353:. All provisions were lost or spoiled. Four of the fifteen survivors were teenage apprentices. Two weeks after the accident, the captain decided that "lots should be drawn between the four boys, as they had no families, and could not be considered so great a loss to their friends, as those who had wives and children depending upon them." The boys protested against this unfair decision, but in vain. The lot fell on fourteen-year-old Patrick O'Brien, whom the ship's cook then killed. During the next few days, the sailors survived by drinking his blood and eating his flesh.
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sacrificed to provide food for the others". As long as the lottery was fair, giving everyone an equal risk of dying to become food for others, this was considered "entirely legal" and justified by the circumstances. "On the whole, sailors and the general public knew and accepted protocol of cannibalism to survive ship disasters."
281:, which shipwrecked in 1874, lots were ostensibly drawn to determine a victim for killing and cannibalism. However, in both cases there are doubts whether the lot drawing was fair (and whether it even happened), since the lot fell, conveniently from the viewpoint of the core crew, on an "obvious victim". In the case of the
77:, he added that, since "maritime survival cannibalism, preceded by the drawing of lots and killing, was a socially accepted practice among seamen until the end of the days of sail ... it is ... not an exception but a counterexample" to Arens' thesis "that cannibalism, as a socially accepted practice, is a myth".
137:. Two of the three others on the boat decided to kill and eat him (the third man abstained). They were picked up four days later. The case held that necessity was not a defense for a charge of murder, and the two defendants were convicted, though their death sentence was commuted to six months' imprisonment.
265:. They eventually resorted, by common consent, to cannibalism to allow some to survive. Of the seven crew members eaten, six died of starvation and exposure; one, Owen Coffin, lost a lottery, and was shot. The captain volunteered to take Coffin's place, but Coffin refused, accepting his lot stoically.
54:
This specific custom, also known as "the delicate question" or "the proper tradition of the sea", specified that in case of disaster, when there was not enough food for the survivors, corpses could be eaten. If "there were no bodies available for consumption, lots were drawn to determine who would be
140:
In this case, the rules of the traditional custom had not been adhered to since no lots had been drawn. However, the judges made it clear that they did not consider necessity a possible justification for murder regardless of the circumstances; they did not consider killing anyone acceptable, even if
66:
If properly conducted, cannibalism was legitimated by a custom of the sea; and the popular literature, augmented by the unrecorded tales seamen told each other, ensured that there was general understanding of what had to be done on these occasions and that survivors who had followed the custom could
327:
drifted for months after a severe storm had destroyed all its means of navigation. Having eaten all their provisions and any remaining "tobacco, lamp oil, candles, and ... leather", the crew told the captain they would hold a lottery to decide who should be slaughtered to feed the others. But among
80:
The only cases when cannibalism in maritime disasters sometimes led to legal prosecution was "when the lotteries were fixed or absent altogether", in violation of the accepted custom. Such violations were nevertheless common enough. Captains and other crew members were often unwilling to put their
187:
but were blown out to sea and lost for 17 days. During this time, starving, they cast lots to see who would sacrifice his life for the others. The lot fell to the man who had suggested the scheme, and he consented to his subsequent killing. His body sustained the rest until they made their way to
165:
vessels. In one case, sailors drew lots to select a victim, while in the other case, two sailors were stabbed to death and eaten because the other sailors considered them close to death anyway. In both cases, the authorities investigated but decided not to press charges, considering the acts as
157:
case. In the 1890s, there were two more highly suspect cases of maritime hunger cannibalism, but the survivors asserted that the eaten had died a natural death. Nobody seemed strongly inclined to try to prove otherwise, and no juridical proceedings followed.
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was shipwrecked. After provisions had run out, the sailors decided to kill the one "negro youth" on board (probably an enslaved person) rather than drawing lots, as one of them freely reported afterwards. The dead body was then smoked to last longer.
328:
themselves, they had already decided to kill the one Black slave on board, and after a sham lottery, they "shot him through the head. One of the crew ate the victim's raw liver; some of the rest of the body was cooked, and the remainder was pickled."
319:
In other cases, it is known that somebody was killed for survival cannibalism without a fair lottery taking place. In such cases, the victim was almost always a person of low status, such as an enslaved Black person or a teenage boy.
81:
own lives at risk, as the rules of the custom demanded, instead choosing to sacrifice those they considered "more expendable ... (such as slaves, young boys, and passengers)" to serve as food for the other survivors.
152:
ships. This does not necessarily mean that they no longer occurred — but the sailors had undoubtedly learned that more discretion was now required since the custom had effectively been declared unlawful in the
221:(1641). Simpson considers his account credible, noting that he likely received information from the Dutch authorities in Saint Martin, who had decided to send the sailors back to Saint Christopher for trial.
141:
this was the sole way to ensure the survival of the others, instead "pompous" declaring that the right course of action, under the circumstances, would have been for everybody to starve to death.
406:
wrote a song, "The Yarn of the Nancy Bell", in which the last survivor of shipwreck sings that he is the entire crew after drawing lots and eating his other shipmates.
161:
In other countries, the defense of necessity to prevent starvation in the case of shipwrecks proved somewhat more durable. In the 1890s, two such incidents occurred on
211:
The case cannot be found in the island's legal records, which start only in 1644 but was described, supposedly based on eyewitness accounts, by the Dutch surgeon
289:, the deadly lot fell on an Italian "boy" of about 20 years, who was both a foreigner (speaking little English) and the youngest surviving crew member.
