WOODARD, David; VAUGHAN, William (ed.).

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The Narrative of Captain David Woodard and Four Seamen, First edition of this survival account of Captain Woodard and his crewmates after their shipwreck near the coast of Borneo in 1793."Woodard sailed in the American ship Enterprise from Batavia, bound for Manila. Sent off in a boat with five others to purchase provisions from another ship, they found themselves separated from their own ship after a storm... They were forced to land on Celebes, where one of them was murdered by the Malays and the others taken into captivity. They escaped with the help of a Mohammedan priest and gradually made their way to Macassar and then back to Batavia" (Hill).Vaughan, the editor, was a director of the Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation and an advocate for the interest of common seamen. He dedicated the work to his maternal uncle, Captain Benjamin Hallowell, one of Nelson's "band of brothers" who served at the Battle of the Nile. Vaughan was involved in trying to establish a society "for promoting the means of preserving ships and lives in moments of danger and accidents", a manifesto for which is included as an appendix.

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