Galápagos Islands: Sailing to Albemarle & Narborough

5) Sailing to Albemarle & Narborough
Galápagos Islands, June 23-24, 1845

Keeper Note: This encounter was written for “White Leviathan,” a Call of Cthulhu campaign set on a Kingsport whaling ship from 1844-1846. However, it may be used for any nineteenth-century Galápagos setting!

French map, 1864

A) Albemarle (Isla Isabela)
Shaped like a 75-mile long sea-horse emerging from an egg, Albemarle Island is the largest island in the archipelago, and contains the broad diversity of wildlife characteristic to the Galápagos: tortoises, iguanas, seals, penguins, cormorants, boobies, flamingoes, spiders, centipedes, and scorpions. Albemarle is marked by five volcanic peaks, the tallest being Volcán Wolf in the north, rising some 5600 feet above sea level. These peaks are often wreathed in clouds, giving the island a mysterious and foreboding appearance. Albemarle perfectly embodies the strange climate of the Galápagos, the cloud level sharply dividing the arid lowlands from the more verdant highlands.

B) Narborough Island (Isla Fernandina)
An active volcano rising 4500 feet above sea level, Narborough Island is located just off the “breast” of Albemarle’s western-facing seahorse. Or to quote Melville, “Volcanic Narborough lies in the black jaws of Albemarle like a wolf’s red tongue in his open mouth.” The island divides the western waters around Albemarle into Banks Bay to the north and Elizabeth Bay to the south. The two islands are closest to each other near Banks Cove, an old buccaneer’s anchorage now called Tagus Cove. (The strait between the islands is now called Canal Bolívar.) The waters between the island are a common place to sight dolphins, whales, boobies, and frigatebirds. Narborough is also the most active volcano in the Galápagos—as the Quiddity is about to discover!

C) Sailing to Albemarle
The southeast end of Albemarle is located 34 miles northwest of Charles Island. Unfortunately the currents remain uncooperative, and the island is not sighted until the afternoon of June 24. Joab navigates the ship below Albemarle and swings north, tacking around Point Christopher into Elizabeth Bay, the wedge of water between Albemarle’s lower “egg” and Narborough Island to the northwest.

Keeper Note: Many features connected to Albemarle Island had no official designation in 1845. Canal Bolívar, Beagle Cone, Volcán Darwin, and Volcán Wolf were unnamed on contemporary maps, and volcanos were broadly referred to by their general location. For the sake of clarity, the scenario notes use the modern designations when referring to such locations, but retains contemporary names for locations which actually possessed them. For instance, “Banks Cove” is used instead of “Tagus Cove.”

White Leviathan, Chapter 4—Galápagos Islands
[Back to Encounter 4, Asilo de la Paz | White Leviathan TOC | Forward to Encounter 6, The Eruption]

Author: A. Buell Ruch
Last Modified: 19 August 2023
Email: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com
White Leviathan PDF: [TBD]

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