Boon Island: including Contemporary Accounts of the Wreck of the Nottingham Galley

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Boon Island: including Contemporary Accounts of the Wreck of the Nottingham Galley Page 3

by Kenneth Roberts


  Page 14

  Notes

  1. Duke Francis Stephen married Maria Theresa in 1731. Though he lost the throne of Lorraine in 1736, he was compensated with the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. In 1745 he was elected Holy Roman Emperor.

  2. John Deane to George Tilson, 26 August 1731, PRO SP 77 / 78 (Public Record Office, State Papers). Deane had just republished the account of the disaster: A Narrative of the Shipwreck of the Nottingham Galley & Co., first Publish'd in 1711, Revis'd and Reprint'd with additions in 1727, and now Re-publish'd in 1730. By John Deane, Commander (London, 1730).

  3. J. B. Firth wrote that "the adventures and sufferings of the crew of the Nottingham Galley were as well known in the days of Queen Anne as the story of the sufferings of the crew of the Bounty were later in the century" (Highways and Byways in Nottinghamshire [London: Macmillan, 1916], p. 31).

  4. Kenneth Roberts, Boon Island, reprinted herein; first published by Doubleday in 1956.

  5. See my "Captain John Deane: Mercenary, Diplomat, and Spy," in People of the Sea, ed. Lewis Fischer and Walter Minchinton (St. Johns, Newfoundland: International Maritime Economic History Association, 1992), pp. 15773.

  6. Captain John Dean(e), A Narrative of the Sufferings, Preservation, and Deliverance of Capt. John Dean and Company; in the Nottingham Galley of London, cast away on Boon-Island, near New England, December 11, 1710. Published with an introductory note by Jasper Dean, dated August 2, 1711, Horsly-Down (London: R. Tookey, 1711). Reprinted herein.

  7. Information about the deposition is included in A True Account of the Voyage of the Nottingham-Galley of London, John Dean Commander, from the River Thames to New England, near which Place she was cast away on Boon-Island, December 11, 1710, by the Captain's Obstinacy, who endeavored to betray her to the French, or run her ashore with an account of the Falsehoods in the Captain's Narrative, and a Faithful Relation of the Extremities the Company was Reduc'd to for Twenty-four Days on that Desolate Rock, where they were forced to eat their Companions who had died, but at last were wonderfully deliver'd. The whole attested upon Oath by Christopher Langman, Mate, Nicholas Mellen, Boatswain, and George White, sailor in the said Ship (London: S. Popping, 1711). Reprinted herein.

  8. Captain John Deane, A Narrative of the Sufferings, pp. 22, 39 herein.

  9. Langman, Mellen, and White, A True Account, pp. 4243, 6061, 58 herein. Langman even argued that Deane "barbarously told the children in his lodging, he would have made a frigasy of them, if he had had 'em in Boon Island."

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  10. A Sad and Deplorable, but True Account of the Terrible Hardships and Suffering of Capt. John Deane & Company on Board the Nottingham Galley (London: J. Dutton, 1711), pp. 1. 7.

  11. Cotton Mather, Compassions Called for. An Essay of Profitable Reflections on Miserable Spectacles. To which is added, a faithful relation of Some Late, but Strange Occurrences that call'd for an awful and unusual Consideration. Especially the Surprising Distresses and Deliverance of a Company lately Shipwreck'd on a Desolate Rock on the Coast of New England (Boston, 1711), pp. 5060.

  12. According to local legend, Jasper was very distressed by his losses and died after an altercation with the captain, which caused him to rupture a blood vessel. See M. N. Barker, Walks Around Nottingham by a Wanderer (London, 1835), pp. 5051; William H. Wylie, Old and New Nottingham (London: E. Stock, 1853), pp. 14647; Cornelius Brown, History of Nottinghamshire (London: Longmans, 1891), p. 35.

  13. For this period of Deane's biography, see my "Deane: Mercenary, Diplomat, Spy," pp. 2335. This is based heavily on material located in the Tsentralnyi gosudarstvennyi arkhiv voenno-morskogo flota (TGAVMF), the Central State Archive of the Navy in St. Petersburg. Deane's record of service is in Obshchii morskoi spisok (St. Petersburg: Morskoe ministerstvo, 1885), vol. 1, pp. 13132. There is also much material scattered throughout the magnificent collection Materialy dlia istorii Russkago flota, ed. E. L. Elagin, vols. 14 (St. Petersburg: Morskoe ministerstvo, 1887).

