Captain Benson's Own Story The Log of the El Dorado

We here present an amazing saga of the sea: "Captain Benson's Own Story" which provides an early glimpse of Easter Island as it appeared to a shipwrecked crew in 1913. Following Captain Benson's Own Story, we include an excerpt from another obscure little book by Frederick O'Brien, Mystic Isles of the South Pacific, published in 1921 by Star Books, New York. As it happened, O'Brien was in Tahiti when Benson and two crew members arrived via rowboat to the harbor at Pape'ete. His colorful story adds a bit of depth to the Log of the El Dorado. We know little about the author, N. P. Benson, not even his full name. That he must have had considerable experience at sea is evident from comments made in O'Brien's story, as well as hints dropped by the Captain himself. If any of our readers can provide any information on Benson or his crew, we'd be delighted. Thus begins the story of survival against the odds.