| [00:00.35] |
Three weeks on, |
| [00:01.19] |
the shipwreck survivors |
| [00:02.25] |
were in the heart of the Desolate Region, |
| [00:04.96] |
and in deep despair. |
| [00:07.22] |
In the boat's log, |
| [00:08.01] |
one of the survivors wrote, |
| [00:09.10] |
"The violence of raving thirst |
| [00:11.51] |
has no parallel in the catalogue of human calamities." |
| [00:15.64] |
They had almost run out of rations, |
| [00:18.06] |
and despite being experienced sailors, |
| [00:20.54] |
failed to catch a single fish. |
| [00:23.48] |
But there are pockets of richness in the South Pacific. |
| [00:26.91] |
One was well known to the crew of the Essex |
| [00:29.25] |
and would have been in their reach, |
| [00:30.97] |
but for the prevailing winds. |
| [00:32.63] |
Lying over 700 miles off the coast of South America |
| [00:35.63] |
are the Galapagos Islands. |
| [00:38.45] |
Unlike the open ocean, |
| [00:39.98] |
the seas surrounding these 100 or so islands are bursting with life, |
| [00:43.88] |
with many creatures you wouldn't expect to find in tropical seas, |
| [00:48.41] |
like these sea lions. |
| [00:50.42] |
Despite sitting on the equator, |
| [00:52.06] |
the waters around the Galapagos are cooled |
| [00:54.61] |
by currents flowing all the way from Antarctica. |
| [00:57.81] |
It is this that allows the Galapagos to be home |
| [01:00.77] |
to the world's only tropical penguin. |
| [01:04.22] |
Tropical fish live here, too. |
| [01:06.95] |
Thanks to the nutrients carried by the cool current, |
| [01:09.98] |
there is an abundance of life. |
| [01:11.85] |
|