author
Benjamin Franklin Bourne
1816–1874
A Cape Cod sailor turned his ordeal in South America into a vivid adventure narrative. Best known for The Captive in Patagonia (1853), he wrote from firsthand experience after a voyage that left him stranded and captive among Indigenous people in Patagonia.
1 Audiobook
The Captive in Patagonia
by Benjamin Franklin Bourne
About the author
Born in Sandwich, Massachusetts, in 1816, Benjamin Franklin Bourne was an American mariner and author. The main work securely linked to him is The Captive in Patagonia; or, Life Among the Giants. A Personal Narrative, published in Boston in 1853.
That book tells the story of a voyage to South America during the California Gold Rush era and of Bourne's captivity in Patagonia. It has continued to interest readers as a mix of travel writing, sea story, and survival narrative, offering a 19th-century New England perspective on a dramatic and difficult journey.
Reliable biographical details beyond his birthplace, dates, and authorship are limited in the sources I could confirm here, so this overview stays close to what is well supported. He died in 1874.