The Castaways of Disappointment Island

Summary

The Castaways of Disappointment Island is a true story, though lately out of print and in danger of being lost. This audiobook edition revives the survival story of Charles Eyre, who in 1907 was working as apprentice sailor—a dangerous if exciting vocation in those days.

Caught in a storm one night, The Dundonald sank after hitting the rocky coastline of a tiny subantarctic island known as Disappointment Island—arguably the dingiest bit of rock in the Auckland Islands archipelago, or Motu Maha (“Many Islands”) in Māori. This volcanic archipelago lies 500 km below Aotearoa New Zealand.

Twelve on-board The Dundonald drowned during sinking, 7 March 1907, including the captain and the captain’s son Jimmy, who accompanied his father on a sea voyage for the sake of his health. Jimmy was about to turn sixteen, three days later.

But Charles Eyre, alongside another fourteen sailors, were in their prime. These sailors were strong from manual labour. They made it to shore, though barely. The survivors had no choice but to wait for a passing government steamship to rescue them. And for seven long months they eked out a sorry existence, subsisting on mollymawk flesh, seal meat, seaweed and "root". They wintered over while wearing barely any clothes in a subantarctic climate where fog rarely lifts, sun rarely shines and where torrents of rain left them semi-permanently soaked to the skin.

After eventually returning to London, Charles Eyre told his tale to children’s author and Reverend Herbert Escott Inman, who crafted it into a children’s adventure novel, retaining much of the conversational style of Charles—a lively and upbeat character. This classic survival story remains a harrowing page-turner.

For modern readers, this story offers fascinating insight into a snapshot of maritime history—an era which ended soon after this story did, as the world headed into the first of two World Wars, and the Golden Age of Sail drew to a close.