Abandoned for 15 Years: The Shipwreck Survivors of Tromelin Island | E 264

On the night of July 31, 1761, the L'Utile struck a reef off a nameless sandbar in the Indian Ocean with 160 Malagasy people locked below deck. What happened over the next two months — who got water, who did the work, and who was standing on the beach when the boat sailed away — is documented in agonizing detail by the man who kept the ship's log. What happened over the next fifteen years is not documented at all. Nobody left behind on that island could write, and nobody came back to ask. Everything we know about how they survived on one square mile of sand with no trees, no shade, and no way off comes from what a team of archaeologists pulled out of the ground two and a half centuries later — and what they found was not a camp. It was a village.Timestamps- 00:00 Podcast Intro00:29 Shipwreck In The Dark03:31 How The Wreck Happened08:29 Water Crisis On The Sandbar12:32 Building The Escape Boat15:18 Abandoned On The Island16:54 Why No Rescue Came18:53 Archaeology Reveals Survival20:55 Food Water And Shelter Hacks28:56 A Life Beyond Survival30:41 Rescue Attempts And Final Pickup35:30 Freedom Names And Legacy38:38 Closing ReflectionsReferencesGuérout, Max, and Thomas Romon, with Odile Zimmermann. Tromelin: L'île aux esclaves oubliés. Rev. ed. Paris: CNRS Éditions / INRAP, 2015.Guérout, Max. Tromelin: Mémoire d'une île. Paris: CNRS Éditions.INRAP. "L'abandon des esclaves," Naufragés sur l'île de Sable. inrap.fr.INRAP / Musée de la Compagnie des Indes. Press dossier, Tromelin, l'île des esclaves oubliés, 2016.Terres australes et antarctiques françaises. Le petit journal de l'exposition Tromelin.Patel, Samir S. "Castaways." Archaeology, September/October 2014.Stark, Eloise. "How an 18th-Century Shipwreck Changed France's Conversation About Race." New Lines Magazine, March 22, 2024.Laroulandie, V., and C. Lefèvre. "The Use of Avian Resources by the Forgotten Slaves of Tromelin Island (Indian Ocean)." International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 24, no. 3 (2014): 407–416.Béarez, P., et al. "Fishing for Survival: The Forgotten Slaves of Tromelin Island (Indian Ocean)." International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 2019.Le Corre, Matthieu, et al. "Seabird Recovery and Vegetation Dynamics After Norway Rat Eradication at Tromelin Island, Western Indian Ocean." Biological Conservation 185 (2015): 85–94.Marriner, Nick, et al. "A Geomorphological Reconnaissance of Tromelin Island, Indian Ocean." Journal of Coastal Research 28, no. 6 (2012): 1606–1616.Relation des principales circonstances qui ont accompagné le naufrage de la frégate l'Utile. Bordeaux: Jean Chappuis, 1763.Condorcet, Nicolas de [as "Joachim Schwartz"]. Réflexions sur l'esclavage des nègres. Neuchâtel: Société Typographique, 1781.Georgen, Annabelle. "Abandonnés sur une île déserte: la tragédie des esclaves oubliés de Tromelin." Slate.fr, February 2017.Musée d'histoire de Nantes, Château des ducs de Bretagne. Exhibition materials, Tromelin: l'île des esclaves oubliés, 2015–2016.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-crux-true-survival-stories--7265181/support.Listen AD FREE: Support our podcast at patreon: http://patreon.com/TheCruxTrueSurvivalPodcastEmail us! thecruxsurvival@gmail.comInstagram https://www.instagram.com/thecruxpodcast/Get schooled by Julie in wilderness medicine! https://www.headwatersfieldmedicine.com/This episode includes AI-generated content.