READER ! - Colyton Devon
Memorial on the north wall of the nave:
"In full assurance of the resurrection of the dead, near this place lieth the body of CAPT HENRY WILSON who commanded the Honble East India Company's Packet, the Antelope, when wrecked on the Pelew Islands in August 1783, and was wonderfully preserved with the ship;s company amongst strangers in a land, unfrequented and unknown,
He departed this life May 11th 1850 aged 70 years.
READER !
Reflect on thy life, and the days which are past, and thou wilt most assuredly see cause to acknowledge that
THERE IS A GOD
who governeth the earth and observeth the actions and ways of MEN, and THOU hast had frequent occasions wherein to declare with the PATRIARCH JACOB "surely the Lord is in this PLACE and I knew it not "
(the Antelope was a packet ship built for the British East India Company (EIC) in 1781. She made one voyage for the company that ended when she was wrecked on 10 August 1783 off Ulong,near Koror Island in Palau. This resulted in the first sustained European contact with those islands
Captain Henry Wilson left the Downs on 6 February 1781 to carry despatches to China via the Pacific route. However, Antelope did not leave Falmouth until 2 September.[a] On 16 December she was off Cape San Diego, Argentina, and then on 2 January 1782 she was off Cape Horn. She reached the Sulu Sea on 23 April, Cageyan Sulu on 30 April, Balambangan on 14 May, and arrived at Macao on 4 June. On 16 September 1782 Antelope left Calcutta. She left Macao on 20 July 1783 and wrecked on 10 August on the reef near the Pelew Islands. They then spent some time on Oroolong Island (today Ulong Island) before natives from other Palau islands found them (Oroolong being little used).
With the assistance of the natives, Wilson and his crew used boards from Antelope, and new materials, to build a boat, which they called the Oroolong. Wilson brought with him Prince Lee Boo, and left behind Madan Blanchard, a seaman who chose not to leave. Blanchard died in an engagement with locals sometime before 1790.
They left the island on 12 November and arrived on 30 November back at Macao. Captain Wilson sailed from Macao to Canton, where he sold his ship for $700. He returned to England with Prince Lee Boo on the East Indiaman Morse, and they arrived on 14 July 1784. Prince Lee Boo died of smallpox five. months after arriving in England)
The c1782 portrait of Capt Wilson is by Arthur William Devis who was on the ship at the time of the wreck
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Wilson_(sailor)
- Church of St Andrew , Colyton Devon
Picture by kind permission - copyright Rex Harris flic.kr/p/9tkTXe
READER ! - Colyton Devon
Memorial on the north wall of the nave:
"In full assurance of the resurrection of the dead, near this place lieth the body of CAPT HENRY WILSON who commanded the Honble East India Company's Packet, the Antelope, when wrecked on the Pelew Islands in August 1783, and was wonderfully preserved with the ship;s company amongst strangers in a land, unfrequented and unknown,
He departed this life May 11th 1850 aged 70 years.
READER !
Reflect on thy life, and the days which are past, and thou wilt most assuredly see cause to acknowledge that
THERE IS A GOD
who governeth the earth and observeth the actions and ways of MEN, and THOU hast had frequent occasions wherein to declare with the PATRIARCH JACOB "surely the Lord is in this PLACE and I knew it not "
(the Antelope was a packet ship built for the British East India Company (EIC) in 1781. She made one voyage for the company that ended when she was wrecked on 10 August 1783 off Ulong,near Koror Island in Palau. This resulted in the first sustained European contact with those islands
Captain Henry Wilson left the Downs on 6 February 1781 to carry despatches to China via the Pacific route. However, Antelope did not leave Falmouth until 2 September.[a] On 16 December she was off Cape San Diego, Argentina, and then on 2 January 1782 she was off Cape Horn. She reached the Sulu Sea on 23 April, Cageyan Sulu on 30 April, Balambangan on 14 May, and arrived at Macao on 4 June. On 16 September 1782 Antelope left Calcutta. She left Macao on 20 July 1783 and wrecked on 10 August on the reef near the Pelew Islands. They then spent some time on Oroolong Island (today Ulong Island) before natives from other Palau islands found them (Oroolong being little used).
With the assistance of the natives, Wilson and his crew used boards from Antelope, and new materials, to build a boat, which they called the Oroolong. Wilson brought with him Prince Lee Boo, and left behind Madan Blanchard, a seaman who chose not to leave. Blanchard died in an engagement with locals sometime before 1790.
They left the island on 12 November and arrived on 30 November back at Macao. Captain Wilson sailed from Macao to Canton, where he sold his ship for $700. He returned to England with Prince Lee Boo on the East Indiaman Morse, and they arrived on 14 July 1784. Prince Lee Boo died of smallpox five. months after arriving in England)
The c1782 portrait of Capt Wilson is by Arthur William Devis who was on the ship at the time of the wreck
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Wilson_(sailor)
- Church of St Andrew , Colyton Devon
Picture by kind permission - copyright Rex Harris flic.kr/p/9tkTXe