  14. A Histoty of the Russian Fleet during the Reign of Peter the Great by a Contemporary Englishman, 1724, ed. Adm. Cyprian A. G. Bridge, vol. 15 of Navy Records Society Publications (London: Navy Records Society, 1899). The original manuscript copy has disappeared from the collection of the London School of Slavonic Studies.

  15. "The Authorship of the 'History of the Russian Fleet under Peter the Great,'" Mariner's Mirror 20 (July 1934): 37376. Ingram's manuscript was sold at auction in 1966 and has disappeared. It was signed "Your Majesty's Most Dutiful, Most Sincerely Devoted Subject and Servant, John Deane."

  16. A Narrative of the Sufferings, Preservation, and Deliverance of Capt. John Deane and Company; in the Nottingham Galley of London, cast away on Boon Island, Near New England, December 11, 1710, as it was printed in 1711 and now reprinted in 1722 (London, 1722).

  17. See my "Deane: Mercenary, Diplomat, Spy," p. 28, and Paul S. Fritz, The English Ministers and Jacobitism between the Rebellions of 1715 and 1745 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1975)s. pp. 13031.

  18. Tilson to Lord Townshend, 17 July 1725, PRO SP 43 / 9 / 23940.

  19. Lord Townshend to Robert Points, 7 July 1725, PRO SP 95 / 37 / 21112.

  20. Deane's dispatches are located in PRO SP 91 / 9 / 38798.

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  21. Map Collection: King's Maritime II. 51.1, 35. ''The Present State of the Maritime Power of Russia" (accompanying maps: Ladoga Sea, Retusari [Cronstadt], St. Petersburg), British Library.

  22. Deane to Tilson, 5 July 1725, PRO SP 91 / 9 / 398. In August he wrote of "implacable enemies who seek my ruin" and of his fear that he "would be rendered odious to that government whose cause [he] served" (Deane to Tilson, 24 August 1725, PRO SP 84 / 574).

  23. Fritz, English Ministers, pp. 13234, and J. F. Chance, The Alliance of Hanover (London: J. Murray, 1923), p. 348. These are the only works that deal with the fascinating adventures of Deane and O'Conner in Holland.

  24. The seven dispatches Deane wrote while on the cruise are filed with those of Sir Charles Wager in PRO SP 42 / 77. When the voyage was over, Wager wrote Tilson from Spithead on 30 December 1726, "I fear [Deane's] money is all out. I wish my Lord would remedy this. I think him a very honest Man." See also, "The Present State of the Danes, Swedes, and Russians in Respect to One Another and to the English Fleet in the Baltic in the Year 1726," PRO SP 43 / 77.

  25. A Narrative of the Shipwreck of the Nottingham Galley, &c. Publish'd in 1711, Revis'd, and Re-printed with Additions in 1726 by John Deane, Commander (n. p., 1726), reprinted herein; and Captain John Deane, A Narrative ... with Additions in 1727 (London, 1727). Only minor changes were made in 1727, but that edition became the version that Deane used for all later editions during his lifetime.

  26. Deane's role in this enterprise awaits historical investigation and is contained in his numerous dispatches from Ostend located in PRO SP 77 / 7586.

  27. See n. 2 for the 1730 account; A Narrative of the Shipwreck of the Nottingham Galley & Co., First publish'd in 1711, Revis'd, and Reprint'd with additions in 1727, republish'd in 1730, and now propos'd for the last Edition during the Author's Life-time. By John Deane, then Commander, of the Nottingham Galley: but now, and for many Years past, His Majesty's Consul for the Ports of Flanders, Residing at Ostend (London, 1738).

  28. "An Abstract of Consul Deane's Narrative," in Samuel Wilson, Sermons. Published at the Request of the Church under his Care, Printed by Aaron Ward, at the King's Arms in Little Britain; and Joseph Fisher, against Tom's Coffee-house in Cornhill (London, 1735).

