This December 11 will mark the 302nd anniversary of the horrific and controversial wreck of the Nottingham Galley on Boon Island off the New England coast. The captain of the ship and its primary owner were John and Jasper Deane, respectively, brothers from Wilford. After twenty-four days in mostly subfreezing weather, without fire, overcoats, and hardly any food, the grim survivors were brought into colonial Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on January 4, 1711.
I am a resident of Portsmouth, NH, and a co-author of a new book on the wreck of the Nottingham Galley, entitled Boon Island: A True Story of Mutiny, Shipwreck and Cannibalism. I had the pleasure of visiting Nottingham and Wilford while researching the book in 2009. This once-famous story forever links your community with mine.
Beyond our own local interests in the tale, the wreck of the Nottingham Galley is one of the most important episodes in maritime history for a number of reasons. It may have been the most well-known shipwreck controversies prior to the Bounty mutiny. The story is famous for cannibalism; they ate the ship's carpenter. No shipwreck castaways were ever less prepared for the subfreezing temperature they were forced to endure and lived to tell about it; they were without food, freezing and compelled to lie for weeks at a time huddled together on solid rock. The Deane brothers were eventually challenged in the London court of public opinion by common sailors who published a scathing criticism of their version of events. Through an obsessive life-long public relations campaign, John Deane managed erase the charges of his critics, until now, centuries later.
I am a resident of Portsmouth, NH, and a co-author of a new book on the wreck of the Nottingham Galley, entitled Boon Island: A True Story of Mutiny, Shipwreck and Cannibalism. I had the pleasure of visiting Nottingham and Wilford while researching the book in 2009. This once-famous story forever links your community with mine.
Beyond our own local interests in the tale, the wreck of the Nottingham Galley is one of the most important episodes in maritime history for a number of reasons. It may have been the most well-known shipwreck controversies prior to the Bounty mutiny. The story is famous for cannibalism; they ate the ship's carpenter. No shipwreck castaways were ever less prepared for the subfreezing temperature they were forced to endure and lived to tell about it; they were without food, freezing and compelled to lie for weeks at a time huddled together on solid rock. The Deane brothers were eventually challenged in the London court of public opinion by common sailors who published a scathing criticism of their version of events. Through an obsessive life-long public relations campaign, John Deane managed erase the charges of his critics, until now, centuries later.
