Our Speaker Series is free & open to the public!

Light refreshments will be served.

The true story of five castaways abandoned on the Falkland Islands during the War of 1812—a tale of treachery, shipwreck, isolation, and the desperate struggle for survival

The bestselling author of Black Flags, Blue Water tells the story of a wild encounter between an American sealing vessel, a shipwrecked British brig, and a British warship in the Falkland Islands during the War of 1812—an encounter fraught with misunderstandings and mistrust that left three British sailors and two Americans, including the captain of the sealer, Charles H. Barnard, abandoned in the Falklands for eighteen months. A tale of intriguing complexity, with surprising twists and turns throughout —involving greed, lying, bullying, a hostile takeover, stellar leadership, ingenuity, severe privation, endurance, banishment, the great value of a dog, the birth of a baby, a perilous thousand mile open-ocean journey in a seventeen-foot boat, an improbable rescue mission, and legal battles over a dubious and disgraceful wartime prize—Left for Dead shows individuals in wartime under great duress acting both nobly and atrociously, and offers a unique perspective on an important moment in American history. 

Eric Jay Dolin  is the best-selling author of numerous works in maritime history, including Black Flags, Blue Waters and Leviathan. A graduate of Brown, Yale, and MIT, he lives in Marblehead, Massachusetts.

This series is made possible by our generous sponsor, Christine Mayer and is presented in partnership with the Wellesley Free Library.