The wreck of the Mentor : a true story of death, despair, and deliverance in the age of sail / Eric Jay Dolin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dolin, Eric Jay, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pacific Ocean.

Mentor (Ship : 1812-1832).

Shipwrecks--Palau.

Shipwrecks.

Shipwreck survival--Palau.

Shipwreck survival.

Shipwrecks--Pacific Ocean.

Whaling ships--United States--History--19th century.

Whaling ships.

Genre:

Informational works.

Physical Description:

xix, 243 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W.W. Norton & Company, [2026]

Summary:

New York Times - "The Nonfiction Everyone Will Be Talking About in 2026" An astonishing true story--one of the most gripping maritime sagas of the nineteenth century--told by our era's "expert literary steersman" (Washington Post).

"True story of the American whaleship Mentor, wrecked in 1832 on a remote reef in the western Pacific. With supplies dwindling, the eleven surviving crewmen face not only the bleak miseries of shipwreck in unfamiliar territory but also the tense uncertainty of first contact with the indigenous people of the Micronesian archipelago of Palau, who approach the deserted men brandishing axes, clubs, and spears within days of the ship's lamentable arrival. In this gripping saga of cultural collision, gritty survivalism, violent skirmishes, and dashed hopes, award-winning historian Eric Jay Dolin vidvidly reconstructs the Mentor's doomed voyage, the years of perilous captivity, and the delicate negotiations and fraught naval rescue mission that followed."-- Provided by publisher.

"True story of the American whaleship Mentor, wrecked in 1832 on a remote reef in the western Pacific. With supplies dwindling, the eleven surviving crewmen face not only the bleak miseries of shipwreck in unfamiliar territory but also the tense uncertainty of first contact with the Indigenous people of the Micronesian archipelago of Palau, who approach the deserted within days of the ship's lamentable arrival. In this gripping saga of cultural collision, gritty survivalism, winning historian Eric Jay Dolin vividly reconstructs the Mentor's doomed voyage, the years of perilous captivity, and the delicate negotiations and fraught naval rescue mission that followed"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Author's note

Cast of characters

Introduction

Pursuing the Leviathans of the deep

Palau

A warm embrace

Plunder

Water, water everywhere

Are you English?

'Old Charley'

Don't go

A grand canoe

Threats

Departure

From bad to worse

Vicious reception

Tobi

Existence

The Sabina

Retribution

Death, survival, and hope

The Brittania

Home

The Vincennes

'I am too happy!'

Delicate and duplicitous negotiations

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

Notes

Illustration credits.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 209-226) and index.

Local Notes:

Athenaeum copy: Weiner fund bookplate.

Other Format:

ebook version :

ISBN:

9781324096320

1324096322

OCLC:

1535850578

Publisher Number:

CIPO000379605