Chagres

Upon completion of the trial, Robert Waterman returned to his ranch and began building a house and barn. Soon, he learned that the steamship Northerner was scheduled to depart New York for another voyage around the Horn to San Francisco with a departure date two months away, so he sent Cordelia a letter and urged her to take passage on the Northerner.

Cordelia boarded the steamship at New York that soon departed for Chagres, Panama, where she decided to take the Isthmus shortcut, rather than go around the Horn. This would save at least a month off the journey.

She departed at Chagres and left most of her belongings aboard the Northerner to be delivered at San Francisco. She then left with two mining engineers she had met on board the steamer named Kerry and Shannon, and set off with two boatmen they had hired as guides, named Ponch and Argo, up the Chagres River.

The two mining engineers proved to be gentlemanly companions. But toward the end of their journey, Cordelia began to suspect that the two guides were about to rob her of the few possessions that she brought along with her. Mainly a canvas carrying bag that contained her jewelry and family heirlooms, including precious rare stones that her husband had brought back to her over his voyages to China, all of which were worth at least $20,000. The baubles were all secreted in the bottom of her watertight canvas-carrying bag. Cordelia and the others left the boats and the Charges River and proceeded on with pack mules.

Over the course of the journey, Cordelia had picked up a bit of Spanish and became convinced that their guides had somehow found out about the valuables that she was carrying and that her life was now in danger. She became increasingly frightened and on that last night while camped a day away from Panama City, she decided to make her move. She quietly slipped away right before dawn with only her canvas bag and a blanket and headed off down the jungle trail to Panama City on her own.

The next afternoon, she left the trail to go off in the jungle a ways to take a nap. She awoke later in the moonlight and having lost the trail, proceeded on through the jungle to the west.

A few hours later, she rested and fell asleep again. She was awakened to the sound of one large animal chasing down another. In the dawn's early light, she heard the sound of her guides walking down the trail, apparently close by, calling out her name. Cordelia continued to avoid the trail and made her way through the jungle as best she could, exhausted, hungry, and thirsty.

With dogged determination, she continued on until at last she heard the sound of the surf. She followed the sound on through a tangled forest of bamboo, emerging at the top of a cliff overlooking the Gulf of Panama with the skyline of Panama City off to the north, less than a mile away. Somehow, she found her way down the sandy cliff and made her way north along the beach, where someone rescued her.

She woke up in a military hospital, where the doctors told her that she had been delirious with yellow fever for the past two weeks. She found her canvas bag there right beside her bed.

Soon, Kerry and Shannon came to call upon her and told her that they had continued on their journey to the city, all the while looking for her, along with the guides. At Panama City, the two engineers had paid off the guides and they had already left. Kerry and Shannon told her that they were planning to take the next steamer to San Francisco, where they would seek out Captain Waterman and tell him where she was, and that she could continue on her journey when she was well.

Cordelia was still weak, but well enough to leave the hospital in a few days, and soon inquired with shipping agents who told her that the Sword Fish, a Webb clipper, was expected to put in to Del Rey Island soon for water and provisions. Cordelia hired a fisherman to take her there.

Robert Waterman was worried about her. At San Francisco, the offices of Alsop & Co. had already received word that a number of men passengers, along with one woman, had departed the Northerner to trek across the Isthmus, and Waterman deduced that Cordelia was the woman.

Immediately, he decided to leave for Panama City, but it took him two weeks to find a vessel to take him there. Waterman tried to pursued her captain to put into Panama City, but could not for the vessel was scheduled to put into Del Rey Island for water and provisions and Waterman would just have to find someone to take him on to Panama City from there.

Upon arrival at Del Rey Island, Waterman went ashore and walked on through the big shed at the head of the pier where he noticed his wife at the far end of the building sitting along with her canvas bag at her side in the midst of a crowd. When Cordelia caught sight of her husband standing there, she fainted.

There is a bit of historic confusion as to what ship Waterman took to Del Rey Island, and what ship Robert and Cordelia Waterman took up to San Francisco also remains a mystery.

Upon arrival in San Francisco, the Watermans went to their ranch in the Suisun Valley. His ordeal aboard the Challenge had forever cured Robert Waterman of the temptation of ever commanding a ship at sea again and he was content to let the rest of the clipper ship races go on without him, for which Cordelia was ever thankful.

Robert Waterman now settled down to the life of a hard working gentleman farmer and went about planting hundreds of trees on his land. He went on to make a number of shrewd business investments and served as San Francisco's Port Warden for close to 20 years. Eventually, the Watermans sold off most of their land for a great profit, holding on to the last 200 acres of their farm.

A thorough telling of this particularly exciting tale can be found in The Challenge, by A.B.C. Whipple.

Next: 1851 race between the Typhoon, the Raven and the Sea Witch

The Era of the Clipper Ships
Bibliography / Sea Witch / Directory / Maritime Links
Home / McKay Clan / Ship's Store / Introduction / Tradewinds