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Broadening Horizons
had been hazy, accidentally cleared up, the Pink made a signal for seeing land right ahead; and it being but two miles distant, we were all under the most dreadful apprehensions of running on shore.15 In fact they had not succeeded in rounding the Horn, but had been driven back by contrary winds. After several more weeks they reached Juan Fernandez, where Alexander Selkirk had been marooned to give Defoe the idea for Robinson Crusoe. The other ships turned back, sank or were abandoned leaving only the flagship, the 60-gun Centurion. Even worse, the crews suffered terribly from scurvy. Nearly a thousand men had set off on the voyage, only 351 were left when Juan Fernandez was reached and after a second outbreak only 71 men were fit for work.16 Anson persevered, crossed the Pacific and captured a Spanish treasure galleon off Manila. He returned home after a four-year circumnavigation. It took 32 wagons to carry the treasure from Portsmouth to the Tower of London. The chaplain of the Centurion, Richard Walter, published an account of the voyage which remained a bestseller for many years. Anson became a rich man, the son-inlaw of the powerful Lord Chancellor, a Baron and a reforming member of the Board of Admiralty, where his effects were to be felt for decades to come. In fleet battle, naval tactics relied far too heavily on the Fighting Instructions drawn up by the Generals-at-Sea 90 years earlier. A few additional instructions were added over the years, but there was a great lack of tactical flexibility. In February 1744, while Britain was at war with Spain but not France, Admiral Thomas Mathews was patrolling off Toulon when he encountered a Franco-Spanish fleet. He decided to engage but the
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