Public Libraries of Suffolk County, New York

Boon Island, including contemporary accounts of the wreck of the Nottingham Galley, Kenneth Roberts ; edited by Jack Bales and Richard Warner

eng

Includes bibliographical references

mapsillustrations

no index present

fiction

Boon Island

electronic resource eBook

bibliographydictionaries

Kenneth Roberts ; edited by Jack Bales and Richard Warner

including contemporary accounts of the wreck of the Nottingham Galley

This classic tale of shipwreck and survival is reprinted in a new edition, with essays that provide a historical perspective and trace the sources from which Kenneth Roberts (1885-1957) drew his tale. A native Mainer, Roberts, whose historical novels include Northwest Passage and Arundel, was intrigued by the story of the December 1710 wreck of the Nottingham. After running aground a dozen miles offshore, the ship broke up, stranding her crew with minimal tools, scant shelter, and a few pieces of cheeseThe men survived nearly a month of screeching gales, sub-freezing temperatures, and driving snowstorms. During their ordeal they resorted to cannibalism and were finally rescued after one of them made it ashore on a crude raft. Included here are contemporary accounts from crew members, offering dramatically different versions of the true-life traumatic event and a fascinating counterpoint to Roberts' fictionalized versionA bestseller when published in 1956, Boon Island is a story of the ways that crisis can inspire the best - and worst - in human nature