John Dean

Born in 1679, John Dean — also spelled John Deane in some sources — was an English sailor and captain whose life stretched far beyond the single ordeal that made him famous. Records describe a career that included service in the Royal Navy, later time in the Russian Navy under Peter the Great, and work as British consul at Ostend before he retired to Nottinghamshire.

His lasting place in literary history comes from A Narrative of the Sufferings, Preservation and Deliverance, of Capt. John Dean and Company, a firsthand account of the wreck of the Nottingham Galley on Boon Island in December 1710. The book tells of shipwreck, extreme cold, hunger, and survival under desperate conditions, and it has endured because of its direct, plainspoken energy.

Dean died in 1761. No suitable verified portrait could be confirmed from the sources reviewed, so none is included here.