Eyre site unidentified (1820)

55 Km east of Eyre

Date Early 1800s. Believed to be linked to an Indigenous legend of a vessel on fire, with two crew coming ashore. See Strangers on the Shore Database: Carib.This is one of the accounts of shipwreck survivors living with Aboriginies. William Jackman published a book in Auburn, USA in 1853, called ‘The Australian Captive’. In the book he states that he was on board a whaler, the Carib in 1837 which foundered on the coast of the great Australian Bight . According to Jackman there were 26 survivors but he became separated from them and then lived for 18 months with what he calls “ the cannibals of Nuyt’s land on the coast of the Great Australian Bight.” The Carib supposedly sailed from Hobart on 28 April 1837, but there are no details of this particular ship in the Tasmanian archives or Marine Board . The existence of the Carib and its demise is therefore uncertain, as is Jackman’s story of living with cannibals. For these reasons any identification of the Aboriginal tribe that may have been involved is uncertain.