Polly (brig)

"Polly" was an American brig that was swamped during a gale in late 1811, and spent the next six months adrift in the Atlantic Ocean. The saga of "Polly" was mentioned by Edgar Alan Poe in "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym".

History

"Polly" was a 131-ton brig, probably constructed by shipbuilder Alden Briggs, at Pembroke, Massachusetts, sometime between 1788 and 1805.cite book |title=History of Shipbuilding on North River, Plymouth County, Massachusetts |last=Briggs |first=Lloyd Vernon |year=1889 |publisher=Coburn Brothers |pages=174 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=lgsWDUXvU2QC ] During her service life, the ship was home ported in Boston, Massachusetts.

hipwreck

On 12 December 1811, "Polly" departed Boston with a cargo of lumber and provisions. The ship was commanded by Captain Casneau,cite book |title=Genealogy of the Howes Family in America |last=Howes |first=Joshua Crowell |year=1892 |publisher=F. Hallett |pages=205 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=EWUXq8epi5UC ] and carried eight others: the mate, four seamen, an Indian cook, a passenger named Mr. Hunt, and an African-American slave or servant girl belonging to Hunt.cite book |title=The Essential Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe: Essential Tales and Poems |last=Poe |first=Edgar Alan |year=2004 |publisher=Spark Educational Publishing |pages= [http://books.google.com/books?id=0sJr1xPt30UC&pg=PA540&vq=brig+Polly&source=gbs_search_r&cad=1_1&sig=ACfU3U3p7RgYJ61lMPM-hiaNbdiYg0S2cw 540] |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=0sJr1xPt30UC ]

Three days out, on 15 December, the "Polly" was caught in a severe gale.cite book |title=Shipwrecks of the Revolutionary & Napoleonic Eras |last=Grocott |first=Terence |year=1998 |publisher=Stackpole Books |pages=xiii |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=YD3FnOwPgBkC ] The storm capsized the ship and the masts were either carried away by the storm, or cut away by the crew. Relieved of the topweight, Polly rolled back onto an even keel. The ship was completely filled with water, but the cargo of lumber kept the ship afloat.cite book |title=The American Merchant Marine: Its History and Romance from 1620 to 1902 |last=Marvin |first=Winthrop T. |year=2006 |publisher=Kessinger Publishing |pages=189-190 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=Q6RumhEtMzUC ] However, two people were lost during the storm.

The survivors began to salvage the wreck for usable items. Quantities of salted pork were recovered, and the survivors ate that raw until the cook managed to start a fire twelve days after the wreck, by using two sticks rubbed together.. The supplies of salted pork ran out after forty days, and the survivors were forced to eating barnacles scraped off the hull, and the occasional shark and fish. The barnacles were exhausted by mid-April, but the survivors managed to catch additional fish. Stores of fresh water ran out after eighteen days, and water was subsequently obtained from a makeshift still made out of a tea kettle, a metal pot, and a pistol. Seawater was boiled in the pot, and condensation was captured in the tea kettle and consumed.

Over the next one hundred ninety one days, Polly drifted across the Atlantic. The hulk was passed by over a dozen ships, but none offered assistance. Henry Howes, the First Mate, was the first of the survivors to die, either forty-three days or fifty days after the wreck. Three other crewmen followed suit. Some references indicate the cook died at this time, while others indicate the cook survived the ordeal. By the sixty-fifth day, only two survivors remained.

On 19 June 1812, the two remaining survivors, Captain Casneau and either the cook or a crewmember named Samuel Badger, were rescued by Captain Featherstone of the British ship "Fame". The crew were picked up 600 leagues (3,330 kilometers) west of Marrakesh, and had drifted over two thousand miles across the Atlantic.

On 9 July, the survivors were transferred to the brig "Dromero", and were taken back to the United States.

References