A Sea of Misadventures: Shipwreck and Survival in Early America

1. Fact or Fiction? The Publication of American Shipwreck Narratives

9 . 1 . Fact or Fiction? The Publication of American Shipwreck Narratives I am so far from ever wishing to appear before the public in the character of author, that I had long resisted the importunities of very many of my friends, who, from time to time, earnestly requested me to write, and publish a narrative of the wreck of the Oswego, and of the subsequent sufferings of myself and crew among the wild Arabs. At last I have been prevailed upon to do it; and am encouraged with the hope that my narrative will meet with candor, and be of some benefit to mankind generally, and more especially to sea-faring men exposed to the like awful calamities.1 Survivors of shipwrecks often wrote about their experiences, and they did so for a variety of reasons—to make money, to demonstrate God’s presence, or simply to find a sense of closure. Beyond such personal motives, these narratives furnished excitement and adventure as well as practical suggestions concerning proper survival behavior that authors hoped would appeal to eager audiences. As with other popular forms of literature, such as captivity or travel narratives, accounts of shipwreck blended reality with fiction to produce a harrowing and affordable form of amusement.2 “So long as there had been newspapers, murders, along with such other evidences of man’s depravity or ill-fortune as treason, highway robbery, forgery, piracy, shipwrecks , epidemics, and catastrophic storms, had been news.”3 Shipwreck narratives are typically first- or secondhand accounts that focus primarily on the shipwreck events and their immediate aftermaths.German , French, Spanish, Portuguese, British, and American narratives exist A Sea of Misadventures 10 in almost every major archive. The narratives for this study date from the sixteenth century through the 1840s. Recorded shipwreck narratives, however , continue to be printed up to the present decade. Some are single broadsides or pamphlets; others are collected anthologies or are embedded individually in larger tales of adventure. Structured as short stories rarely more than twenty pages long, the accounts provide condensed scenarios of events from the voyages’ inceptions to their ultimate demises. As one of several varieties of street literature— pamphlets,tracts,and chapbooks—the narratives supplied a cheap means of entertainment and of disseminating information. A chapbook consisted of a sheet folded into several uncut or unstitched pages, while a broadside was a large, single sheet with material printed on one side; broadsides could be posted on buildings or left on tavern tables for patrons to read. Chapbooks and broadsides represented the most common means for telling shipwreck disasters until the nineteenth century, when decreased costs permitted longer accounts published in greater quantities.4 Early collections do appear,such as Increase Mather’s An Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Providences (1684), but are rare. By the nineteenth century collected anthologies, including the anonymous, Remarkable Shipwrecks: or, a Collection of Interesting Accounts of Naval Disaster (1813), and Archibald Duncan, Mariner’s Chronicle (1804–8), had become commonplace.5 British colonists in the New World were not lowly illiterates trying to eke out a living in the wild American forests; they read and owned books, created libraries, and began founding colleges. Colonists of all social classes looked to the printed word for guidance, news, and entertainment; “the printed word thrived in early America, because so many early Americans were, indeed, devoted readers.”6 There was a high rate of literacy in the colonies.According to some estimates , in New England 60 percent of white males were literate in 1660 and 85 percent were literate in 1760, with percentages in the remaining colonies slightly lower. Of course literacy varied according to area, age, and gender, with women having a much lower rate. For example, women’s literacy rose to approximately 45 percent by 1700 but then stagnated, rising only slightly by the end of the eighteenth century.7 Furthermore individuals in taverns and at home read news, stories, and other forms of literature out loud, so even the illiterate had access to printed material. Publishing began early in the colonies. The first press in America was established in 1639 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.8 During the seventeenth century the colonies of Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, and Rhode Island also began presses; the remaining colonies established them in the eighteenth century.9 At first royal governors regulated and restricted Fact or Fiction? 11 material for publications.10 Primarily used for...