John Deane (sailor)
Captain John Deane | |
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Born | 1679 Nottingham, England |
Died | 1761 (aged 81–82) Wilford, Nottinghamshire, England |
Cause of death | Assault and Robbery |
Resting place | St Wilfrid's Church, Wilford |
Nationality | British |
Occupations |
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Known for |
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Captain John Deane (1679 – 1761) was an English sailor with a long career in the
The many accounts of his life include that of William Henry Giles Kingston,[1] who confirms that Deane "really existed", and Richard H. Warner.[2] His shipwreck on Boon Island and suspected cannibalism appear in accounts by W. C. Riess and A. Nightingale.[3][4]
Early life
John Deane was born in Nottingham in 1679. His father was Jasper Deane, buried at St Wilfrid's Church, Wilford, where John Deane and his wife were also buried. He had one brother, named Jasper after their father, who accompanied Deane on his later voyages aboard the Nottingham Galley.[1][5]
Deane's early upbringing was in relative poverty, working as an apprentice to a butcher and drover around Nottingham and London.[1]
During his time as an apprentice, he is said to have "fallen into bad company" and taken to poaching and deer-stealing, which were serious offences in the late 17th century.[5]
Deane was described by 19th-century writer
Historian R.H. Warner found no evidence in
Nottingham Galley and Boon Island
With the assistance of his father and brother, in c. 1709 Deane purchased a small merchant galley which he called the Nottingham Galley.[5] In 1710, Deane and his thirteen crew members set sail aboard the Nottingham Galley from London for Boston.[7] Deane's galley encountered severe weather whilst crossing the North-West Atlantic.[8][9]
At around 9:00 pm on 11 December Deane's ship struck a rock outcrop on Boon Island, approximately eleven kilometres off York, Maine.[3] The entire crew made it ashore on Boon Island, but the cargo and galley were wrecked and lost to the sea.[9]
The crew were marooned without food, shelter or fire. The ship's cook died soon after wrecking on the island with his body cast to sea. The carpenter died soon after. The crew made the decision to cannibalise the dead man in the hope of surviving until being rescued.[7] Deane later wrote of the event, that the crew were "reduced to the most deplorable and melancholy circumstances imaginable". Having discussing the legal and moral ramification of the situation, the crew felt "obliged to submit to [their] craving appetites." Deane disposed of elements of the body distinguishing it as that of a human. Lacking fire, the crew were forced to eat the body raw.[8]
The remaining twelve men survived without fire and with depleted resources for almost two months. In mid-January, the remaining crew attempted to construct a raft from the remaining parts of the ship and sent two men toward land in search of help. Before they had made the distance to shore, the raft was overcome by the sea with the two men drowning. Residents on the shore nearby found one of the washed-up bodies and sent a team to Boon Island the following day to rescue the remaining survivors.[3]
Before returning to England, some members of the crew, primarily led by his first mate Christopher Langman, signed a deposition and published a narrative of the shipwreck claiming that Deane and his brother, Jasper, had wrecked the ship on purpose in order to claim insurance money. Deane and his brother quickly published a counter-narrative disputing the claims made by the crew members.[3][9]
In 1714, Deane took service with the
In 1717, the Samson raided two Swedish commercial vessels travelling through the
In 1719 Deane was accused of accepting a considerable bribe in exchange for the surrender of the two Swedish vessels. He was soon court-martialled and, although eleven officers and under-officers from his crew testified in support of him, was found guilty and was dismissed from service with a year in prison. The Tsar later reduced the sentence to a demotion to lieutenant and an assignment to transport timber in the remote region of Kazan.[10]
During the trial,
Deane documented his knowledge of the Russian Navy's tactics and affairs in his 1721 publication A History of the Russian Fleet during the Reign of Peter the Great.[13][14]
British diplomat
In 1725, following his dismissal from the Russian Navy, Deane was enlisted as consul at
Deane later intercepted a courier for the
In 1728 Deane was promoted to British Consul to the Port of Ostend at the request of Townshend.[5]
Deane's work at the Port of Ostend was greatly valued by the British Government with the arrangement of a good annual salary of £200 with expenses.[7] He was noted for his effective suppression of the Ostend Company, the first attempt by the Holy Roman Empire to monopolise trade with the East Indies.[15] Following eight years of service as British Consul in Ostend, Deane retired in 1736 to his home in Wilford, Nottinghamshire.[1][6][7]
Personal life and retirement
Deane and his wife Sarah, first referenced in correspondence in 1725, had no children.[6][7]
Following his departure from the Russian Navy in 1725, Deane had constructed two large Georgian houses in the village of Wilford, south of Nottingham. He frequently visited his Wilford home sometimes for several months at a time whilst employed as Consul of the Port of Ostend and retired to there in 1736.[7] As of 2019, the two houses remain overlooking the Village Green.
