Caliban's Shore: The Wreck of the Grosvenor and the Strange Fate of Her Survivors FROM THE PUBLISHER
"The Grosvenor was one of the finest East Indianmen of her day, a grand three-masted square-rigger of 741 tons bristling with cannon. When she ran aground on the treacherous coast of south-east Africa, an astonishing number of her crew and passengers, including women and children, reached the shore safely. But the castaways were hundreds of miles from the nearest European outpost - and utterly ignorant of their surroundings and the people among whom they found themselves." Stephen Taylor pieces together this saga with narrative flair. Drawing on much new research, he sifts the myths that became attached to the Grosvenor from a reality that is no less gripping. Taking the reader to the heart of what is now the Wild Cost of Pondoland, Caliban's Shore reveals the misunderstandings that led to tragedy, tells the story of those who escaped, and unravels the mystery of those who stayed.
SYNOPSIS
The Grosvenor was a 741-ton symbol of the Empire, plying its trade around Cape Horn from India to England and back. In August 1782 she ran onto the rocks of southeast Africa, casting most of the crew and passengers, including women and children, on shore. As they struggled on what is wisely called the Wild Coast, they found that the effete failed and the brawny survived in a place that was totally alien to all of them. Working from contemporary reports, diaries, and his experience of the terrain, journalist Taylor traces the path of the Grosvenor and the fate of her survivors, including men and women who may have joined the people of the Wild Coast completely and permanently. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
FROM THE CRITICS
Sara Wheeler - The New York Times
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.
Deirdre Donahue - USA Today
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.
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. Agents, Caroline Dawnay and Peter Matson. (July) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
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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