Joan Druett’s “Island of the Lost,” revisits one of the greatest survival stories in history. In 1864, two ships, the Grafton and the Invercauld, smashed onto the shoals of Auckland Island, leaving 24 men marooned on one of the most god-forsaken islands on earth. If this book were a novel, it would be dismissed outright as being too over the top.The extreme conditions faced by the crews are unimaginable, but Druett studied historical documents and the journals of three survivors to piece together their unforgettable tale of human endurance.Visualize yourself shipwrecked at the edge of the world in one of the most inhospitable environments on earth. Auckland Island juts out of the ocean 285 miles south of New Zealand. Antarctic winds cool the island. Blowing sheets of rain pound the island for weeks on end. Jagged cliffs, deep ravines and dense brush make exploring the island treacherous. The only sources of food are seals, limpets and a few edible roots. Now, add starvation and depression to the mix, and you can begin to understand why death looked like a welcome friend for many of those stranded on Auckland Island.Captain Thomas Musgrave and Francois Raynal, two men in their early 30s, were no strangers to adventure when they purchased the Grafton. Musgrave began sailing the Liverpool-Australia route when he was 16 years old. After marrying, he settled in Sydney and captained many ships traveling between Australia and New Zealand, gaining fame as “a master mariner with the reputation of being a steady captain and a gifted navigator.” Raynal, who spent the preceding 11 years in the Australian goldfields, was an essential part of the team because of his knowledge of geology.They outfitted the ship for a voyage to Campbell Island to search for a rich argentiferous tin mine reportedly located on the subantarctic island. Argentiferous means “silver-bearing,” a term which Raynal later claimed seduced the two men into their fateful journey.After hiring two seamen and a cook, the Grafton sailed for Campbell Island. The crew searched Campbell for three weeks, but found no signs of tin ore. Not wanting to go back to Sydney empty handed, Musgrave decided to head south and hunt for seals. Filling the hull with seal pelts and oil would at least help recoup the costs of the voyage.On Jan. 2, 1864, the Grafton entered Carnley Harbor on the southern end of Auckland Island under clear skies, but the weather quickly changed, bringing gale-force winds and flinging the schooner onto shoals. “A shock more terrible than any of its predecessors made the vessel shiver from stem to stern,” wrote Raynal, “a frightful crash fell upon our ears – the disaster so much dreaded had come about!”Salvaging a barrel of hard tack and tea from the wreck, the crew struggled to start a fire. Their first meal on shore gave them the strength to improvise a shelter with boards from the wreck, without which survival would be impossible. Druett uses Musgrave and Rynal’s journal entries to describe the despair the crew experienced as they spent months searching the horizon hoping to see a ship, and their joy when they found any form of food.The first seal they kill is a bull. Gagging on its horrific taste, crew members don’t look forward to their next meal but quickly discover cow and baby seal meat is much more palatable. But that doesn’t stop them from bludgeoning bulls when nothing else is available. After a few weeks of subsisting only on seal and fish, the crew began showing signs of scurvy. Then Raynal found a plant growing by the marshes – “a plant with circular leaves, folded up like a funnel, and broad as a plate.” Druett said today the plant is identified as Stilbocarpa Polaris, a mega herb that grows up to 6 feet. Raynal sliced and shredded the stem, formed it into a cake and “served it up with a certain degree of ceremony.”Crew members eat it with no ill effects, and then decide it is suitable to brew into a beer. With the weather growing colder, they begin drying seal meat to sustain them through the winter; but their efforts are thwarted by blowflies that burrow deep into the flesh to lay their eggs. Hatching maggots then consume the meat.Depression engulfs the crew, especially Musgrave, but they continue to function as a cohesive unit with one goal in mind – survival.Four months later, the Invercauld, an 888 ton schooner, left Melbourne for South America on the second leg of her maiden voyage. As they approached Auckland Island, “Captain George Dalgarno ordered a double lookout to be kept, so extra men were sent to stare with slitted eyes into the sleet and fog, straining for the first glimpse of danger.” Suddenly, multiple cries of “Land O!” erupt from the crew, as tall cliffs break out of the fog bank. Dalgarno shouted an order to luff, come up into the wind, but it is too late. The Invercauld slams into shoals on the northwest coast of Auckland Island.Six crew members perished at sea, while the captain and 18 others managed to crawl onto the beach, but not before many were forced to shed their coats and shoes to avoid drowning. Hard as it is to imagine, this crew faced more severe conditions than the crew of the Grafton because winter was beginning and little material could be salvaged from the Invercauld.Druett relies on recollections written by Robert Holding, a seaman on the Invercauld, to describe the fate of that crew, which certainly fits into a survival-of-the-fittest scenario. No mention is made in the historic record concerning Dalgarno’s previous accomplishments as a captain, but after the wreck he certainly showed no signs of leadership. Instead of organizing his men to look for food and shelter, the group huddles together in a small makeshift shelter on the beach for five days. Their only food consists of 2 pounds of sodden biscuits and salt pork found washed ashore along with other debris from the wreck.While growing weaker, small groups of men finally set out to search for a better site. Some become lost; others are injured as they attempt to navigate the heavy underbrush and rocks without shoes. Holding finds a shelter area east of their landing, but efforts to move the men to the site are slow. One seaman becomes so despondent that he sits down and refuses to move any farther. He is left to die, a fate many other crew members would soon experience.Few seal herds sought shelter on the northern end of the island, and the crew had little luck fishing. Clams, which provide very few calories, were the only food source easily gathered. Food became so scarce that the boatswain mate suggested they draw lots to see who should die “in order to save the rest.” Holding became so horrified at the prospect that he decided, “If I’m going to survive, I will have to do it alone.” Within weeks, most of the crew is dead.Druett’s research blames the death toll on the lack of leadership by Captain Dalgarno. Holding wrote, “It is probable that had we been better acquainted with each other things might have been somewhat different.” But the crew of the Invercauld had no camaraderie or leadership to bind them. Instead of working together, as the crew of the Grafton did, they were left to fend for themselves.Over the next 18 months the two groups of men, separated by cliffs and a large inlet, never encountered one another. One group managed to be rescued by pure luck, the other engineered their own escape. Regardless, both groups survived conditions most humans could never endure.Experience their travails by reading Druett’s vivid account of the “Island of the Lost.” Just have a blanket handy because it gets mighty cold on Auckland Island.Note: Next month, I’ll review “The Great Taos Bank Robbery,” by Tony Hillerman. Read the book then read my review. Send your comments to KathyH@newfalconhearld.com.
