Gulliver's capture of the Blefuscu fleet

Gulliver's capture of the Blefuscu fleet is the decisive military action of the Lilliput voyage, a feat of strength and ingenuity that transforms Gulliver from a captive curiosity into the most powerful subject of the empire, yet simultaneously sets in motion the political intrigue that will force his escape. The event demonstrates both the immense physical advantage Gulliver holds over the Lilliputians and the profound moral and political limitations of that power, as his refusal to destroy the enemy fleet entirely earns him the lasting enmity of the Emperor of Lilliput and his ministers.

Background and Strategic Context

The empire of Blefuscu is an island situated to the north-northeast of Lilliput, separated only by a channel eight hundred yards wide. At the time of Gulliver's arrival, the two empires have been engaged in a bitter war for six-and-thirty moons, a conflict that began over the trivial but fiercely contested question of whether to break eggs at the larger or smaller end. The Big-endian exiles, who refused to obey the Lilliputian law requiring eggs to be broken at the smaller end, have found refuge and support at the court of Blefuscu, and the Blefuscudian emperor has now equipped a numerous fleet, preparing to make a descent upon Lilliput. The Lilliputian court, already riven by the factional struggle between the high-heeled Tramecksan and low-heeled Slamecksan parties, faces the prospect of a simultaneous foreign invasion. It is in this context that Reldresal, the principal secretary for private affairs, lays the full account of the empire's peril before Gulliver, who immediately offers to defend the state against all invaders.

The Stratagem and the Action

Gulliver forms a project to seize the enemy's entire fleet. He first consults experienced seamen who have plumbed the channel, learning that at high water the middle is seventy glumgluffs deep—about six feet of European measure—and the rest fifty glumgluffs at most. Walking to the northeast coast opposite Blefuscu, he lies down behind a hillock and uses his pocket perspective glass to view the enemy's fleet at anchor: about fifty men-of-war and a great number of transports. Returning to his house, he obtains a warrant and orders a great quantity of the strongest cable, about as thick as packthread, and bars of iron the length and size of a knitting needle. He trebles the cable for strength and twists three iron bars together, bending the extremities into a hook. Having thus fixed fifty hooks to as many cables, he returns to the coast, puts off his coat, shoes, and stockings, and walks into the sea in his leathern jerkin about half an hour before high water. He wades with haste, swims in the middle about thirty yards until he feels ground, and arrives at the fleet in less than half an hour. The enemy, seeing him, are so frightened that they leap out of their ships and swim to shore, where no fewer than thirty thousand souls gather. Gulliver then fastens a hook to the hole at the prow of each ship and ties all the cords together at the end. While thus employed, the enemy discharges several thousand arrows, many sticking in his hands and face. His greatest apprehension is for his eyes, which he would infallibly have lost had he not suddenly thought of an expedient: he takes out the pair of spectacles he keeps in a private pocket that had escaped the emperor's searchers, fastens them strongly upon his nose, and goes on boldly with his work. Many arrows strike against the glasses but produce no effect beyond a little to discompose them. Having fastened all the hooks, he takes the knot in his hand and begins to pull, but not a ship will stir, for they are all too fast held by their anchors. He therefore lets go the cord, leaves the hooks fixed to the ships, and resolutely cuts with his knife the cables that fasten the anchors, receiving above two hundred shots in his face and hands. Then he takes up the knotted end of the cables and, with great ease, draws fifty of the enemy's largest men-of-war after him. The Blefuscudians, who had no imagination of his intent, are at first confounded with astonishment; when they perceive the whole fleet moving in order and see him pulling at the end, they set up a scream of grief and despair almost impossible to describe. Once out of danger, Gulliver stops to pick out the arrows stuck in his hands and face and rubs on some of the same ointment given him at his first arrival. He then takes off his spectacles, waits about an hour until the tide has fallen a little, wades through the middle with his cargo, and arrives safe at the royal port of Lilliput.

Consequences and Aftermath

The Emperor of Lilliput and his whole court stand on the shore expecting the issue of the adventure. They see the ships move forward in a large half-moon but cannot discern Gulliver, who is up to his breast in water. When he advances to the middle of the channel, they are yet more in pain because he is under water to his neck; the emperor concludes him to be drowned and the enemy's fleet approaching in a hostile manner. But as the channel grows shallower with every step, Gulliver comes within hearing, holds up the end of the cable by which the fleet is fastened, and cries in a loud voice, "Long live the most puissant emperor of Lilliput!" The great prince receives him at landing with all possible encomiums and creates him a nardac upon the spot, the highest title of honor among them. The emperor immediately desires Gulliver to take some other opportunity to bring all the rest of the enemy's ships into his ports, his ambition extending to nothing less than reducing the whole empire of Blefuscu into a province, destroying the Big-endian exiles, and compelling that people to break the smaller end of their eggs, making him the sole monarch of the whole world. Gulliver, however, endeavors to divert him from this design with arguments drawn from policy and justice, plainly protesting that he will never be an instrument of bringing a free and brave people into slavery. This open, bold declaration proves so opposite to the emperor's schemes that he can never forgive it; from this time begins an intrigue between his majesty and a junto of ministers maliciously bent against Gulliver, which breaks out in less than two months and nearly ends in his utter destruction. About three weeks after the exploit, a solemn embassy arrives from Blefuscu with humble offers of peace, which is soon concluded upon conditions very advantageous to Lilliput. The six ambassadors, with a train of about five hundred persons, make a magnificent entry, and Gulliver does them several good offices by the credit he has at court. They privately invite him to their kingdom, and he resolves to attend the Emperor of Blefuscu before returning to his own country. The emperor grants him a general license to wait on the Blefuscudian monarch, but in a very cold manner, and Gulliver later learns that Flimnap and Skyrris Bolgolam have represented his intercourse with the ambassadors as a mark of disaffection. This is the first time he begins to conceive some imperfect idea of courts and ministers. The capture of the fleet thus becomes the direct cause of the conspiracy against him, as the articles of impeachment drawn up by Bolgolam, Flimnap, Limtoc, Lalcon, and Balmuff specifically charge him with treason for refusing to reduce Blefuscu to a province and for aiding the enemy ambassadors. The event that made Gulliver the most powerful man in Lilliput also makes him its most dangerous enemy, and he is forced to flee to Blefuscu itself to escape the sentence of having his eyes put out.