The Captain Who Lied While Survivors Waited on a Sandbank

The Captain Who Lied While Survivors Waited on a Sandbank

Fear that someone near you chose to sail on while you lived: the Bridgewater reported every soul lost though dozens of men clung to a sandbank alive; why did the captain file a false report that erased survivors? Did he know the reef existed because his own ship had passed it, or was there another reason he declared all lost?

In this episode, we follow the surviving documents and official logs to lay out what is recorded about the disaster and the contradictory facts that remain unresolved, closing on the central question that drives the story: why did the Bridgewater’s report say there were no survivors when there clearly were?

Person: Captain E. H. Palmer Event: Reef grounding seven days after departing Port Jackson Date: 17 August 1803 Location: Sandbank/reef off Port Jackson voyage route Ship: Bridgewater (launched 1785)

- Three ships sailed together from Port Jackson on 10 August 1803: Bridgewater, HMS Porpoise, and Cato. - Seven days later, on 17 August 1803, two of the three ships were torn apart by a coral reef. - The Bridgewater did not ground and sailed on, later filing a report stating every soul was lost. - Survivors from the wrecked ships crawled onto a sandbank and remained alive, breathing salt air and waiting for rescue. - The Bridgewater vanished two years later on a homeward passage from Bombay with no wreckage or survivors recorded.

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