Judah Paddock's Ordeal
from “The Ordeal of Captain Paddock,” Part I, Margaret Schram, Roe Jan Independent, March 19, 1987.
In 1800 Judah sailed on the Oswego delivering flax seed and staves to Cork, Ireland. He then sailed to Cape Verdi Island and loaded his ship with salt and skins for his return voyage, but was driven off course by a storm and ended up on the Barbary Coast. He and his crew were captured by slave traders and sold into slavery. After six weeks in captivity he was ransomed and returned home. His account of this episode, A Narrative of the Shipwreck of the Oswego: On the Coast of South Barbary, was published and is available in the History Room collection.
Fessae et Marocchi Regna Africae, Map of the kingdoms of Fes and Morocco and inset map of the Kingdom of Kongo by Abraham Ortelius. Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. London, 1606, Folger Shakespeare Library collection. Wikimedia Commons.
This map shows the area in which Captain Paddock was captured and forced to journey overland.
“All that I was able to learn while a slave in Barbary confirmed my belief that many unfortunate mariners have been wrecked on that shore and there perished, who were supposed by their relatives and friends to have foundered at sea.”
A Narrative of the Shipwreck of the Oswego, Judah Paddock
![Image for item](https://omeka.hrvh.org/files/fullsize/fe2b0ede0ea7780a7df77830d41de31d.jpg "Wreck of the "Grosvenor" on the coast of the Caffraria, from Lonely Ships and Lonely Seas")
Wreck of the "Grosvenor" on the coast of the Caffraria, from Lonely Ships and Lonely Seas, Ralph Paine, illustration: George Avison, The Century Co., New York, 1921
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Additional Resources:
“The Ordeal of Captain Paddock” (Links to PDF)
Margaret Schram, Roe Jan Independent, March 19, 1987.
Judah Paddock and the crew of the Oswego were driven off-course by a storm and landed on the Barbary Coast in 1800. They were captured by