I first heard of it while reading Chambliss' Diary, which combines the memoirs of a nineteenth century commercial shipping officer with his polemics against elements of San Francisco society he particularly disapproved of. It starts at the last paragraph of this page and is unique amongst other accounts for mentioning the remains of previous castaways, "whose bleached skeletons were there to tell the ghastly tale of the relief that never came."
Another view comes from the memoir of a New Zealander who decided to have a look at the States while on his way to England and thus was a passenger on the rescue ship.
There's a little more detail here about the wrecked ship's crewmen, who sailed 1400 miles in an open boat to report the wreck and find rescue for the rest.
The adventure is mentioned in the newspapers of Christchurch, Hobart, and Sydney; and also the Alta California, a paper dear to my heart for all its live recording of the early days. This article tells also of a stowaway on the rescue ship, who wound up under arrest in San Francisco for theft.
It seems the seamen of the Mariposa were recognized for their service, the captain in particular, who by going out of his way risked a heavy fine for breach of contract.
What's the big deal? Apparently I really enjoy research. Well, I love reading old accounts and finding connected threads, which isn't serious research. But I also love the power of the Internet in finding connections hitherto unknown, different sides to the stories. History is full of stories, and stories are bits and pieces of the real lives of real people. Reading old accounts, I've found some real gems, bits and pieces of potentially great stories and the people in them that have been nearly lost, reminders of all the stories that really have been lost; and all of it grist for the mill, as it were, should I ever turn this passionately accumulated knowledge into something worth reading.
4 comments:
That's pretty cool. IF you found a common thread throughout, you could easily convert this into a novel, I would think.
Last week I spent some time on the Internet trying to get an idea what 14th century Malta was like. Surprisingly difficult to find anything except general history and rough timelines, mostly depicting wars and political overthrows, in chronological order.
If you found a common thread...didn't meant to emphasize the word "if."
It could be a novel, but I don't know that it could be a good novel. A good novel that happens to incorporate a shipwreck that actually happened is little different from one whose shipwreck was made up, and no one will ever care about the difference.
True. Interesting idea. In a fictional account, you can't let strings of events become too meaningless or wildly coincidental, or very weird. Unless you're really good. When the reader thinks they're reading a true story, then they don't bat an eye. Kind of like how a joke has to be funny, but an anecdote can be pretty tame and still be entertaining.
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