''Polly'' was an American

brig A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the ...

that was swamped during a gale in late 1811 and spent the following six months adrift in the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...

mentioned the saga of ''Polly'' in his 1838 novel ''

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket ''The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket'' (1838) is the only complete novel written by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. The work relates the tale of the young Arthur Gordon Pym, who stows away aboard a whaling ship called the ''Grampus' ...

''.

History

''Polly'' was a 131-ton brig constructed at

Pembroke, Massachusetts Pembroke is a small historic town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. Pembroke is a South Shore suburb of the Boston metropolitan area. The town is located about halfway between Boston and Cape Cod. The town is considered rural wi ...

in 1791, probably by shipbuilders Alden Briggs, Calvin Turner, and Ichabod Thomas, Jr. During her service life, the ship was home ported in Boston, Massachusetts.

Shipwreck

On December 12, 1811, ''Polly'' departed Boston with a cargo of

lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

and provisions (including salted meat) bound for the

Virgin Islands The Virgin Islands ( es, Islas Vírgenes) are an archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. They are geologically and biogeographically the easternmost part of the Greater Antilles, the northern islands belonging to the Puerto Rico Trench and St. Croix ...

The Passing Parade ''The Passing Parade'', a.k.a. ''John Nesbitt's Passing Parade'', was an American radio series created, written, and narrated by John Nesbitt which was adapted into an Oscar-winning series of MGM short subjects. In both media, the series usually ...

John Doremus John Doremus (August 3, 1931 in Sapulpa, Oklahoma – July 6, 1995 in Naperville, Illinois) was an American radio personality, best known for his radio syndication of ''The Passing Parade'', a series of short stories of remarkable but relatively ...

, Radio 2CH, 20:40

AEST Australia uses three main time zones: Australian Western Standard Time (AWST; UTC+08:00), Australian Central Standard Time (ACST; UTC+09:30), and Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST; UTC+10:00). Time is regulated by the individual state gov ...

September 21, 2010. The ship was commanded by Captain Casneau, and carried eight others: the mate, four seamen, an Indian cook, a passenger named Mr. Hunt, and a 12-year-old African-American slave or servant girl belonging to Hunt. Three days out, on December 15, ''Polly'' was caught in a severe

gale A gale is a strong wind; the word is typically used as a descriptor in nautical contexts. The U.S. National Weather Service defines a gale as sustained surface winds moving at a speed of between 34 and 47 knots (, or ). 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. However, two people, one of whom was Hunt, were lost during the storm, and the girl was badly injured. 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 eat

barnacle A barnacle is a type of arthropod constituting the subclass Cirripedia in the subphylum Crustacea, and is hence related to crabs and lobsters. Barnacles are exclusively marine, and tend to live in shallow and tidal waters, typically in eros ...

s 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 A still is an apparatus used to distill liquid mixtures by heating to selectively boil and then cooling to condense the vapor. A still uses the same concepts as a basic distillation apparatus, but on a much larger scale. Stills have been used ...

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. Over the next 191 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 43 or 50 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 65th day, only two survivors remained. On June 19, 1812, Captain Casneau and either the cook or a crewmember named Samuel Badger, were rescued by Captain Featherstone of the British ship ''Fame'', en route to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

from

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

. The crew were picked up west of

Marrakesh Marrakesh or Marrakech ( or ; ar, مراكش, murrākuš, ; ber, ⵎⵕⵕⴰⴽⵛ, translit=mṛṛakc}) is the fourth largest city in the Kingdom of Morocco. It is one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco and is the capital of the Marrakes ...

, having drifted over two thousand miles across the Atlantic. On July 9, the survivors were transferred to the brig ''Dromero'' and taken back to the United States. The story of ''Polly'' is mentioned in an in-character footnote in Chapter 13 of

's ''

''. Poe's narrator, Arthur Pym, refers to the ordeal as similar to the one he experiences in the course of the narrative. Poe's source for the material may have been R. Thomas' ''Remarkable Events and Remarkable Shipwrecks'', published in 1836.

References

{{coord missing, Atlantic Ocean 1811 disasters in the United States Maritime incidents in 1811 Shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean Sailing ships