Samson, Jane (Author)
Journal for Maritime Research: Britian, the Sea and Global History
Volume: 15
Pages: 55--62
In 1851 a small party of British missionaries died of scurvy and starvation in Tierra del Fuego. Led by retired Royal Navy commander Allen Gardiner, the expedition was poorly planned, lacked reliable supplies, and faced relentless hostility from the indigenous Yaghan. Nevertheless, Gardiner and his companions would not be remembered as failures. Scurvy, an iconic disease of exploration and empire, became an icon of missionary martyrdom. Extensive journals and other papers were recovered from the unburied bodies of the last of the group to survive, including Gardiner himself. This rich archive includes the journal of Richard Williams, a surgeon turned missionary. Details of the group's sufferings and final days were published widely and read eagerly as an account of Christian pilgrimage and exaltation. Comparisons with the fate of other British missionaries worldwide, with Franklin (now presumed dead), and even with military figures like General Gordon, gathered Gardiner and his companions into an imperial pantheon. Scurvy played a complex and intriguing role in this process of apotheosis.
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