  29. Last Will and Testament of John Deane of Wilford, PRO PROB II.8282: 36267.

  30. Captain John Deane, A Narrative of the Shipwreck of the Nottingham Galley, in her Voyage from England to Boston, with an account of the miraculous escape of the captain and the crew, on a rock, called Boon-Island, the hardships they endured there, and their happy deliverance. By Captain John Deane, then commander of the said galley and for many years after His Majesty's Consul for the ports of Flanders, residing
at Ostend. Published by Mr. Miles Whitworth, son of Mr. Whitworth (Boston, 1762). Whitworth not only

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  memorialized Deane with the posthumous republication of the account of the shipwreck of the Nottingham Galley but also named his son John Deane Whitworth. This namesake was among the first loyalists brought to trial during the American Revolution. He was described in November of 1776 as "a prisoner taken in arms against the forces of the United States (and) brought before the Committee of Public Safety." "Record of the Boston Committee of Correspondence, Inspection, and Safety, May to November 1776," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 63 (1909): 252.

  31. William Abbatt reprinted the 1711 account as an extra number of The Magazine of History and Biography with Notes and Queries 59 (1917): 199217. Smith's edition is titled A Narrative of the Shipwreck of the Nottingham Galley, in her Voyage from England to Boston, with an Account of the Miraculous Escape of the Captain and his Crew, on a Rock called Boon-Island, the Hardships they endured there, and their happy Deliverance. By Captain John Deane, then Commander of the said Galley; but for many years after His Majesty's Consul for the Ports of Flanders, residing at Ostend. Introduction by Mason Philip Smith (Portland: Provincial Press, 1968).

  32. R. Thomas, Remarkable Shipwrecks, Fires, Famines, Calamities, Providential Deliverances, and Lamentable Disasters on the Seas (Hartford: Andrus, 1835), and George W. Barrington, Remarkable Voyages and Shipwrecks, being a Popular Collection of Extraordinary and Authentic Sea Narratives relating to all Parts of the Globe (London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton & Kent, 1881). An abridged version entitled "Cannibalism in Maine" forms a chapter in the widely read Great Storms and Famous Shipwrecks of the New England Coast, ed. Edward Rowe Snow (Boston: Yankee, 1943). Also of interest is "The Grim Tale of the Nottingham Galley," in Lost Ships and Lonely Seas, ed. Ralph D. Paine (New York: Century, 1921), pp. 30930.

  33. Keith Huntress, Narratives of Shipwrecks & Disasters, 15861860 (Ames: Iowa State University, 1974).

  34. A. W. Brian Simpson, Cannibalism and the Common Law (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980), pp. 11415.

  35. W. H. G. Kingston, John Deane of Nottingham (London: Griffith and Farran, 1870).

  36. M. N. Barker, Walks Around Nottingham, p. 49. Deane left no issue and his epitaph records that his wife, Sarah, died just one day before he did.

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  Appendix

  Chronology and Stemma of Accounts of the

  Wreck of the Nottingham Galley

  JASPER DEAN(E) EDITION, 1711

  Dean(e), Captain John, A Narrative of the Sufferings, Preservation, and Deliverance of Capt. John Dean and Company; in the Nottingham Galley of London, cast away on Boon-Island, Near New England, December II, 1710. Published with an introductory note by Jasper Dean(e), dated August 2, 1711, Horsly-Down. Printed by R. Tookey, London and folded by S. Popping at the Raven in Paternoster-Row, and at the Printing Press under the Royal-Exchange, Cornhill, 1711. Conveniently, reprinted by William Abbatt, Tarrytown, New York, 1917, being an extra number of the Magazine of History with Notes and Queries. 59:2 (1917): 199215.

  THE LANGMAN ACCOUNT, 1711

  Langman, Christopher, Nicholas Mellen, and George White, A True Account of the Voyage the Nottingham-Galley of London, John Dean commander, from the River Thames to New-England, near which Place she was cast away on Boon-Island, December 11, 1710, by the Captain's Obstinacy, who endeavored to betray her to the French, or run her ashore; with an Account of the Falsehoods in the Captain's Narrative. And a faithful Relation of the Extremities the Company was Reduc'd to for Twenty-four Days on that Desolate Rock, where they were forced to eat one of their Companions who died, but were at last wonderfully deliver'd. The whole attested upon Oath, by Christopher Langman, Mate; Nicholas Mellon, Boatswain; and George White, Sailor in the Said Ship. Printed for S. Popping at the Raven in Paternoster-Row, London, 1711.

