256 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



extending to a distance of half a mile from the coast. Owing to the detached rocks on 

 the southwest coast extending to a distance of nearly three quarters of a mile, the 

 island should not be approached on this side within 2 or 2^ miles ; but on the 

 other sides 1 mile is a safe distance in a steam vessel, and anchorage can be obtained 

 off the 2 feet rock on the northeast coast, but no sailing vessel should use it. 



The island was surveyed by placing a boat in position off the east point ; the 

 Challenger then steamed round obtaining soundings and angles. At eveiy sounding 

 the ship was stopped, and at a given signal her masthead angle taken by the officer in 

 the boat, the bearing of the boat being taken on board (as well as the angles) whilst the 

 ship was stationary. 



Captain Richardson, of H.M.S. " Semiramis," was the first, as far as there is any record, 

 to effect a landing on Inaccessible Island, when in 1813 he visited the group and explored 

 the three islands. The forbidding aspect of Inaccessible has prevented any attempt to 

 settle on it, and it appears to have been rarely visited until the " Blenden Hall" was 

 wrecked there in 1821. Since that time, however, a boat from Tristan has gone over 

 nearly every year. The crew and passengers of the " Blenden Hall " remained on the 

 island nearly six months before they were rescued ; they must, therefore, be considered 

 its first inhabitants. This ship, bound to Bombay from London, was lost on the 23rd July 

 1821. It appears that her captain wished to sight the group to verify his chronometer, 

 and stood towards the land, notwithstanding the unfavourable state of the weather, which 

 was thick, with a considerable swell and light breeze. At about 9 a.m. kelp was reported 

 and he tried to tack, but owing to the light wind missed stays, and before he could get 

 his boats ahead to tow, breakers were reported, and then high land was seen through the 

 mist. The boats had no power to tow the ship against the swell, and, failing to anchor, 

 the vessel was drifted on shore, and soon broke up, but not until all the crew and 

 passengers, with the exception of two men, had been safely landed. Some sails thrown 

 up on the beach enabled them to erect tents ; the Sea Elephants and other Seals, 

 Penguins, and numerous sea birds supplied them with an ample quantity of food, w r hich 

 though unpalatable is sufficiently nourishing, and as water is plentiful, they were better 

 off than most people who have the misfortune to be wrecked. After being three months 

 on shore, a boat was constructed with the aid of some surgical instruments, from the 

 remains of the wreck, in which six men started for Tristan. Bad weather drifted them 

 away from the group, and they were picked up by a passing vessel, whose captain, it 

 appears, was not humane enough to return to Inaccessible to take off the castaways. 

 By the 8th November those left on Inaccessible Island had succeeded in constructing a 

 second boat, which reached Tristan in safety. Corporal Glass, directly he heard of the 

 wreck, started immediately to their relief, and succeeded in transporting them all to his 

 own island, from whence they were taken by passing vessels to the Cape of Good Hope. 



Corporal Glass, in view of the probability of other vessels being lost on Inaccessible 



