Skeletons of the Zahara

The story of the 1815 shipwreck of the American merchant ship Commerce, published in the 1820s by the ship's captain himself, was one of the most influential books Abraham Lincoln read in his youth. On the forty-second page of this moderning retelling, “Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival,” author Dean King wrote (hyperlinks & most emphasis added):

1810. Also that year, sixteen-year-old apprentice seaman Alexander Scott of Liverpool, England, began six years of wandering after the Brazil-bound ship Montezuma, under Captain Knubley, wrecked north of Cape Bojador. All left accounts of death and bondage on the Sahara and suffering so extreme that the authors begged forgiveness for soundling like liars. And they were among the very, very few survivors.

The Commerce had no intention of going near Cape Bojador. Carrying brandy, wine, and Spanish dolalrs acquired in Gibraltar, as well as Riley's private venture (known as an "adventure")—a chest full of silk lace veils and handkerchiefs—the Commerce set sail for the Cape Verde Islands on August 23, after nearly two weeks in Gibraltar.¹

According to Riley's account, the brig's primary cargo for North America was to be salt, a major export of the dry, windswept tropical archipelago 330 miles west of Africa, which also dealt in ships' provisions and slaves. Riley's plan made sense. The salt trade between the United States and these Portuguese islands had been choked off by the war. Stores would be ample and demand in the States strong.

It is possibly that Riley instead intended to buy slaves. He could have done so in the islands, or he may actually have considered landing on the slave coast of Africa. If so, he probably would have planned to sell them in the West Indies, most likely in Cuba, where Connecticut River merchants were well established, and to then take on a cargo of sugarcane, molasses, and rum before returning home. Although the importation of slaves had been illegal in Connecticut since 1790 and in the United States since 1808, some New England vessels, including those of reputable merchants, practices this lucrative so-called triangular trade well into the nineteenth century.

According to Sherman Adams and Henry Stiles's History of Ancient Wethersfield, a rumor later surfaced that the brig was in fact after slaves. This was reported by Charles Williams, a citizen of the town, who reasoned that Commerce was "a long way out of the course she should have sailed," and that "her cargo consisted prin[cipally]

More information about “Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival” (and the book itself) is available from:

• Barnes & Noble
• Amazon.com
• Powell's Books

(Little Brown and Company, February 2004. Hardcover, 368 pages. ISBN: 0316835145; EAN: 9780316835145.)