“Left for Dead: Shipwreck, Treachery, and Survival at the Edge of the World”
by Eric Jay Dolin. Liveright Publishing Corporation. 2024. 314 pp. $24.25.
Reviewed by Bob Muggleston
The Falkland Islands, for those of us of a certain age, are generally the place of an undeclared war that took place in 1982 between Britain and Argentina, or they’re the land mass – windswept and remote, never visited – that sailors avoid while rounding Cape Horn. But in the early 1800s they were the place where multiple nations harvested the skins and blubber of seals, as the whaling industry had hit a rough patch thanks to tariffs imposed on whale oil by the British.
In 1812 the bottom line was that the Falkland Islands were a place where money could be made. In the looming shadow of potential war with England, during which time all American ships would be told to stay put, the U.S.-flagged brig Nanina slipped her lines in Hudson, N.Y., and headed south. The plan was straightforward: Harvest seals in the Falklands, sell the rendered products in China, and – first and foremost – avoid contact with British-flagged ships.
Commanding the ship was the inscrutable Captain Charles Barnard, who successfully navigated two of these three edicts. Once in the Falklands and successfully hunting seals, he unfortunately crossed paths with the British, in the form of the shipwrecked crew of the Isabella, which was carrying English convicts from Australia back to England.
Anyone convinced that the backstabbing alliances on the show “Survivor” are solely a product of the modern age, or anyone fascinated by the minutiae of life aboard ships in the Age of Sail, should read “Left for Dead.” What transpires after the crews of these two ships meet nearly defies belief. In short: In 1813, with the war between America and England in full swing, and while Barnard is out on a humanitarian mission gathering provisions with four other volunteers, convinced that he must sail both his American crew and his British castaways to safety, a British rescue ship arrives, seizes the Nanina, and leaves Barnard and his men behind.
This is where Barnard’s 18-month-long story of suffering and intrigue truly begins. And Dolin does a wonderful job piecing together the narrative, in which Barnard is betrayed yet again by one of the crew stranded with him, and yet still somehow perseveres.
Over the years I’ve become a fan of historical narratives, and thanks to his exhaustive research and a flair for storytelling, Eric Jay Dolin has managed to turn out a long string of excellent books in this genre. “Left for Dead,” with its many charts and illustrations, and wonderful descriptions of the Falkland Islands themselves, puts us right there in this strangely near – and yet still somehow far away – place.
