1853 shipwreck of the Shipwreck of the William and Mary in the Bahamas (story of treachery & heroism)

Question

I just stumbled into a reference to "Shipwreck of the Sail-ship William and Mary, " and account by Izaac Roorda (Roorda-84) in the special collections of a small college in Pella Iowa. A book (“The Lost Story of the William & Mary: The Cowardice of Captain Stinson” by Gill Hoffs) has also been written about the shipwreck. I have read neither of these; what I know comes from a bit of quick Googling, but I thought the story interesting enough I would share it.

The short version is after the ship full of British, Irish, and 86 Frisian  emigrants was wrecked, the captain abandoned all the passengers and reported the ship as a complete loss. Fortunately, the passengers worked together and they were rescued a few days later by Captain Robert Sands.  A newspaper account based on the original report of the ship going down is here: http://www.old-merseytimes.co.uk/williamandmary.html

The beginning of http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Journals/WiMH/31/Founding_of_New_Amsterdam_in_Lacrosse_County*.html includes a history based on accounts of the Frisians.

Two summaries based on the book are https://www.geriwalton.com/8467/ and https://www.thehistoryvault.co.uk/the-lost-story-of-the-william-and-mary-how-200-victorians-came-back-from-the-dead/, another one here ).

Comments

The heroic captain's WkiTree profile is Sands-1201. "He was rewarded with the Silver Medal of the Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Lives from Shipwreck (later to become the RNLI) and became the first overseas recipient of this prestigious award." (https://www.geriwalton.com/8467/)  

An article in History Today  (24 March 2017) gives some additional details "Lost at Sea: The Dangers of Emigration -- Seeking a new life when poverty forced them from their homes, Victorian emigrants were at the mercy of others." https://www.historytoday.com/gill-hoffs/lost-sea-dangers-emigration

Answer 1

Thank you so much for sharing this fascinating story! Of course the story was covered in Dutch newspapers at that time as well. Kept me reading most part of the day in the 28 items resulting from searching Delpher. There are passenger lists of the Frisians published, with the most detailed here.