Customer Reviews

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

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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.

"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.

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

I think the previous reviewer mistakes necessary context for annoying asides. Far from a chore to read, this gripping book is full of drama, pathos, intrigue, and the damning hubris of a period (18th-Century) of imperial arrogance.

Cast ashore in Pondoland, the survivors of the Grosvenor were presented with many opportunities for salvation, in the shape of the tractable and far-from-savage Xhosa and Pondo peoples they encountered. But under the blundering and self-serving leadership of Cat. Coxon and, the author suggests, the malign and racist influence of some of the East India Co. "gentlemen" who were the Grosvenor's VIP passengers, the 150-strong band of survivors were torn apart by fear, indecision, cowardice, and greed. The most vulnerable among them....the "ladies,"--one of whom, Lydia Logie, was heavily pregnant-- the elderly and several young children were abandoned to their fates. The remainder of the crew struggled 400 miles to the nearest european settlement, dying in ones and two of starvation, exhaustion, and disease. Just a handful of them survived.

That anyone survived is a remarkable testament to the fortitude and courage of those who labored at the bottom of the social heirarchy in 18th-Century England and its imperial outposts. That so many died is an indictment of the culture of the elite classes whose rigid intellectual and emotional armor collapsed in the face of alien circumstance.

This book is engaging, intelligent, and wide in scope, and the unanswered questions regarding the fate of some of the women, including Lydia Logie, is masterfully drawn.

I recommend this book.

Unlike a few of the other reviewers/readers, I thought Mr. Taylor was a brilliant storyteller. How else to explain why I couldn't put this book down and had trouble falling asleep at night thinking about it? It is the rare storyteller that can keep you enthralled when the outcome is a foregone conclusion.

I believe that it is precisely the addition of historically relevant exposition, intermingled with tidbits of human drama, that make this story so much more than the otherwise grim tale of "they sailed, they shipwrecked, they died." I learned a great deal of history and perspective about the time period. I found the story fascinating. It did take me awhile to become gripped by the tale (having to be introduced to all the major characters got a bit confusing early on), but even in this, Mr. Taylor uses his prose to gently remind us of who they are as the story progresses. By the end, I was saddened that we couldn't know more about most of them. I felt I had shared a part of their life and loss, and I was moved by the stories of people that became a small and tragic bit of history.

In 1782, the 741-ton, three-masted square-rigger _Grosvenor_ was wrecked on the inhospitable shore of southeast Africa. One hundred and forty people were on board, and most of them survived the wreck. "What they had feared was shipwreck and death. Shipwreck and survival was not a possibility that anyone had much considered." So writes Stephen Taylor in _Caliban's Shore: The Wreck of the Grosvenor and the Strange Fate of Her Survivors_ (Norton). Unique among shipwrecks, this one had survivors from a broad spectrum of British society, cast upon a shore about which all were ignorant. Taylor's gripping story is fragmented; there are large gaps which no one will be able to fill. Readers will find intelligent speculation to get them through these gaps; Taylor's research includes digging into the old records of the British Museum and academic resources within South Africa (where he grew up), as well as traversing the lands where the survivors trekked after being cast ashore. It is a gripping story full of period details and human suffering, ingenuity, and greed.

The _Grosvenor_ was about to make its usual run to England for the British East India Company, and was hastily joined by William Hosea, a colonial aristocrat with his family. He was also traveling with a bag of diamonds that would have easily been turned into cash when he got back home. There were around seventeen other folk of his class making the trip, which would have taken several months; they would have insisted on plenty of food, even if the quality could not be sustained, and there was 2,700 gallons of wine aboard. For his costly passage, Hosea had directly paid the captain of the vessel, John Coxon who was better at commerce than seamanship. During the night of 4 August, some of the sailors were alarmed by what seemed to be lights on shore, but Coxon insisted that land was 300 miles to the East. When the ship foundered, 126 survivors came on land. Coxon was not the man to provide leadership, and the survivors split up, with groups forming and reforming, and generally leaving the weakest and wounded behind. They had to face impassable rivers, precipitous cliffs, starvation, and disease. It was a grueling, distressing story for almost all. 106 perished. The public was greatly interested in the wreck and its outcome, and took an especially prurient interest in the seven women who were lost; they were, in a phrase of the time, "doomed to worse than death among the natives."

The wreck has had surprising repercussions in the last century. In 1925, a drifter named Bock found a bright stone 150 miles south of where the wreck had occurred; it was a diamond, and he eventually accumulated over a thousand of them. He sold mining concessions, but no one else found anything. He was accused of "salting" the diamonds, fraudulently planting them to mislead others, and found guilty. The diamonds, however, are not the type from African mines, but are just the type Hosea would have been carrying. Bock's descendants are trying to clear his name, and gain recompense for loss of the treasure, which has disappeared. The _Grosvenor_ was well laden with goods, but because of its notoriety, folklore made it into a treasure ship. Over many years, different investment schemes, like the _Grosvenor_ Bullion Syndicate, have proposed diving for the treasure, and some have actually brought in the hardware to do so. Only failure and ruin came of such efforts, marked, as Taylor says, by breathtaking audacity and an astonishing willingness to be gulled. The _Grosvenor_ sank over two centuries ago, but the ship of fools sails on.

I only gave this book 4 stars because I had a tough time getting into it. I'm not sure if it was my frame of mind or the writing itself, but the chapters leading up to the departure of the Grosvenor were confusing and I had to reread quite a bit as I went along. However, the further I got into it, the better it became, and at the end I was sorry it was over. The story of the wreck of the Grosvenor is fascinating and Taylor's research and storytelling ability is remarkable. And though the fate of the women is unknown, I finished the book with a feeling of hope that they fared better than most of their shipmates. I was sad that some of the truly goodhearted people didn't make it through, but that's the gift of a good writer - the characters were real to me.

If you are a fan of shipwreck and where are they now, castaways stories you'll enjoy this book. For some reason I'm fascinated by these tales of survival against all odds books. And this story has just a mirriad of adventures by the crew. Among the horror stories of bad treatment of the women and children. At least they never resort to "the custom of the sea". So it's a PG-13 adventure.

If you like books like "South" and Mutiny on the Bounty, you'll like this one.

I really can't add much to the glowing reviews of this superb book. Suffice it to say that the author, Stephen Taylor, uses a shipwreck on the Transkei coast as a springboard to reconstruct an entire world -- the world of 18th century seafaring, Pondo tribal life, the politics of the East India Company, European racial and sexual phobias, and more. His writing is flawless, whether describing African scenery or the interior lives of long-dead people. "Caliban's Shore" is a small masterpiece of historical and imaginative recreation. Six stars.

Stehpen Taylor has done a masterful job researching and putting together the sad, tragic tale of the Grosvenor and the fate of its survivors. In addition, I found his place-setting and contextual storytelling regarding Indian society, the British mercantile economy, and the spice trades around the late 1700s to be exemplary.

What I liked best about this book is Taylor's engrossing writing - he has written a compelling narrative, bringing to life each of the many characters encountered in this lost world, and effectively organizing a massive research project to collect it all together.

For my money, Caliban's Shore is certainly in the top pantheon for shipwreck/seafaring tales of historical misadventure, and one I would highly recommend to anyone who enjoys this type of non-fiction.