Parker Lecture: Author Stephen Erickson on Boon Island: A True Story of Mutiny, Shipwreck, and Cannibalism - Thursday, September 26 - 7PM

Quick show of hands: how many of you, in the Greater Lowell area, have enjoyed Maine’s York Beach in the summer? Did you know that about six miles of Cape Neddick there is a small island called Boon Island? It’s the one with the lighthouse you can see from the beach. Did you know that three hundred years ago—long before the lighthouse was built—a ship called the Nottingham Galley wrecked on this island in the dead of winter? The castaways languished on that bare stretch of rock for nearly three weeks before being rescued. They resorted to cannibalism. But the story of the captain and crew gets even stranger than that.  Stephen Erickson will be at the library this Thursday at 7PM to talk about the book he authored with Andrew Vietze, called Boon Island: A True Story of Mutiny, Shipwreck, and Cannibalism—the first book-length treatment of the wreck of the Nottingham Galley. The author will have copies available for purchase and signing. This event is free and open to the public and made possible by the Moses Greeley Parker Foundation. For more information about the Parker Lectures please visit their website.

Stephen Erickson holds an MA in American History from the University of Massachusetts/Amherst and has completed PhD course work in Early American History at the College of William and Mary. He lives in Portsmouth, NH.