Surviving Nearly 2 Years of Shipwreck on a South Pacific Island in the 1880s

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 19 December 2024

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today, half of the world’s population lives around the Pacific Rim. This ocean has been the crossroads of international travel, trade, and commerce for at least 500 years. The economy was driven by workers in rickety sailing boats like in Moby Dick. The risk of starvation, dehydration, shipwreck, sinking, and death began as soon as you stepped out into open water.

Today, we’re going to zero in on one of those stories. On December 10, 1887, a shark fishing boat disappeared. On board the doomed vessel were the Walkers—the ship’s captain Frederick, his wife Elizabeth, their three teenage sons, and their dog—along with the ship’s crew. The family had spotted a promising fishing location when a terrible storm arose, splitting their vessel in two.

The Walker family was shipwrecked on a deserted island in the South Pacific. The survivors soon discovered that their island refuge was already inhabited by a ragged and emaciated man who introduced himself as Hans. This fellow castaway quickly educated the Walkers and their crew on the island’s resources. But Hans had a secret, and as the Walkers slowly came to learn more, the luck of having this mysterious stranger’s assistance would become something more ominous.

To look at this story and the wider world of Pacific maritime life – and death – we are joined by today’s guest, Matthew Pearl, author of “Save our Souls: The True Story of a Castaway Family, Treachery, and Murder.”

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Noble gold investments is the official gold sponsor of History Unplug, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals.
0:07.9	Learn how you can protect your wealth with noble gold investments.com.
0:19.4	Sky here with another episode of the History and Plug podcast.
0:22.6	Today, half the world's population lives around the Pacific Rim.
0:25.7	The world's biggest ocean has been the crossroads of international travel, trade, and commerce for at least 500 years.
0:30.4	This economy was driven by workers in rickety sailing boats, like in Moby Dick, until about a century and a half ago when steamships took over.
0:38.9	In this earlier era, the risk of starvation, dehydration, shipwreck, sinking, and death began as soon as you
0:43.9	stepped out into the open water. Today we're going to zero in on one of those stories. On December 10th,
0:48.7	1887, a shark fishing boat disappeared. On board the vessel were the walkers, ship's Captain Frederick,
0:54.6	his wife Elizabeth, their three teenage sons and their dog, along with the ship's crew.
0:58.9	The family had spotted a promising fishing location when a terrible storm arose, splitting
1:02.9	their ship in two. The Walker family was shipwrecked on a deserted island in the South Pacific.
1:07.8	The survivors soon discovered that their island refuge was already inhabited by a ragged and emaciated man who introduced himself as hans. The survivors soon discovered that their island refuge was already inhabited by
1:11.0	a ragged and emaciated man who introduced himself as Hans. The castaway helped the
1:15.6	walkers and the crew find food on the island, but they became put off by Hans' increasingly
1:19.8	erratic behavior and discovered the reason why he was abandoned on the island. To look at the
1:24.6	story and the wider world of Pacific Maritime Life and Death, we're joined by today's guest, Matthew Pearl, author of Save Our Souls, The True Story of a Castaway Family, Truttery, and Murder.
1:34.5	Hope you enjoy this discussion.
1:38.4	And one more thing before we get started with this episode, a quick break for a word from our sponsors.
1:43.2	History tells us that there have been
1:44.7	only two fiat currencies over the last 200 years, the dollar and the pound. The dollar's
1:49.2	taken some hits of late, with rising inflation and declined about 4% since July. That
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