Caliban's Shore: The Wreck of the Grosvenor and the Strange Fate of Her Survivors

by Stephen Taylor

Overview

"This incredible true story reads like the wildest fiction."—Booklist

In the summer of 1783 the grandees of the East India Company were horrified to learn that one of their finest ships, the 741-ton Grosvenor, had been lost on the wild and unexplored coast of southeast Africa. Astonishingly, most of those on board reached the shore safely—91 members of the crew and 34 wealthy, high-born passengers, including women and children. They were hundreds of miles from the nearest European outpost—and they were not alone. "They surveyed one another with mutual incomprehension: on the one hand the dishevelled castaways; on the other, black warriors with high conical hairstyles, daubed with red mud..." Drawing upon unpublished material and new research, Stephen Taylor pieces together the strands of this compelling saga, sifting the myths from a reality that is no less gripping. Full of unexpected twists, Caliban's Shore takes the reader to the heart of what is now South Africa, to analyze the misunderstandings that led to tragedy, to tell the story of those who returned, and to unravel the mystery of those who stayed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393327076
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	07/17/2005
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Stephen Taylor, a former journalist working at The Times in London, is the author of Storm and Conquest and Commander. He lives in Windsor, England.

Table of Contents

	Maps	x
	Prologue	xiii
1
1	'A Man of High Character'	3
2	Lord Macartney's Displeasure	20
3	Island of Oak	33
4	A Light in the Dark	53
5	'Nothing but Confusion and Dismay'	67
2
6	The Caliban Shore	79
7	Pondo's People	94
8	A Fatal Dread	104
9	'Never After Together Again'	115
10	Faultlines	125
11	Habberley's Mission	135
12	'A Sacred Charge'	145
13	Caliban Transformed	157
14	The Fate of William Hosea	170
15	'The Vilest Brutish Prostitution'	180
3
16	African Crusoes	195
17	The Quest	207
18	'Our Fathers Are Come'	219
19	Gquma's Tribe	230
20	'When the Long Trick's Over'	243
	Epilogue	253
	Acknowledgements	261
	Sources	263
	Notes	269
	List of Illustrations	285
	Index	287

Editorial Reviews

Caliban's Shore is a fragmentary story but a powerful one, and Taylor has diligently glued the pieces together. Like all good histories, it opens a window onto the past -- in this case the exotic, pestilential and perilous world of those doughty men and women who braved the high seas more than 200 years ago.
— The New York Times

Sara Wheeler

With the success of The Perfect Storm and other maritime stories, accounts of disasters at sea have felled many a tree. What sets this superb history apart comes from Taylor's extensive knowledge of Africa. He describes the endless tribal wars, the emerging tensions with the Dutch and, especially, the Wild Coast terrain.
— USA Today

Deirdre Donahue

The Grosvenor's passengers and crew feared shipwreck and death, but "shipwreck and survival was not a possibility that anyone had much considered." When the England-bound mercantile ship ran aground in heavy seas off Africa on August 4, 1782, death would have been easier for the 125 who made it ashore. Drawing primarily on two contemporary reports, British historian Taylor reassembles the Grosvenor's story with precision and vision, making each passenger a character and each incident a fate twist. Merchants and children, Anglicans and Muslims, officers and gentlewomen were stranded without weapons or food on shores inhabited by the Pondo tribe in present-day South Africa. Fearful that the peaceful natives would turn hostile, the survivors struck out along the coast for known European settlements. But the bad decision-making that had resulted in shipwreck produced more disaster, and, by the end, only 13 survivors of the wreck are accounted for. Over the years, as news of the fate of the Grosvenor and its passengers drifted back to Britain, the ship and its fate became legendary, even Dickens contributing. The book may not resonate for Americans as much as for more direct descendants of the British Empire, but Taylor has brought the ship and its survivors to modern eyes with this commendable work. Photos. Agents, Caroline Dawnay and Peter Matson. (July) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Raised in South Africa, British and U.S. newspaper correspondent Taylor (Shaka's Children) acts on his lifelong interest in the famous 1783 wreck of the 741-ton Grosvenor, an East India Company trade ship, off the far southeast coast of Africa. The result is an engrossing account of the truth behind the event. Most of those on board reached the shore safely, including 91 crew and 34 wealthy passengers, among them women and children. Once ashore, the tale takes intriguing twists and turns, and Taylor digs deep into formerly unpublished material and newfound stories left by some of the survivors to reveal their fate. Taylor nicely pieces together the various parts of this story, providing a solid analysis of the origins of the tragedy, relating the full story of those who returned, and unraveling the mystery of those who stayed. In the end, he provides more background on those who came to grief in the disaster than found in Percival R. Kirby's The True Story of the Grosvenor. Highly recommended for all nautical and South Africa history collections in academic and larger public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 3/1/04.]-Dale Farris, Groves, TX Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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