The British ship named the Sussex, commissioned by the East India Company, sank off the coast of Madagascar in 1738. It was more than two years later that the home office learned that sailor John Dean had survived the sinking.
It took Dean 16 months, most of which was spent walking across Madagascar, to find a European ship to rescue him. That ship transported him from Madagascar to Bombay, where his story was transcribed, then sent on to the East India Company in London.
By the time Dean reached London in September 1741, a year had passed since the Company’s Court of Directors had learned of his survival, and his story had been published at least twice as a 22 page booklet. Soon after his return, a risqué mezzotint portrait of a shirtless John Dean was also published in London, showing him standing on a rocky shoreline, holding a spear, with the Sussex sinking in the background. This rugged image of Dean most likely increased his celebrity, and parallels were made between his story and Daniel Defoe’s book Robinson Crusoe.
Dean became a hero of sorts to the public, and even more valuable to the East India Company. See, Dean's account of the Sussex shipwreck varied from that of the captain, who had also survived but was rescued much earlier. Read the story of shipwreck survivor John Dean at the British Library blog. -via Strange Company