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

Stephen Taylor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 18, 2005

"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 Drawing upon unpublished material and new research, Stephen Taylor pieces together the strands of this compelling saga, sifting the myths from a reality that is no less gripping.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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

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.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

In the summer of 1782, an East India Company ship, the 741-ton Grosvenor, ran aground and sank off the southeast coast of Africa, the shore about 100 yards away; 91 crewmen and 34 British passengers survived. Taylor describes in detail what he was able to learn of the survivors' lives and recounts the vessel's structure and the calamitous weather that led to the disaster. "For the castaways, the natural world of Africa might have been another planet," Taylor writes, describing its plants and animals, rivers and insects. Some of the passengers and crew eventually returned home, but others stayed. The author visited the coast three times in the course of writing this book, and his research included nearly 80 sources. This incredible, true story reads like the wildest fiction. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (July 18, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393327078
• ISBN-13: 978-0393327076
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,028,890 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Survival and Seafaring, August 17, 2004

By 

Ricky Hunter (New York City, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Caliban's Shore: The Wreck of the Grosvenor and the Strange Fate of Her Survivors (Hardcover)

Women and children first was not a concept of the East India Company ships during the last 1700s, as is amply exemplified by Stephen Taylor's Caliban's Shore. The story of the shipwreck and fight for survival (mostly unsuccessful) of the Grosvenor's castaways is a harrowing one, particularly as told in Taylor's account. The reader will also learn bits of colonial India history, early shipping, African exploration, and tribal relations sprinkled throughout the main narrative and the different elements are wonderfully captured and made whole. The author makes the curiously complicated flight for survival, as the one group drifts into several different evolving combinations heading toward such varied fates, more straightforward than it would at first seem, which is a relief. One of the highlights of the book, though, is its look at those survivors who remained in Africa, as well as those who only possibly may have lived on in Africa. It is a wonderful adventure story providing a fascinating glimpse into history.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Grosvenor: separating truth from myth, June 8, 2005

By 

Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Caliban's Shore: The Wreck of the Grosvenor and the Strange Fate of Her Survivors (Hardcover)

"Lost at sea", a phrase that makes the blood run cold. Even worse, was the fate of the East India vessel, the Grosvenor, in 1782, shipwrecked off the coast of Africa, at the mercy of the elements and indigenous peoples.

Heading home to London from Calcutta under Captain John Coxon, the rigid social apparatus that governed English society in India applied on board the Grosvenor as well. Those of wealth and position received the same deference they enjoyed on land, the quality passengers purchasing pride of place on an Indiaman overloaded with valuable cargo. On one disastrous night, as the ship crashed into the unfriendly coast of Pondoland in Africa, any social advantages disintegrated as the survivors struggled toward land. Castaways all, the survivors were faced with a terrible dilemma, whether to remain near the wreck or attempt to reach the safety of a settlement.

Without authoritative leadership, the 126 survivors made critical errors in judgment, intimidated by the indigenous natives, their weapons useless without gunpowder and little knowledge of the unexplored terrain. There was a curious lack of heroism among the men who made it to shore, as they scrambled to save themselves, ignoring the plight of those less able.

The fate of the women and children left behind in the march became a source of many unanswered questions, the grist of myth, finally a black mark against the honor of the East India Company. Only a handful of the original 140 passengers survived, along with frequent rumors of white women assimilated into the local tribes. The fertile imagination of the English fed upon the fearful distortions that saw the delicate white women and children at the mercy of "savages", when their ultimate peril was at the hands of the men who should have protected them. The concept of "women and children first" had yet to be accepted into the social fabric of shipboard etiquette.

Society as they knew it all but disappeared, as people of quality were reduced to the same desperate straights as the common folk. Even more shocking, however, is the lack of cohesion among the survivors. There is little evidence of the espirit d'corps of later such misadventures. Instead, various groups continually splintered off from the original number, drastically reducing the chances of the more helpless, especially the women, children and the wounded. Captain Coxon was indeed a villain. Although not literally responsible once they were on land, Coxon did accept the leadership position, a mistake that was to cost the majority of the survivors their lives. His arrogance and misconduct did not come to light for many years, due to the lack of accurate reporting.

Taylor's account of the Grosvenor is compelling, drawn from a variety sources, especially since the tragedy occurred before journalism was freed from conjecture and common gossip, when any outrageous rumor was printed as truth. That and the paucity of written documentation led Taylor to sift through a century of supposition and lurid tales from India to England, including the fate of women living with natives, raising new families. Such gossip served as fodder for a years of bizarre tales and Taylor's painstaking research does much to clarify the fate of the Grosvenor survivors. Dramatic, heartrending and shocking, Taylor proves that truth is indeed stranger than fiction. Luan Gaines/2005.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AStonishing, engrossing and highly readable history of a shipwreck, August 27, 2005

By 

A. Woodley "Patroness, Janeites, the Austen list" (New Zealand) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Caliban's Shore: The Wreck of the Grosvenor and the Strange Fate of Her Survivors (Hardcover)

This was a real page-turner. Not only was it a book about a shipwreck, but it was also a mystery which Stephen Taylor set about solving quite successfully.

In 1782 a merchant ship bound to England from India. Its crew and passengers were of various classes and wealth. Off the coast of South Africa the boat foundered and was sunk due to some bad decision making. 125 passengers and crew made it to shore alive - and really this is where the story fully begins. Fearful of the native Pondo tribe the group struck out for English settlements in the South.

Bad decision making again plagued them and of the 125 who survied the wreck only 13 made it back. Taylor gives background to the survivors and digging through accounts from years afterwards traces the outcome of the ones who did not make it back to 'civillisation' - some were taken by tribes, how and why some died - the attitudes that led to the life and death of many of them - even the fate of a huge cache of diamonds being carried by one of the passengers.

This was an excellent read. I found it difficult to put down - Taylor tells the tale fluently and enjoyably. I appreciated him providing sources for his research or quotes within the text. He did this without it ruining the flow of the story. The sources he used were definitely part of the story as a whole myth of fate of the Grovesnor passengers has built up over time and Taylor indicated what he had used and why - and also where the accounts differ etc.

This would appeal to those who are interested in maritime history and wrecks, those interested in English history in the period. As a matter of interest anyone who enjoyed this might enjoy Dava Sobel's book Longitude as well.

- A Woodley