|
As the story goes, O'Connell and five shipmates—George
Keenan, John Johnson, Edward Bradford, John Thompson and John Williams—spent several days on the open ocean in
a small boat before arriving at Pohnpei, an island they knew nothing about. Historians have questioned whether this was completely fabricated and O’Connell actually
deserted when the John Bull briefly visited Pohnpei around
1829. O'Connell's story gets more fanciful as it progresses. On Pohnpei, the castaways were attacked
and captured by Pohnpeians. O’Connell danced an Irish jig to entertain his captors and
to discourage them from eating him and the others (there does not seem to be any proof that Pohnpeians were
cannibals at this time).
The men were taken to a
feast house and examined, while the crowd drank sakau (O’Connell abstained because of the unpleasant taste) and feasted on roast dog. O’Connell was then adopted by one of the chiefs in the state of
Nett, who had him fully tattooed in the traditional Pohnpeian
fashion. |
