Shipwrecks and castaways -- the memoirs

An undoubted hero of the grueling castaway experience was Captain Thomas Musgrave, who commanded the little Grafton expedition.

It was because of his leadership, self-sacrifice, strong moral character, and deep sense of democracy that all five Grafton castaways survived.

He was the first to publish an account of the ordeal, in 1865, under the title Castaway on the Auckland Isles: a narrative of the wreck of the 'Grafton': from the private journals of Capt. Thos. Musgrave, with a map and some account of the Aucklands.

 Captain Dalgarno of the Invercauld, whose lassitude and  poor leadership had contributed largely to the awful death toll of those castaways, wrote an account for the owners of the ship and the newspapers.  This was brief, omitting most of the details, certainly his own lack of resourcefulness. Andrew Smith, the first mate of the ship, also wrote a short account, which was published in Glasgow with the title The Castaways: A Narrative of the Wreck and sufferings of the Officers and Crew of the ship Invercauld of Aberdeen, on the Auckland Islands.

Robert Holding, the humble seaman who did the most to ensure survival, merely typed out a memoir in his old age.  It was not until 1997 that it was finally published.

But it was the book written by Francois Raynal that was to become an enduring bestseller....