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The John Batchelor Show

FRST TIME THE FALKLANDS ENTERED AMERICAN HISTORY: 3/4: Left for Dead: Shipwreck, Treachery, and Survival at the Edge of the World by Eric Jay Dolin (Author) https://www.amazon.com/Left-Dead-Shipwreck-Treachery-Survival/dp/1324093080 In Left for Dead,

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

Arts, Society & Culture, Books, News

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 1 June 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

FRST TIME THE FALKLANDS ENTERED AMERICAN HISTORY: 3/4: Left for Dead: Shipwreck, Treachery, and Survival at the Edge of the World  by  Eric Jay Dolin  (Author)

https://www.amazon.com/Left-Dead-Shipwreck-Treachery-Survival/dp/1324093080

In Left for Dead, Eric Jay Dolin―“one of today’s finest writers about ships and the sea” (American Heritage)―tells the true story of a wild and fateful encounter between an American sealing vessel, a shipwrecked British brig, and a British warship in the Falkland archipelago during the War of 1812.
Fraught with misunderstandings and mistrust, the incident left three British sailors and two Americans, including the captain of the sealer, Charles H. Barnard, abandoned in the barren, windswept, and inhospitable Falklands for a year and a half. With deft narrative skill and unequaled knowledge of the very pith of the seafaring life, Dolin describes in vivid and harrowing detail the increasingly desperate existence of the castaways during their eighteen-month ordeal―an all-too-common fate in the Great Age of Sail.
1890

Transcript

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0:00.0

The weather. Tomorrow, expect a biting cold front. Hmm, how naughty. I wonder what I'll be

0:06.9

wearing or taking off. The night will be wild and untamed. Expect heavy, lashing rain that'll soak you

0:13.8

to the skin. By Monday, temperatures will rise slowly but surely reaching their peak in the afternoon.

0:21.2

Not in the mood for miserable weather?

0:23.5

Fly cheaply to Turkey with Sun Express.

0:26.3

Sun Express, non-stop sunshine.

0:34.7

This is CBSI on the world.

0:36.8

I'm John Batcher visiting with Eric J. Dolan. His new book is Left for Dead,

0:40.9

shipwreck, treachery, and survival of the edge of the world. We're in the Falklands. It's 1812, 1813.

0:47.8

There's a shipwreck coming from Australia, and women and children and men are scattered on the shore of a bleak part of the Falklands.

0:57.3

Fortunately for them, there's a ceiling, experienced ceiling crew led by Charles Barnard,

1:03.2

and they are about to see the burning grass which suggests to them somebody's there.

1:09.2

And here they come across the shipwreck,

1:11.0

and the shipwreck people believe they're rescued.

1:13.5

Except, well, they are rescued in a way, Eric,

1:16.4

except for it's going to be a long way around rescue.

1:19.8

Who knows there's a war on, and who doesn't?

1:23.5

Yeah, when Charles Bernard and his other sealers come upon the erect ship and the castaways,

1:30.9

they are aware that war is broken out because a few months earlier, an American stealing ship

1:36.3

came by and told them that the war had broken out. The people on board the Isabella,

1:40.9

however, were not aware that war had broken out. So Charles Bernard and his men

1:45.2

offer the castaways a great deal, a humanitarian deal. They say, we're going to save you. We're

...

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