGHS) Let's try it out now. After raiding the Grafton's ballast for scrap iron, Raynal built a charcoal kiln, but it was the bellows that were the key. By delivering additional air to the fuel, the rate of combustion is raised and therefore the heat output. In fact, enough heat to melt iron. It's working. You can see it. It's working. You can see it. Yeah, you can see it's making 'em glow. Once the others saw Raynal's success, they were keen to help. The rest of the forge-making was easy. Before too long, they had one person making charcoal permanently and then they had fire that was building up so much heat they could soften and then melt iron. Within two weeks, Raynal and his skills had created some extra tools, including ` what? ` pincers, hammers, you know, things like cold chisels. You know, a whole bunch of carpenter's equipment. Maybe they could make a boat. Think this one's just about ready. Think this one's just about ready. Yeah, yeah, yeah. However, there was one thing they needed to make en masse and that was nails. See, you're just trying to get a sharp edge, make a little head. That's the point there. You see it? I make a dent. How is it now? Almost. That's it. That's it. And that's a nail. And they made 700 of them. They got so good they could make 50 each day. It cools off pretty quick. 50 a day, I mean it's an impressive achievement. There's a bit of work in it. Yeah, just to make the head, that little T-head, even, is... Oh, I think we're gonna improve with practise. I mean, what's most impressive about this is that their resources haven't changed. It's not like they've had a new ship that's brought new things, but just with the ingenuity of Raynal, they've gone from no hope to being able to build a new boat. This was the key to them being able to get off the island and back to civilisation. The biggest trouble was the timber. The trees were so bent and twisted by the prevailing winds it was proving impossible to find enough straight wood to form a ship's hull. The idea of building a boat big enough for five from scratch was reluctantly abandoned by Raynal after he figured out the whole process would take more than two years. There was no way they could wait that long. They had grave doubts they could survive another winter, so they had to come up with another plan. This time they decided they were gonna start with their old boat ` their old ship's boat ` and turn it into an ocean-going vessel. What they were gonna do is extend its length by 5ft, raise the gunwale height by a foot and a half, cover it over and even make a mast and sails out of anything they could find from the Grafton. There wasn't much chance it would work, but desperate times call for desperate measures, and this really was their last chance. In fact, Musgrave believed it was certain death to go to sea in what was basically a dinghy. A 460km journey on one of the most volatile stretches of water known to man. After two more months, they were about to try their modified boat for the first time. And in that time they'd transformed a ship's dinghy into an ocean-going vessel. They were about to find out whether half a year's work had been worthwhile. Whoa, it's good on my shoulders. Hey, you got it? Hey, you got it? It's just about in the hole. That's it. Yeah? OK. You happy there? You happy there? Yeah, it's locked in. You know, this is a really special moment. They'd been out there for well over a year. What do you think was going through their mind? What do you think was going through their mind? Pure fear. Look at this thing. It's about as big as a bed sheet, but it was their best chance. I mean, I guess the thing is, though. You've only got to use it once. It's just gotta last for a week. Yeah, and travel 300 miles. You know, Kevin and I have had the pleasure of travelling over a decent stretch of water in the past, but our Atlantic Ocean boat was ` it was nothing like this. (CHUCKLES) No, it was longer; a whole lot more sturdy. It had about as much wood between us and the ocean, though. Musgrave had insisted on covering her with a sailcloth to provide extra protection. And he was determined to take her out for a series of trials and modify her if need be, to ensure that, at least, they had a slim chance. One more. One more. BOTH GROAN Getting the now very heavy boat into the water was no easy task, and there was no guarantee that it would be strong enough to handle the rough conditions out at sea. It seemed a fitting time to give the boat a name, though, and Raynal said, with marvellous optimism, they called it The Rescue. (LAUGHS) That's quite apt, isn't it? Oh, it's getting a bit better now. One more. One more. Uh, yep. Oh, that's heaps better. It's getting there, rolling down. It's getting there, rolling down. Now, it's one thing to imagine that you can get your boat to float, but it's a whole other story thinking