389:
796:
Cannibalism and the Common Law: The Story of the Tragic Last Voyage of the
Mignonette and the Strange Legal Proceedings to Which It Gave Rise
393:(1838), has a minor character, Richard Parker, whom the shipwreck's survivors cannibalise. In an eerie parallel to the actual case of the
376:". No lot drawing is mentioned, but they had somehow escaped legal consequences, "probably upon some plea of self-preservation".
805:
782:
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121:, at the same time ending the custom of lot drawing and cannibalism. Accused were two crew members of an English yacht, the
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315:, only the four teenage cabin boys were submitted to a lottery, which resulted in one of them being killed and consumed.
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432:, in which three friends are stranded aboard their yacht at sea, references both the incident aboard the
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said to be practiced by the officers and crew of ships and boats in the open sea, as distinguished from
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399:, which happened more than 50 years later, both cannibalised people shared the exact same name.
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After this judgment, there were no more cases of openly admitted cannibal killings on board
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31:, which is a distinct and coherent body of law governing maritime questions and offenses.
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and the Edgar Allan Poe story. One of the characters is also named
Richard Parker.
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met a captain named Anson whose crew "had run short of provisions" while "bring a
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have a certain professional pride in a job well done; there was nothing to hide.
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An
Archaeology of Desperation: Exploring the Donner Party's Alder Creek Camp
192:. They were returned to Saint Christopher, where they were put on trial for
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113:(1884 14 QBD 273 DC) is an English case that developed a crucial ruling on
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28:
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Unofficial custom practised by officers and crew of ships on the open ocean
129:. After a few weeks adrift in a lifeboat, 17-year-old Richard Parker fell
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to decide who would be killed and eaten so that the others might survive.
414:
184:
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547:. In Dixon, Kelly J.; Schablitsky, Julie M.; Novak, Shannon A. (eds.).
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Is Eating People Wrong? Great Legal Cases and How they Shaped the World
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545:"The Delicate Question: Cannibalism in Prehistoric and Historic Times"
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on 20 November 1820, the survivors were left floating in three small
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125:, who in 1884 were shipwrecked in a storm some 1,600 miles from the
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Historical examples of lot drawing before survival cannibalism
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423:, in which cannibalism is discussed concerning a shipwreck.
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capsized and almost sunk in
December 1836 near the coast of
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In the Heart of the Sea: The
Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
817:
No Mercy: True
Stories of Disaster, Survival and Brutality
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h2g2 – The
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition
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The Custom of the Sea: The Story That
Changed British Law
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Sometime between 1629 and 1640, seven
Englishmen in the
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Traditional rules for survival cannibalism among sailors
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551:. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. p. 228.
504:. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 22.
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714:Korn, Daniel; Radice, Mark; Hawes, Charlie (2001).
409:The stories of Richard Parker (real and fictional)
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285:, a passenger was singled out; in the case of the
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331:At nearly the same time, in 1766, a vessel named
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390:The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
372:". Accordingly, they had killed and "eaten the
241:on 20 November 1820, depicted in a sketch by
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71:Referring to William Arens' widely-read book
815:Learmonth, Eleanor; Tabakoff, Jenny (2014).
759:(3 ed.). London: John Lane. p. 63.
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542:
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323:In the winter of 1765/66, the American ship
716:Cannibal: The History of the People-Eaters
356:In the late nineteenth century, a British
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800:. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
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34:Among these customs was the practice of
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543:Scott, Richard; McMurry, Sean (2011).
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204:'washed away' by 'inevitable necessity
196:. The local English judge supposedly
183:embarked on an overnight voyage from
293:Cases where no fair lottery was held
477:The captain goes down with the ship
200:them, declaring that the crime was
133:due to a combination of hunger and
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665:"The Wreck of the Whaleship Essex"
380:Fictional references in literature
248:After a whale rammed and sank the
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767:Bibliography and further reading
529:. New York: Penguin. chapter 11.
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411:inspired the name of the tiger
277:, which sank in 1736, and the
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525:Philbrick, Nathaniel (2001).
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819:. Text Publishing Company.
753:Monckton, C. A. W. (1921).
704:, pp. 123–124, 177–81.
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792:Simpson, A. W. B. (1984).
603:, pp. 55–70, 225–240.
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85:End of the cannibal custom
589:Scott & McMurry 2011
482:Women and children first
462:Barratry (admiralty law)
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185:Saint Christopher Island
166:justified by necessity.
849:Customary legal systems
500:Walker, Andrew (2011).
110:R v Dudley and Stephens
91:R v Dudley and Stephens
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175:Saint Christopher case
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773:Hanson, Neil (1999).
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235:A whale striking the
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218:Observationes Medicae
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358:resident magistrate
273:In the case of the
74:The Man-Eating Myth
60:A. W. Brian Simpson
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42:survivors, by the
807:978-0-226-75942-5
784:978-0-385-60115-3
511:978-1-107-00037-7
307:Thomas Rowlandson
135:drinking seawater
127:Cape of Good Hope
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387:'s only novel,
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309:(1799). On the
301:Depiction of a
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434:Mignonette
420:Life of Pi
396:Mignonette
263:whaleboats
155:Mignonette
123:Mignonette
119:common law
117:in modern
101:Mignonette
62:observed:
417:'s novel
402:In 1866,
374:cabin boy
370:Australia
303:cabin boy
259:Nantucket
181:Caribbean
163:Norwegian
115:necessity
675:21 April
440:See also
198:pardoned
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150:American
429:Harpoon
366:England
215:in his
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472:Mutiny
351:Canada
287:Euxine
279:Euxine
38:among
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364:from
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341:Irish
333:Tiger
325:Peggy
254:Essex
238:Essex
226:Essex
23:is a
821:ISBN
802:ISBN
779:ISBN
677:2024
506:ISBN
339:The
283:Mary
275:Mary
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