Gulliver and Captain Thomas Wilcocks

Captain Thomas Wilcocks, the honest and worthy Shropshire master of an English merchantman returning from Japan, becomes the agent of Gulliver's deliverance from Brobdingnag and, after a period of profound skepticism, one of the few people in England to whom Gulliver entrusts the full, unvarnished truth of his travels. Their relationship moves through three distinct phases: the captain's rational disbelief in the face of an inexplicable object, his gradual conversion by tangible proof, and finally a warm, mutually respectful friendship that culminates in Wilcocks's encouragement to publish the story and his refusal of any payment for Gulliver's passage.

Discovery and Rescue

Wilcocks first spies Gulliver's box at about noon through his glass, mistaking it for a sail and hoping to buy biscuit, as his own supply is running short. When his long-boat crew returns in fright, swearing they have seen a swimming-house, the captain laughs at their folly and rows out himself in calm weather. He circles the strange chest, observes its windows and wire lattices, and discovers two staples on one side. Ordering his men to fasten a cable to a staple, he has the box towed toward the ship, then attaches another cable to the ring on the cover and attempts to raise it with pulleys, but all the sailors together can lift it only two or three feet. It is only when he sees a stick and handkerchief thrust through a hole in the roof that he concludes some unhappy man must be shut up inside. The carpenter saws a four-foot-square opening, lowers a small ladder, and Gulliver, in a very weak condition, is taken into the ship.

Skepticism and Conversion

Once aboard, Wilcocks observes Gulliver's wild looks and absurd speeches—Gulliver speaks of his closet's valuable furniture, a hammock, chairs, a table, and a cabinet, and insists he has been at sea only two hours, though the captain's computation places them a hundred leagues from land. The captain grows serious and asks whether Gulliver is not troubled by the consciousness of some enormous crime for which a prince has exposed him in that chest, as great criminals are sometimes forced to sea in a leaky vessel. He offers his word to set Gulliver safe ashore at the first port. But Gulliver begs patience and faithfully tells his story from the last time he left England to the moment of discovery. Truth, as Gulliver observes, forces its way into rational minds, and Wilcocks, a man of some learning and very good sense, is immediately convinced of Gulliver's candor. To confirm all, Gulliver opens his cabinet in the captain's presence and shows him the comb made from the king of Brobdingnag's beard stumps, a collection of needles and pins from a foot to half a yard long, four wasps' stings like joiners' tacks, combings of the queen's hair, and a gold ring the queen gave him by throwing it over his head like a collar. He also shows the breeches he wears, made of a mouse's skin. Wilcocks is particularly taken with a footman's tooth—a foot long and four inches in diameter—which Gulliver forces upon him as a gift, and which the captain receives with abundance of thanks.

Friendship and Return

Wilcocks treats Gulliver with great kindness throughout the voyage, providing a cabin and supper, and when Gulliver offers to leave goods in security for payment of his freight, the captain protests he will not receive a farthing. He encourages Gulliver to put his story on paper and make it public, a suggestion Gulliver initially resists, thinking the world already overstocked with books of travel. The captain's good-natured raillery—he jokes that he would gladly have given a hundred pounds to have seen Gulliver's closet in the eagle's bill and then falling from such a height into the sea—shows the easy, affectionate terms they have reached. They take a kind leave of each other when the ship arrives in the Downs on June 3, 1706, and Wilcocks promises to visit Gulliver at his house in Redriff. Gulliver, having no money, borrows five shillings from the captain to hire a horse and guide for the final leg home. The relationship thus ends not merely as a rescue but as a genuine bond, with Wilcocks serving as the first person in England to hear and believe the full account of Gulliver's second voyage, and the one who sets in motion its eventual publication.