In August 1710, the Nottingham Galley set sail for New England. It did not reach its destination, as fierce weather struck and the fourteen men on board were shipwrecked on Boon Island, a sparse 100yd stretch of rock. Without food or adequate shelter, they were uncertain when or if they would be rescued. Two men died of exposure; two more perished in a failed attempt to reach shore. As the situation became more perilous, Captain John Deane gave the order to butcher and eat a deceased member of the crew. This bold decision fended off starvation and sustained the crew until their rescue. John Deane emerged an unlikely hero. But shortly afterwards an alternative version of events began to circulate. The first mate, Christopher Langman, painted Deane as a violent fraudster, a tyrant and an enthusiastic consumer of human flesh. The scandal forced Deane to flee his homeland and begin a life of misadventure that saw him fight as a mercenary for Peter the Great and spy for Robert Walpole. The Shipwreck Cannibals tells the story of a scandalous and grotesque forgotten episode in British maritime history and its bizarre aftermath.

A bestseller when published in 1956, Boon Island is a story of the ways that crisis can inspire the best - and worst - in human nature.

The wreck of the Nottingham Galley on Boon Island and the resultant rumors of insurance fraud, mutiny, treason, and cannibalism was one of the most sensational stories of the early 18th century. Shortly after departing England with Captain John Deane at the helm, his brother Jasper and another investor aboard, and a skeleton crew, the ship encountered French privateers on her way to Ireland, where she then lingered for weeks picking up cargo. They eventually headed into the North Atlantic later in the season than was reasonably safe and found themselves shipwrecked on the notorious Boon Island, just off the New England coast. Captain Deane offered one version of the events that led them to the barren rock off the coast of Maine; his crew proposed another. The story contains mysteries that endure to this day, yet no contemporary non-fiction account of the story exists. In the hands of skilled storytellers Andrew Vietze and Stephen Erickson, this becomes a historical adventure-mystery that will appeal to readers of South and The Perfect Storm.

This volume aims to continue the expansion of maritime history beyond the narrow definition - 'the study of ships' - to include all people involved in seagoing activities. The volume consists of eleven articles exploring the people of Northern seas, spanning the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries and primarily focused on Europe. They were originally presented at a 1992 Finland conference of the Association for the History of the Northern Seas. The articles are broad in scope, and are collected here with the intention of stimulating further academic research into the lives and histories of the people of the Northern seas, which the editors, at the time of publication, consider under-examined. The articles are divided into three sections, the first examining livelihoods dependant on the ocean; seamen, fishermen. The second group examines maritime mercantile communities; merchants; shipowners; shipbrokers. The final group examines maritime culture, encompassing the navy and the coastguard.

List of members in each volume.

List of members in each volume.