it's good enough to sail to a pinprick on the ocean called NZ. And yet with just the most basic navigational tools, that's exactly what they were planning to do. They're completely nuts. There we go, there we go there, whoa! (LAUGHS) That's one small step for a man,... (LAUGHS) (LAUGHS) ...one giant leap for Capt Cook. How's it working? Is it going good? How's it working? Is it going good? It feels very, uh` It feels pretty light in the water. A bit tippy. Only 299 miles to go. We're 450km south of Stewart Island on the subantarctic Auckland Islands. Here in 1864, the five crew of the Grafton had survived for over 12 months, cast away on one of the most remote islands on Earth. With little hope of rescue, they decided to take matters into their own hands. Oh, come on. They would build a boat and attempt to sail to NZ,... That's it. ...but once they began testing the craft, they discovered they had a problem. Feels pretty light in the water. Feels pretty light in the water. Tippy. Our boat floats, but it sits way too high, which is just the same problem that they had. You there? You there? Yeah. You there? Yeah. Oh. Start off with a little one. Start off with a little one. OK. With no keel to keep the boat running straight in the water, what they needed to do was add extra ballasts so that it sat a bit deeper and gave extra control when running under sail. They put in so much weight that the boat sank down almost to the point where the new planks were. The thought of putting in heaps and heaps of rocks into the bottom of a boat gives me the heebie-jeebies. It doesn't seem the obvious thing to do. 'Let's build a boat. Let's put rocks in it. Then put a hole in it.' Why not? Raynal added over 1000kg of ballast. It made her stable, but it also meant if hulled, she would literally sink like a stone. All right. NZ, here we come! (CHUCKLES) OK, I'll just put this down. Our little boat is certainly stable enough, but now with the added weight, it just doesn't seem to want to move. The sail's the weak link. The sail's the weak link. Yeah. It's just not catching enough. For the five guys, it was great that their boat actually floated, but it was another thing ` would it sail? So while the weather was good, they spent a few days just around Carnley Harbour testing it out. They quickly found that with five on board, the boat didn't go well. In fact, the sailing was a disaster. The boat was way too unstable. Raynal said some of them were so terrified they just wanted to get on the beach and off the boat. So Musgrave, the expert sailor, decided to make a few changes to the boat and how it was running. So they took it back to shore to try and test some things out. One of them was to shift the ballast around to make it a little bit more even on the water. But the other was to change the sailing configuration. That's it. He wanted to go from the triangle-based sail that they had to more of a gaff rig, where the sail was supported by spars both at the top and the bottom. Well, we'll heave up and then we'll work on the mast. Well, we'll heave up and then we'll work on the mast. Yeah, OK. BOTH GROAN BOTH GROAN That's pretty stiff. BOTH GROAN That's pretty stiff. Those rocks make a difference. But though the ballast was working, Musgrave knew in his heart of hearts that the boat was just too unstable for all five of them. Three on board would probably be suicide anyway, but at least the boat would sail. It forced him into an agonising choice. And what a horrible decision for Musgrave to have to make, you know. He had to choose two of his men to stay behind on the island, while the other three faced an uncertain future out on the open ocean. But he did make a choice, and he finally decided they would leave behind Harry, who, in fact, all along had said it was crazy, and then Forges, who was his great mate. I guess they had been on the island for a long time and had the house. They were relatively comfortable. But they had winter to get through. It's a choice of death by starvation or death by drowning at sea. Yeah, that would have been a tough choice. By now it was July 1865, midwinter in the subantarctic Southern Ocean. As they prepared to set sail, there was nothing left to do but say their final farewells, knowing the chance of them ever seeing each other again was remote. Blimey, that must have been horrible. It had been one year, six months and 16 days since the Grafton had stranded on the rocks. But now they had a boat in the water again, and so the fate of all of them rested squarely on the shoulders of the captain. It would be on his navigational skills ` his seamanship ` that would depend if they lived or died. Musgrave then charted a course that, with a fair wind, would see the journey taking three days. He allowed for the currents which have the tendency to force a boat eastward, so he steered north-north-west. They