Bulkeley leads the Speedwell and the cutter south, refusing to turn back toward Cheap. The boats are dangerously overcrowded and low in the water, and a squall forces Bulkeley to choose a perilous rock-choked channel that proves a temporary refuge. They press on, living amid stench, exhaustion, and near-constant swamping.

In heavy weather the cutter vanishes; Bulkeley mourns its twelve men, but the boat reappears the next day. Lacking a tender to reach shore, King lashes barrels into a raft, swims for mussels, and returns with meager food. That night the cutter parts its towline; only James Stewart is aboard when it smashes away into the reefs. The next day eleven men, including Richard Phipps, demand to be set ashore and are left with a signed indemnity.

Near the Strait of Magellan, monstrous seas nearly capsize the Speedwell before Bulkeley finds a calm cove he names the Port of God’s Mercy. The reprieve hardens his resolve and inflames piety among the survivors, but hunger and despair intensify aboard the cramped boat.

Ration demands mount; to reassert control, Bulkeley, Baynes, and Cummins threaten to disembark themselves, then ease tensions with a small flour issue. Starvation claims George Bateman and others, including a twelve-year-old boy, as compassion erodes under hunger.

Confused by a maze of channels, Baynes challenges Bulkeley’s navigation. The party turns back for nearly two weeks, losing more men, before realizing they had been in the strait all along and must start east again—leaving Bulkeley to wonder if Cheap’s northern plan might have been wiser.