a fragment of the naval captain william keeling's diary survives, in which he details his crew's shipboard performances of "hamlet" (off the coast of sierra leone, 5 september 1607, and at socotra, 31 march 1608), and "richard ii" (sierra leone, 30 september 1607). for a time after its discovery, the fragment was suspected of being a forgery, but is now generally accepted as genuine. these are the first recorded amateur performances of any shakespeare plays.