Hunger grips the castaways, who find neither game ashore nor fish near the pounding breakers. After someone shoots a seagull, Captain Cheap orders it shared, and Thomas Maclean boils it with flour. The meal sickens the men, the flour tainted, leaving them weaker amid relentless cold squalls and damp that threatens their lives.

Fear of nearby “savages” keeps the men close to shore, where debris from the wreck begins to wash up. Among corpses, John Byron discovers a cask of salted beef, a rare reprieve. The terrain behind them—sodden grasslands, steep, tangled woods, and looming peaks—confines the camp between wilderness and sea.

On May 17, as rain and freezing wind batter the group, John Bulkeley enlists Cummins and other strong seamen to drag the cutter ashore, invert it, and prop it into a makeshift house. He kindles a fire and brings Byron inside to dry and delouse. Around the flames, murmurs grow: Mitchell and other renegades unsettle the camp, and many blame Captain Cheap, argue their pay ended with the wreck, and question continued obedience.

Seeking food and options, Bulkeley tries to fix their position and leads forays inland; Byron joins another party. They slog through bog and dense, thorny woods, noting aromatic timbers and scarce birds. Separated, Byron hears growling and retreats; some claim to glimpse a large beast, stoking dread as hunger and exhaustion fray minds.

The parties abandon attempts to cross the island, returning with only a few woodcocks and some wild celery. Byron then climbs a steep local mountain, surveying the scene: they are on a small island ringed by violent surf, with another barren island to the south and distant Andean peaks to the east. The view confirms their isolation and the peril of escape by small boats.