were pretty much just a cork on the Southern Ocean. A freezing cold southerly wind filled their sails, and by late afternoon, they were north of the Auckland Islands and well on their way into the unknown. At first, Musgrave was pleased with the craft's performance. He said she bounded like a seabird over the waters, but after just a few hours, things started to go wrong. One of the main problems they had with the boat was they hadn't been able to seal all the new planks. The water came in continuously. If they couldn't find a way of pumping out the water, it would quickly fill up and they'd sink like a stone. They'd managed to salvage some few old parts from the wreck of the Grafton and build a bilge pump. Someone had to be operating the pump 24 hours a day and even just for the shortest of breaks, it meant that they wouldn't be able to keep up with the rising water level in the boat. It's pretty soul-destroying, isn't it? It's pretty soul-destroying, isn't it? Oh. While they could manage the seawater with the bilge pump, they had no control at all over the weather. As they lost sight of the Auckland Islands, they were hit by a storm. In front of them, they saw the swell come up and a huge wave crash right over top of them. They all thought they were done for as this huge wave picked them up and spun them around. And it would have been, if it hadn't been for the very clever seating system Raynal had built for them. It came complete with shoulder straps that would strap them into the boat. It was only that and the heavy rocks they'd put in the bottom of the boat that saved them. For us ` and I hope that we don't have to use it ` it's gonna be a case of us pulling this a little bit over and hiding under it. (LAUGHS) (LAUGHS) But... (LAUGHS) But... Hope it doesn't get that bad. I'm pretty nervous about it already. Musgrave said, 'The surface of the sea was covered with enormous billows.' 'They raised us upon their huge backs to sink us under immediately' 'and plunge us into the depths of the shifting abyss.' Crucially, the ballast stayed in place. However, Musgrave had no way of knowing that just 200km ahead, the skies were darkening and the wind was working the sea into a frenzy. Near the bottom of NZ and right in their path, they were sailing into a hurricane. FAST-PACED STRING MUSIC 18 months after being shipwrecked on the Auckland Islands, three members of the Grafton crew had set sail for NZ. The boat they had built on the island and christened The Rescue had survived its first major test at sea. Now it was all down to Musgrave. The captain was an experienced sailor, and the plan to journey to NZ was a good one. There was just one giant problem ` he had to work out where it was. One of the most impressive things about this story, on top of the sheer survival of them lasting on the islands for so long, was just the navigation of being able to find NZ from 300 miles away. One of the things that they had on board the boat was the compass. It's all very well to know which way's south and which way's north, but Musgrave had other things to deal with, such as the currents. He knew that most currents around here were heading easterly, so despite NZ being directly north, he was trying to head north-north-west to try and combat it. It's crazy hard ` see how the compass moves around? ` trying to keep a course on this. I can't even see which way` We could be going anywhere between... west and east. They had one more tool to help them find out where they were ` the sextant. The whole point of the sextant is you use it to try and measure the angle of the sun, and once you know the angle and the time exactly, you can work through a series of tables and find out exactly where you are on a map, but the accuracy of it comes down to how well you can take that fixing of the sun angle, and that's difficult to do on a choppy boat out in the middle of the ocean. It's crazy, with these swells going up and down, trying to find the sun and the horizon, all in one, through a tiny little bit of metal. through a tiny little bit of metal. I know, it's amazing how it worked. At least when we were rowing across the ocean and we had a GPS, if that were to pack up, we had the compass. If that didn't work, we could use the stars and sun to head west, cos you'll always hit land. For these guys, there was a risk of sailing off. They're effectively just going to a tiny needle in a field of haystacks. (LAUGHS) That's right. I think when you do the maths, it works out that if they'd made a 1% error in their course, they wouldn't have landed. Can you see the sun? It's pretty overcast. Can you see the sun? It's pretty overcast. No. The boat moves so much. At last the weather broke so that Musgrave could take some bearings and at least get a rough idea of how they were going and where they were. They weren't out of the woods by any