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Accounts of the Wreck of the Commerce - Two Narratives of Shipwreck, Capture and Slavery by Arabs of American Seamen, 1815 (Paperback)
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Accounts of the Wreck of the Commerce - Two Narratives of Shipwreck, Capture and Slavery by Arabs of American Seamen, 1815 (Paperback)
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An Authentic Narrative of the Loss of the American Brig
"Commerce"
by James Riley
A Journal, Comprising an Account of the Loss of the Brig
"Commerce," of Hartford, (Con.) James Riley, Master
by Archibald Robbins
A great American naval adventure of the early nineteenth century
The year 1815 was a momentous one. On the muddy slopes of Waterloo
in Belgium Napoleon, who had set Europe ablaze for two decades, was
brought to ruin. Across the Atlantic the United States of America
had concluded its war with Britain having ended the conflict with a
famous victory at New Orleans. Meanwhile in the eastern Atlantic an
American merchant vessel and its crew underwent a drama which,
although it was not significant to the world at large, would mean
catastrophe, slavery and death for some of them. The brig Commerce
out of Connecticut was sailing between Gibraltar and the Cape Verde
Islands on a trading voyage when she ran aground on Cape Bojador
off the coast of the Western Sahara desert. The ship and crew were
attacked by local tribesmen of the Sahrawi. One man was killed and
the rest of the crew, after terrible ordeals, were captured by
Bedouin tribesmen. They suffered constant brutality at the hands of
their captors as they were force marched through the desolate
landscape and suffered dehydration and starvation before their
eventual liberation. This Leonaur edition contains two accounts by
crew members including one by the ship's master, James Riley.
Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States cited Riley's book
as one as the most significant and inspirational books he read as a
youth. Indeed, Riley's account was a phenomenal bestseller in
America at the time of its first publication selling over 1,000,000
copies. The second account here is by Archibald Robbins and is
included to give readers a perspective on the incident from by one
of the ship's able seamen.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each
title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our
hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their
spines and fabric head and tail bands.
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