Mutiny on the Globe : the fatal voyage of Samuel Comstock / Thomas Farel Heffernan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Heffernan, Thomas Farel, 1933-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Comstock, Samuel, 1802-1824.

Comstock, Samuel.

Globe (Whaling ship).

Globe Mutiny, 1824.

Survival.

Shipwreck survival.

Survival at sea.

Airplane crash survival.

Physical Description:

xix, 280 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : W.W. Norton, [2002]

Summary:

Samuel Comstock was born with a sense of destiny that is sometimes granted to great artists or leaders of men; in his case, it was the mark of Cain. Though he had vowed from childhood that he would do some great thing, his only legacy was a reign of terror. He came from a family that had grown rich trading in whaling products, so it was no surprise that young Samuel Comstock -- as wild and headstrong a youth as had ever been seen on the wharves of Nantucket or New York -- signed on to the whale ship Globe in 1822. What would have been surprising, had anyone known, were the contents of his sea chest: a diverse collection of seeds, tools, medical supplies, and weapons. Later -- too late -- his brother William remembered that Samuel used to talk about establishing his own island kingdom in the South Seas. Of course no one had taken him seriously. Two years out of Nantucket on the voyage, Comstock put into action the plan he had long meditated. With the help of some roguish recent additions to the crew, he organized a mutiny and butchered the officers of the Globe in cold blood. By a strange twist of fate, the chief witness and chronicler of the mutiny was another of Samuel's brothers, young George, who neither participated in nor approved of the savage deed. George called Samuel a brother in flesh but not in heart, so little did the older brother care whether the younger survived to see home again.

Within days of settling on Mili Atoll in the Marshall Islands, Samuel Comstock was murdered by his fellow mutineers. Six innocent seamen -- George among them -- seized the Globe and escaped; most of the rest were killed by natives. Two survivors lived for twenty-two months, half-prisoners and half-adoptees of the natives, until they were rescued in a bold and dangerous maneuver by a landing party from the U.S. schooner Dolphin. To this astonishing tale, as dramatic as Mutiny on the Bounty, Thomas Farel Heffernan brings unique qualifications as a researcher and historian. He sets the mind and character of Samuel Comstock against an exquisitely detailed background of Quaker Nantucket and bustling New York, and also against a modern understanding of psychology. Published here for the first time are enlightening documentary treasures, including the full text of George Comstock's eyewitness account of the mutiny, the poignant letter home of the second mate weeks before he was murdered, and the complete text of "The Young Mutineer," a remarkable poetic memorial to Comstock as romantic villain written by one of his Nantucket contemporaries. The Globe's story is one of terror, adventure, endurance, and luck. It is also the story of one of the most bizarre and frightening minds that ever went to sea.

Contents:

Introduction: Ghosts of Nako xv

Chapter 1 Brothers 3

Chapter 2 Port Life and a Sinking Star 35

Chapter 3 I Have the Bloody Hand 49

Chapter 4 No Lasting City 88

Chapter 5 Etto Amro Pad Ioon Aneo 109

Chapter 6 The News 135

Chapter 7 Dolphin 152

Afterword: The Shadow of the Globe 189

Appendix A The Crew of the Globe 217

Appendix B George Comstock, "Narrative" 219

Appendix C Lay and Hussey's Marshallese Vocabulary 237

Appendix D The Comstock Family 241

Appendix E "The Young Mutineer" 243.

Notes:

Maps on endpapers.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 249-280).

ISBN:

0393041638

OCLC:

49641103