measure. They were making six knots and heading north. And as far as Musgrave could make out, they were on track for NZ. SLOW VIOLIN MUSIC The first night at sea is always the hardest. For them, it was really difficult, because one person had to pump the whole time, two people had to sail, so there was no time at all to sleep. And out there for the guys on their little boat, The Rescue, the seas just became rougher and rougher, and when darkness came, it would have only made it more miserable. So who wants to do the first shift? Cos I think as long as the water's under control,... Uh... Uh... Do you` Do you wanna dive under? Uh... Do you` Do you wanna dive under? Yeah, OK. I mean, we're not gonna get much sleep anyway. Hour on, hour off? I mean, we're not gonna get much sleep anyway. Hour on, hour off? Yeah. It's not comfortable there. OK, I'll take this with me. Oh yeah, no, it's looking glorious. Oh yeah, no, it's looking glorious. You get that bed made up for us. Oh yeah, no, it's looking glorious. You get that bed made up for us. I don't think much of these rocks. Maybe we should have chosen the flat rocks. Maybe we should have chosen the flat rocks. Do you wanna pull that flap down? How's it going out there, Kev? You know, with just one person, the boat's a bit of a handful to sail ` trying to keep the course, keep the sheets right. How about in there? Reminds me a bit of being on the Atlantic. All you can hear is the water lapping against the wood. I just feel a little bit less safe here. It's not all that restful, it's gotta be said. Even in behind me, we've got a couple of blankets we were given at the start, but even they're sopping wet. There's the stones ` our ballast ` down on the ground. You can still see the water below the stones. Oh dear, and actually, you can't lie down flat anywhere in here either. You're curled up, like you're in a baby's cot. There's just no respite. (GROANS) It's going everywhere. SLOW PIANO MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUES MUSIC CONTINUES As day followed weary, endless day, the three sailors must have started to lose hope. Just as they thought it was unendurable, it got worse. A huge hurricane bore down on top of them. The rain turned from water to sleet and snow, and the ride for them became a roller coaster of waves. In fact some, as the swell approached, were towering overtop of them. The waves got so big that all they could do was to turn the boat, so the bow bore the front of the waves. That was pretty much the only option they had to survive the storm. That was pretty much the only option they had to survive the storm. I mean, modern-day yachties, they'd have a drogue, or a sea anchor, that they might put out, just to hold on to the ocean if they were to try and weather the storm. These guys didn't have anything like that. Imagine what it felt like. No life raft, no life jackets. No. No. Completely on your own. The men were all very experienced at sea, but they never had experienced conditions like this before. They all became seasick, even though there was nothing in their stomachs. That's the worst kind of seasickness ` when you've got nothing in there, because you just get weaker and weaker. It was now their third day at sea. If Musgrave's calculations were correct, Stewart Island should be ahead of them, but as the hours of daylight ticked away, there was still no sign of land. When the sun rose on day four, it found the men in a terrible state. They'd hardly slept, they hadn't eaten, their clothes were drenched and frozen, and the skin on their faces and hands was burnt from the sun and the wind and the salt spray. In Raynal's words, he said, 'We feverishly looked north, always hoping, hoping to spot land.' But they didn't. All they saw was the grey and gloomy ocean. As the boat sailed ever northward, Musgrave fell into despair. Had he made a slight error? And had he missed NZ altogether? Ahead lay thousands of kilometres of open sea. Finding land was always gonna be a long shot, but rather than being their salvation, this boat seemed about to become their tomb. TENSE MUSIC 18 months after being marooned on a desolate island and having salvaged what was left from their ship, building themselves a forge, their nails and finally a boat, Musgrave, Raynal and the Norwegian Alick McLaren had set a course for NZ. As day four came and went, Musgrave began to believe he must have been off with his navigation and missed NZ altogether. With the winds and current pushing them eastward, their fear now was that they would flounder aimlessly in the vast Pacific Ocean until their meagre water supply finally ran out. After battling for so long, it was such a terrible way to die. BOTH CHEER On the fifth morning, it started as all of the rest, but then something was different. Up ahead` ahead of the boat, there was a grey bulge, but it wasn't a