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The Success wedged on a rock, being at the same time between the fire of the Spanish fort at Umata and a ship in the harbour
This engraving shows the ‘Success’, a British privateer with 36 guns, in the centre. The ship is stuck on a rock off the coast of Guam and is coming under fire from a Spanish fort at Umatac (now Humåtak, depicted in the left distance) and a Spanish ship (shown in the right foreground). The engraver’s name is inscribed beneath the image on the right, and the title is printed beneath. A decorative border frames the image on the left and the right.
In 1719, the ‘Success’, Captain John Clipperton, and the ‘Speedwell’, Captain George Shelvocke, departed from Plymouth on a privateering expedition to loot Spanish ships and settlements along the Pacific coast of the Americas, financed by a group of London merchants called the ‘Gentlemen Venturers’. The two ships soon separated. On 13 May 1721, the ‘Success’ arrived at Guam, where they sought permission from the Spanish governor to resupply. Permission was granted and Clipperton traded arms and ammunition for food and water. However, his attempt to negotiate a ransom payment for the release of a Spanish prisoner led to a breakdown in relations. It was at this point that the incident depicted in the print occurred. On 28 May, the ‘Success’ ran aground on some rocks and came under fire from the Spanish fortress on shore and from a Spanish ship in the harbour. The crew eventually freed the ship on 30 May and limped away and sailed for China, where Clipperton sold the ship. He returned home in poor health in June 1722 and died five days later. Clipperton’s chief mate George Taylor kept a journal of the proceedings of the ‘Success’, which was published in William Betagh’s ‘A Voyage Round the World, Being an Account of a Remarkable Enterprize begun in the Year 1719, chiefly to cruise on the Spaniards in the great South Ocean’, published in 1728.
A version of this print, without the decorative borders, appeared opposite page 94 of John Hamilton Moore’s 1778 book, ‘A New and Complete Collection of Voyages and Travels’.
In 1719, the ‘Success’, Captain John Clipperton, and the ‘Speedwell’, Captain George Shelvocke, departed from Plymouth on a privateering expedition to loot Spanish ships and settlements along the Pacific coast of the Americas, financed by a group of London merchants called the ‘Gentlemen Venturers’. The two ships soon separated. On 13 May 1721, the ‘Success’ arrived at Guam, where they sought permission from the Spanish governor to resupply. Permission was granted and Clipperton traded arms and ammunition for food and water. However, his attempt to negotiate a ransom payment for the release of a Spanish prisoner led to a breakdown in relations. It was at this point that the incident depicted in the print occurred. On 28 May, the ‘Success’ ran aground on some rocks and came under fire from the Spanish fortress on shore and from a Spanish ship in the harbour. The crew eventually freed the ship on 30 May and limped away and sailed for China, where Clipperton sold the ship. He returned home in poor health in June 1722 and died five days later. Clipperton’s chief mate George Taylor kept a journal of the proceedings of the ‘Success’, which was published in William Betagh’s ‘A Voyage Round the World, Being an Account of a Remarkable Enterprize begun in the Year 1719, chiefly to cruise on the Spaniards in the great South Ocean’, published in 1728.
A version of this print, without the decorative borders, appeared opposite page 94 of John Hamilton Moore’s 1778 book, ‘A New and Complete Collection of Voyages and Travels’.
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