Deane was enrolled as a freeman of the
Deane died in 1762 at the age of eighty-three following a violent assault and robbery whilst walking in fields near his house; his assailant was later hanged for his crime.[5] Deane's wife died the following day at the age of eighty-two. They were interred together in the churchyard at St Wilfrid's, Wilford.[1][7][16]
Notes
- ^ All materials relating to the incident in the Gulf of Danzig and Captain Deane's trial are located in RGAVMF, fund 1720/60/II/702 Samson Log; RGAVMF, no. 212/1720/60/11. These include: "Testimony of the Officers and Men of the Samson, 8 January 1720", "Reason why I went aboard the Dutch Man-of War", "Admiral Siever's Examination of Captain John Deane", and "The Final Statement of Captain John Deane at his Court Martial, 9 July 1720".
References
- ^ a b c d e f Kingston 1921.
- ^ a b Warner 1995.
- ^ a b c d Riess 2008.
- ^ Nightingale 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f Walker 1928.
- ^ a b c d e f Warner, ODNB.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Warner 2008.
- ^ a b Roberts 1996.
- ^ a b c Vietze & Erickson 2012.
- ^ a b Warner 1995, p. 110.
- ^ a b Elagin 1887.
- ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 229–230.
- ^ Bridge 1899.
- ^ Also see "The Authorship of the History of the Russian Fleet under Peter the Great". Mariner's Mirror. 20: 333–336. July 1934.
- ^ Butel, Paul (1997). Européens et espaces maritimes: vers 1690-vers 1790. Par cours universitaires. Bordeaux: Bordeaux University Press.
- ^ The Last Will and Testament of John Deane of Nottingham (12 December 1755) Registered at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, 1 July 1762. Ref: TNA PROB 11 882/362-366W
Bibliography
- Bridge, Sir Cyprian (1899). History of the Russian Fleet During the Reign of Peter the Great. Vol. 15. London: Navy Records Society. The original manuscript is located in the collection of the London School of Slavonic Studies.
- Elagin, F. M. (1887). Materialy dlia istoriia Russkago flota [Materials for the History of the Russian Fleet]. Vol. I. St. Petersburg.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Kingston, W. H. G. (1921). John Deane, Illustrated in colour by Archibald Webb. London: Humphrey Milford.
- Nightingale, Adam (2013). The Shipwreck Cannibals: Captain John Deane and the Boon Island Fleshing Eating Scandal. London: The History Press.
- Riess, Warren C. (2008). "Nottingham Galley at Boon Island: History, Archaeology, and Novel" (PDF). The Northern Mariner. 18 (3–4). Canadian Nautical Research Society.
- Roberts, Kenneth (1996). Boon Island. Hanover NH: University Press of New England.
- Vietze, A.; Erickson, S. (2012). Boon Island: A True Story of Mutiny, Shipwreck and Cannibalism. Guildford, CT: Globe Pequot Press.
- Walker, J. Holland (1928). Links with Old Nottingham Historical Notes.
- Warner, Richard H. (March 1995). "Captain John Deane and the Wreck of the Nottingham Galley: A Study of History and Bibliography". The New England Quarterly. 68 (1): 106–117. JSTOR 365967.
- Warner, Richard H. (2008). "Captain John Deane: Mercenary, Diplomat, and Spy, 1679-1761". The Northern Mariner. 18 (3–4). Canadian Nautical Research Society.
- Warner, Richard H. (2008). "Deane, John". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/73435. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)