swell of further waves. This time it was land. Almost unbelievably, they had travelled 280 miles across the Southern Ocean and hit the coast of Stewart Island almost dead-on. Musgrave had indeed got something wrong ` it was the speed of the little boat he had miscalculated. Suddenly, though, the wind that had carried them so far inexplicably just stopped blowing. They spent the day wondering whether the currents were going to take them further away from the island. And then they got talking about whether all of their hard work and the skills that had miraculously got them here would be for nothing. Late in the day, as often happens around here, a little breeze sprung up, and with the last of their strength, they raised their sails and set the course for the little bit of coastline they could still see. But then it became dark and they could just see the rocks approaching, and so they made the gut-wrenching decision to turn away and spend a fifth night out at sea. So near, but so far. So at the very first glimmer of light, they raised their sails for one last time, and finally at 11 o'clock in the morning, they made it to safety. They made it right here to Port Adventure on the eastern tip of the Stewart Island. Nearly there. Nearly there. Five more yards. I'm outta here. I'm outta here. (LAUGHS) I'm outta here. (LAUGHS) Whoo! Land! Oh. (LAUGHS) Oh. (LAUGHS) Let's do it. Ohh. The locals in the Maori settlement were very surprised to see a small boat round the headland and enter into the bay, and Musgrave, Alick, and Raynal were incredibly surprised to see other people for the first time in 18 months. But that's exactly what happened. A dog barked, getting the attention of the villagers, and then as soon as the boat touched the land, the men ` they were surrounded and then lifted out and carried up the beach. Oh, yeah. Eh? Well done. The boat ` she did it. It is just remarkable ` what they achieved, though ` to travel so far on a home-built boat. Yeah. And to hit this little speck in the middle of the Southern Ocean is incredible. SLOW STRING MUSIC Musgrave raced to the authorities and demanded they send a navy ship immediately to rescue the two men left behind on the island, but incredibly, the NZ government declined. The only way that George and Henry would be saved would be if Musgrave organised a ship and went back to the island himself. It took weeks to find and then supply a rescue ship, but even then, a storm set them back. And finally, though, they were able to set off the second time for Carnley Harbour. 37 days after leaving their companions, Musgrave hopped out of his boat and went up to the place that he'd called home for all that time. He opened the door and there were his two old shipmates, still alive. Harry was so overcome he turned as white as a sheet, and George ` it was all he could say is, 'Capt Musgrave, how are ya? How are ya?' Finally on their return, the NZ government was shamed into action. Musgrave was haunted by the thought that there could be other castaways still on the island. And so he returned a second time on a navy ship to thoroughly search the islands. It was here that they came upon the grizzly remains of the crew of the Invercauld. Unknown to anyone at that point was that the last three survivors of that crew had only just been rescued by a ship bound for Peru. When the Invercauld story was revealed, the uproar caused the NZ government to set up a castaway depot on both the Campbell and Auckland Islands. Stocked with supplies, it would ensure that the next unfortunate souls would be provided for, should they have the misfortune to be wrecked on such a desolate shore. I don't think I'm going out on a limb here to say this is the most amazing survival story we've done. When I think of what Musgrave, Raynal and the other three had to go through, there was just so much ingenuity and skills demonstrated by them in order to survive the 18 months and then there was that epic sea journey. It was incredible. I just think that there was a sense of community among these five guys and the teamwork they demonstrated that really stands out. and the teamwork they demonstrated that really stands out. The teamwork was amazing. And Musgrave somehow managed to get the best out of all of them together as a team. Then even once they'd survived a year on the island, they came up with this incredible plan to make the sea journey. And wasn't that the most amazing trip? Whoa! Without a doubt, this story, of all of the ones that we've done, for me, is going to be the one to remember. The one thing that's hard to get out of my mind is how sick you were out in that little boat, Muz. You did really really well. CLASSICAL MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUES Captions by Alana Cruikshank. Edited by Anna Bracewell-Worrall. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2014