5 November 1699

5 November 1699 marks the pivotal shipwreck that casts Lemuel Gulliver onto the shores of Lilliput, setting in motion his first voyage among a people one-twelfth his size. The date, recorded with the precision characteristic of Gulliver's narrative, anchors the transition from the ordinary world of an English surgeon to the extraordinary realm of the Lilliputians, where every subsequent encounter—capture, confinement, service, and escape—will be measured against the scale and politics of this diminutive empire.

Causes and Background

Gulliver had accepted an advantageous offer from Captain William Prichard, master of the Antelope, which set sail from Bristol on May 4, 1699, bound for the South Sea. The voyage was at first prosperous, but after passing from those seas toward the East Indies, a violent storm drove the ship northwest of Van Diemen's Land. By observation the crew found themselves at latitude 30 degrees 2 minutes south. Twelve of the crew had already died from immoderate labor and ill food, and the rest were in a very weak condition. On the fifth of November, which was the beginning of summer in those parts, the weather being very hazy, the seamen spied a rock within half a cable's length of the ship. The wind was so strong that the vessel was driven directly onto the rock and immediately split.

What Happens

Six of the crew, including Gulliver, let down the boat into the sea and made a shift to get clear of the ship and the rock. They rowed about three leagues until they were spent with labor, then trusted themselves to the mercy of the waves. In about half an hour the boat was overset by a sudden flurry from the north. What became of his companions in the boat, those who escaped on the rock, or those left in the vessel, Gulliver cannot tell, but he concludes they were all lost. For his own part, he swam as fortune directed him, pushed forward by wind and tide. He often let his legs drop and could feel no bottom, but when he was almost gone and able to struggle no longer, he found himself within his depth. The storm by this time was much abated. The declivity was so small that he walked near a mile before he got to the shore, which he conjectured was about eight o'clock in the evening. He advanced forward near half a mile but could not discover any sign of houses or inhabitants, being in so weak a condition that he did not observe them. Extremely tired, and with the heat of the weather and about half a pint of brandy he had drunk as he left the ship, he found himself much inclined to sleep. He lay down on the grass, which was very short and soft, and slept sounder than ever he remembered to have done in his life, for about nine hours. When he awaked at daylight, he attempted to rise but was not able to stir: he found his arms and legs strongly fastened on each side to the ground, his long thick hair tied down in the same manner, and several slender ligatures across his body from his armpits to his thighs. He could only look upward as the sun began to grow hot. He heard a confused noise about him, and in a little time felt something alive moving on his left leg, advancing gently forward over his breast almost up to his chin. Bending his eyes downward as much as he could, he perceived it to be a human creature not six inches high, with a bow and arrow in his hands and a quiver at his back. He felt at least forty more of the same kind following the first. This was the moment of his capture by the Lilliputians.

Consequences and Aftermath

The shipwreck of 5 November 1699 and the subsequent capture establish the fundamental power dynamic of Gulliver's first adventure: a man of ordinary size rendered utterly helpless by a people he could, in other circumstances, crush with ease. The date becomes the reference point for all that follows—the emperor's councils, the construction of the transporting engine, the search of Gulliver's pockets, the rope-dancing diversions of the court, the capture of the Blefuscu fleet, the fire in the empress's apartment, and the conspiracy that forces his escape to Blefuscu. The shipwreck also initiates the pattern of Gulliver's travels: a violent separation from the familiar world, a period of helplessness and observation, and a gradual negotiation with a society whose customs and politics he must learn to navigate. The precise dating, typical of Gulliver's narrative style, lends an air of verisimilitude to the fantastic events that follow, while the fact that the shipwreck occurs on the fifth of November—a date already loaded with political significance in English memory (the Gunpowder Plot)—may subtly foreshadow the political satire that pervades the Lilliputian episodes. The loss of all his companions except himself also isolates Gulliver as the sole witness to the worlds he will describe, a narrative position that both authorizes his account and renders it unverifiable by any other source.