John Andaman

John Andaman or Jack Andaman (captured January 1858 and returned in the same year) was the name given to an Andaman native (or Mincopie as then termed) who was taken captive aboard a British navy ship near Interview Island on a survey of the Andaman Islands under Frederic J. Mouat. He was taken to Calcutta and returned to the place of his capture when ill health began to torment him. It has been suggested that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle described Tonga, an Andamanese native character, in his 1890 novel The Sign of Four based on Mouat's description of John Andaman.

In 1858, a British survey was undertaken to identify a suitable penal colony to deal with the large numbers of prisoners taken in the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The Andaman Islands were chosen. Although the islands had been surveyed by Robert Hyde Colebrooke and Archibald Blair in the past, it had not been permanently settled by the British. The survey aboard the Pluto began in November 1857 and was led by Frederic J. Mouat, George Playfair and Lieutenant J.A. Heathcote. The team also included French photographer Oscar Mallitte. When the group landed on Interview Island (Long Reef Island), they had judged to be a safe and friendly island on the accounts of J.H. Quigley titled Wanderings in the Islands of Interview, (Andaman), Little and Great Coco (1850). Mouat had asked Quigley if he would be interested to join the mission but he had refused. Quigley had reported the islanders to be very friendly and had written fantastic accounts of tigers, deer and fabulous plants which later led Mouat to make comparisons of the author with Baron Munchausen. While ashore, the team was attacked by the natives armed with arrows. They made a rapid exit and a second armed navy cutter moved in to keep the natives away. Heathcote was injured by an arrow to the thigh and in defence Mouat was forced to shoot a man he called the "chief". The natives finally pulled back but not before at least three were killed of which two of the bodies were taken aboard the navy boat. One of the natives, a strong swimmer, had managed to get quite close to the boat and when offered a strap and rope, he took it and came aboard. The crew called him "Jack" and the captive found company in Neptune, the dog aboard the ship, an animal he was unfamiliar with.

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