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Often appears with: shipwreck and peril at sea · voyages and seafaring · myth and the gods of the nations · hospitality and the guest · fate, destiny, and necessity · the fear of death · supply, logistics, and encampment · storms at sea · signal evidence and artifacts · sea priest preaching · saracen princesses · salvaging shipwreck
Usually: narrative (7) · confronting death (6) · curiosity (5) · detachment (4) · indignation (2) · wonder (2) · dialogue (1) · reflection (1) · captivity (1) · crisis of belief (1)
“And such was the fury of the gale that the ship, aboard which was poor, hapless Landolfo, was driven with prodigious force upon a shoal off the island of Cephalonia, and broke up and went to pieces like so much glass dashed against a wall.” Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron, Volume I · vivid
“September 30, 1659.—I, poor miserable Robinson Crusoe, being shipwrecked during a dreadful storm in the offing, came on shore on this dismal, unfortunate island, which I called “The Island of Despair”; all the rest of the ship’s company being drowned, and myself almost dead.” Daniel Defoe, The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe · observation
Ulysses continues his account: he survives storms and shipwreck, sleeps in leaves, meets Nausicaa’s maid servants, receives clothing and food, and Alcinous offers marriage and travel home by ship.
keep to my raft, which went to pieces under the fury of the gale, and I had to swim for it, till wind and current brought me to your shores. “There I tried to land, but could not, for it was a bad place and the waves dashed me against the rocks, so I again took to the sea and swam on till I came to a river that seemed the most likely landing place, for there were no rocks and it was sheltered from the wind. Here, th…
Aeneas emerges from hiding to identify himself to Dido, explaining he was saved on the Libyan coast, then accepts her welcome and hear her question about his Trojan and divine lineage.
shall, by my command, explore The ports and creeks of ev’ry winding shore, And towns, and wilds, and shady woods, in quest Of so renown’d and so desir’d a guest.” Rais’d in his mind the Trojan hero stood, And long’d to break from out his ambient cloud: Achates found it, and thus urg’d his way: “From whence, O goddess-born, this long delay? What more can you desire, your welcome sure, Yo…
In March 1775 Equiano embarks again for Cadiz, survives a Sunday shipwreck near the Bay of Cadiz, praises divine guidance, visits Gibraltar and Malaga, and disputes with Father Vincent about Catholic practice and Bible reading.
my passage lie, Yet Christ shall safely keep and guide me with his eye. How can I sink with such a prop, That bears the world and all things up?" At this time there were many large Spanish flukers or passage-vessels full of people crossing the channel; who seeing our condition, a number of them came alongside of us. As many hands as could be employed began to work; some at our three pumps, and the rest unloading the…
Darwin sails north after bidding farewell to the south, climbs a conical hill for panoramic views, finds evidence of an isolated bed and fire, and reflects on navigation, discovery anxiety, and human survival.
his bed on this wild spot, must have been some poor shipwrecked sailor, who, in trying to travel up the coast, had here laid himself down for his dreary night. December 28th.--The weather continued very bad, but it at last permitted us to proceed with the survey. The time hung heavy on our hands, as it always did when we were delayed from day to day by successive gales of wind. In the evening another harbour was d…
As Landolfo sails home through the Archipelago, Genoese carracks capture his bark, sink it, and a shipwreck off Cephalonia leaves him clinging to a chest until Corfu’s shore.
with the armament and all things else meet for such service, took to scouring the seas as a rover, preying upon all folk alike, but more particularly upon the Turk. In this enterprise he was more favoured by Fortune than in his trading adventures. A year had scarce gone by before he had taken so many ships from the Turk that not only had he recovered the fortune which he had lost in trade, but was well on the way to…
Alatiel, daughter of the Soldan of Babylon Beminedab, is sent by ship from Alexandria to be married to the King of Algarve, but a storm wrecks the voyage and leaves her stranded on Majorca.
to make you acquainted with the coil of misadventures in which her beauty involved a fair Saracen, who in the course of, perhaps, four years was wedded nine several times. There was of yore a Soldan of Babylon (1), by name of Beminedab, who in his day had cause enough to be well content with his luck. Many children male and female had he, and among them a daughter, Alatiel by name, who by common consent of all that …
Crusoe dates his journal from September 30, 1659, describes shipwreck on “The Island of Despair,” surviving the night, salvaging the wreck, and building an initial tent and fortified encampment.
September 30, 1659.—I, poor miserable Robinson Crusoe, being shipwrecked during a dreadful storm in the offing, came on shore on this dismal, unfortunate island, which I called “The Island of Despair”; all the rest of the ship’s company being drowned, and myself almost dead. All the rest of the day I spent in afflicting myself at the dismal circumstances I was brought to—viz. I had neither food, house, clothes, weap…
Robinson describes his third day at sea after a stormy current catches his boat near a breach of the sea, nearly starving while realizing currents could carry him irrecoverably offshore.
the point: so that it was not safe for me to keep too close to the shore for the breach, nor to go too far off, because of the stream. The third day, in the morning, the wind having abated overnight, the sea was calm, and I ventured: but I am a warning to all rash and ignorant pilots; for no sooner was I come to the point, when I was not even my boat’s length from the shore, but I found myself in a great depth of wa…
In a dialogue framed as a tale, an overturned ship forces Adol to save himself and others by clinging to the mast stump, with a “Sea-Priest” urging them to trust God until rescue is possible.
*Ant.* Did the Boat get safe to Land? *Adol.* None perish'd sooner than they that were in that, and there were above thirty that had got into it. *Ant.* By what bad Accident was that brought about? *Adol.* It was overset by the rolling of the Ship, before they could get clear of it. *Ant.* A sad Accident: But how then? *Adol.* While I was taking Care for others, I had like to have been lost myself. *Ant.* How s…