Boon Island Contemporary Accounts by Kenneth roberts

Some stories feel like they were written by the sea itself. Boon Island is one of them.

This gripping tale of shipwreck and survival draws from one of early America’s most harrowing true events — the December 1710 wreck of the Nottingham Galley, which ran aground on a desolate island just a dozen miles off the Maine coast. The crew was left with almost nothing: minimal tools, a sliver of shelter, a few scraps of cheese. What followed was nearly a month of screaming gales, sub-freezing temperatures, and driving snow. The men endured the unimaginable — including cannibalism — before one survivor made it ashore on a crude, desperate raft.

A bestseller upon its 1956 publication, this new edition is beautifully enriched with historical essays that trace the sources behind Kenneth Roberts’ research, alongside firsthand contemporary accounts from actual crew members. Those accounts tell dramatically different versions of the same traumatic night — and together with Roberts’ masterful fictionalized narrative, they create something rare: a story that is both a page-turning novel and a fascinating historical document.

Roberts, a native Mainer and author of beloved historical novels like Northwest Passage and Arundel, had a gift for finding the human pulse inside history. Boon Island may be his most visceral work — a meditation on what crisis reveals about us, the courage it can summon, and the darkness it can unleash.

If you love Maine, maritime history, or simply a story that refuses to let go, this one belongs on your shelf. We keep it close to the door for a reason.

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