June 20, 1702

June 20, 1702, stands as the pivotal departure date for Lemuel Gulliver's second voyage, the journey that would carry him to the land of the giants, Brobdingnag. Having returned from Lilliput on April 13, 1702, and stayed a mere two months with his wife and family, Gulliver's "insatiable desire of seeing foreign countries" drove him to sea once more. On this date, he took shipping in the Downs aboard the "Adventure," a merchant ship of three hundred tons bound for Surat, commanded by Captain John Nicholas, a Cornish man. This departure, so soon after his return, underscores the restless, compulsive nature of his travels and sets the stage for a complete reversal of his previous experience: where he was a giant among tiny people, he would soon become a diminutive curiosity among enormous ones.

Background and Context

Gulliver's decision to leave again so quickly was rooted in a lifelong pattern of restlessness and a professional identity as a traveler and surgeon. After his first voyage, he had settled his family in a good house at Redriff, leaving his wife fifteen hundred pounds, and had made a considerable profit by exhibiting the miniature cattle he brought from Blefuscu. Yet, as he himself states, he was "condemned by nature and fortune to an active and restless life." His family consisted of his wife, Mary Burton, his son Johnny (named after his uncle), who was at grammar school, and his daughter Betty, who was then at her needlework. He took leave of them "with tears on both sides," a detail that humanizes the departure even as it emphasizes the compulsion that overrode domestic affection. The "Adventure" was not a random choice; it was a well-found merchantman, and its captain, John Nicholas, was an experienced mariner who would later prove his seamanship during the violent storms that drove the ship off course.

The Voyage and Its Consequences

The voyage that began on June 20, 1702, was initially prosperous, with a good gale carrying the ship as far as the Cape of Good Hope. There, the crew landed for fresh water, discovered a leak, and were forced to unship their goods and winter at the Cape because Captain Nicholas fell sick of an ague. They did not set sail again until the end of March 1703. This delay, while seemingly a mere logistical detail, set the stage for the catastrophic weather that followed. After passing the Straits of Madagascar, the ship encountered a fierce storm on the nineteenth of April that drove it far to the east, leaving the crew uncertain of their position. The oldest sailor on board could not tell in what part of the world they were. Provisions held out, but the crew lay in "the utmost distress for water." It was on the sixteenth of June, 1703, almost exactly a year after leaving England, that land was finally discovered—a great island or continent that would prove to be Brobdingnag. This chain of events, triggered by the departure on June 20, 1702, demonstrates how a single date can set in motion a cascade of consequences that define an entire narrative.

Thematic Significance

The date June 20, 1702, functions as a narrative hinge, marking the transition from the relatively safe, comic world of Lilliput to the more dangerous and philosophically challenging world of Brobdingnag. It also embodies the theme of compulsive travel that drives the entire book. Gulliver's inability to stay at home, despite having a loving family and a comfortable income, reflects a deeper psychological restlessness that Swift uses to critique the European appetite for exploration and conquest. The date is also a marker of Swift's meticulous realism: by providing exact dates, he creates a veneer of factual authenticity that makes the fantastic adventures more believable and the satire more pointed. The contrast between the precise, almost bureaucratic recording of the date and the extraordinary events that follow is a key element of Swift's narrative strategy, grounding the absurd in the mundane.