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  THE SAD AND DEPLORABLE ACCOUNT, 1711 (ABRIDGED & SENSATIONALIZED)

  A Sad and Deplorable Account of the Sufferings, Preservation, and Deliverance of Captain John Deane, & c. London; printed by J. Dutton, near Fleet Street, 1711.

  COTTON MATHER, 1711 (ABRIDGED)

  Cotton Mather, Compassions Called for. An Essay of Profitable Reflections on Miserable Spectacles. To which is added, a faithful relation of Some Late, but Strange Occurrences that called for an awful and unusual Consideration. Especially the Surprising Deliverance of a Company lately Shipwreck'd on a Desolate Rock on the Coast of New-England. Boston, 1711, 5060.

  JOHN DEANE EDITION #1, 1722

  Deane, Captain John, A Narrative of the Sufferings, Preservation, and Deliverance of Capt. John Deane and Company; in the Nottingham Galley of London, cast away on Boon-Island, Near New England, December 11, 1710, as it was printed in 1711 and now reprinted in 1722, London, 1722.

  JOHN DEANE EDITION (REVISED #2), 1726

  Deane, Captain John, A Narrative of the Shipwreck of the Nottingham Galley, &c. publish'd in 1711, Revis'd, and Re-printed with Additions in 1726 by John Deane, Commander. N.p., 1726.

  JOHN DEANE EDITION (REVISED #3), 1727

  Deane, Captain John, A Narrative of the Shipwreck of the Nottingham Galley &c. Publish'd in 1711. Revis'd, and re-printed with additions in 1727, by John Deane, commander. London, 1727.

  JOHN DEANE EDITION (REVISED #3), 1730

  Deane, Captain John, A Narrative of the Shipwreck of the Nottingham Galley, and c. First Publisb'd in 1711. Revis'd and reprinted with additions in 1727, and now re-published in 1720. By John Deane, commander. London, 1730.

  SAMUEL WILSON EDITION (ABSTRACT), 1735

  "An Abstract of Consul Dean's Narrative," in Samuel Wilson, Sermons. Published at the Request of the Church under His Care. Printed by

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  Aaron Ward, at the King's Arms in Little Britain; and Joseph Fisher, against Tom's Coffee-house in Cornhill, London, 1735, 197203.

  JOHN DEANE EDITION (REVISED #3), 1738

  Deane, Captain John, A Narrative of the Shipwreck of the Nottingham Galley & Co, first publish'd in 1711, Revis'd, and Reprint'd with additions in 1727, republish'd in 1730, and now propos'd for the last Edition during the Author's Life-time. By John Deane, then Commander, of the Nottingham Galley: but now, and for many Years past, His Majesty's Consul for the Ports of Flanders, Residing at Ostend. London, 1738.

  MILES WHITWORTH EDITION, 1762

  Deane, Captain John, A Narrative of the Shipwreck of the Nottingham Galley, in her Voyage from England to Boston, with an account of the miraculous escape of the captain and the crew, on a rock, called Boon-Island, the hardships they endured there, and their happy deliverance. By Captain John Deane, then commander of the said galley and for many years after His Majesty's Consul for the ports of Flanders, residing at Ostend. Published by Mr. Miles Whitworth, son of Mr. Whitworth. Boston, 1762.

  WILLIAM ABBATT, EDITION, 1917

  Dean(e), Captain John, A Narrative of the Sufferings, Preservation, and Deliverance of Capt. John Dean and Company, in the Nottingham Galley of London, cast away on Boon-Island, Near New England, December 11, 1710. Published with an introductory note by Jasper Dean(e), dated August 2, 1711, Horsly-Down. Printed by R. Tookey, London and folded by S. Popping at the Raven in Paternoster-Row, and at the Printing Press under the Royal Exchange, Cornhill, 1711. Reprinted by William Abbatt as an extra number of The Magazine of History and Biography with Notes and Queries 59:2 (1917): 199215.

  MASON SMITH EDITION, 1968

  Deane, John, A Narrative of the Shipwreck of the Nottingham Galley, in her Voyage from England to Boston with an Account of the Miraculous Escape of the Captain and his Crew, on a Rock called Boon-Island, the Haraships they endured there, and their happy Deliverance. By Captain John Deane, then Commander of the said Galley; but for many years after His Majesty's Consul for the Ports of Flanders, residing at Ostend. Introduction by Mason Philip Smith. Portland, 1968.

 

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