Richard Parker
Recommended listening: All My Friends Are on Fuckshit - Netherfriends
Warning: Murder, Cannibalism
In 1838 famed author Edgar Allan Poe published his only complete novel titled The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, which is considered to be especially gruesome and violent, even by Poe standards. Halfway through the tale there is a shipwreck where the survivors find themselves adrift in a lifeboat. They are left without food or water for days when they decide to draw straws, each pledging that the loser will sacrifice his body for the sake of the others. The loser in this story is a man named Richard Parker, who is indeed killed and eaten by the others. The story is disturbing, as most of Poe’s works are. More disturbing still is that in July 1884, 46 years later, this horrifying story became true.
A small yacht named the Mignonette had been purchased by one Mr. Henry W. Want of Sydney, Australia. The vessel was located in Southampton, England so Mr. Want hired Captain Thomas Dudley to sail it to Australia for him. Captain Dudley in turn hired three men to assist him on this journey. These men were:
First (and only) Mate Edward Stephens – 36
Seaman Edmon Brooks – 38
Cabin Boy Richard Parker – 17
The crew set sail from England on May 19, 1884. They last made landfall at the Portuguese island of Madeira, and from there crossed the equator about halfway between Africa and South America. On July 5 they met with a storm during which a giant wave knocked the vessel on it’s side, sinking it. The four-man crew managed to escape on the 13 ft lifeboat with a few pieces of equipment and two 1 lb. cans of turnips. They found themselves at 27°S, 10°W in the Atlantic Ocean.
That first night they had to fight off sharks with their oars, but it seems that after that initial encounter, they left the men alone. They waited 3 days before opening the turnips, which Captain Dudley carefully rationed out with his penknife. On the fourth day they managed to catch a turtle, which they made last for 8 more days while they also finished off the turnips.
On Day 16, our Cabin Boy Richard started becoming ill from drinking seawater. They had been trying to catch what little rainwater they could, and had been recycling their own urine as well, but even that was dwindling in supply as dehydration set in. It was then that the “custom of the sea” came up; that they should draw lots to choose one of them to sacrifice himself to feed the others. Brooks stated that he had no desire to kill or be killed, so the idea was abandoned, for the moment. However, 2 days later, the subject came up again and at that point Richard was too ill to participate in the discussion. Dudley and Stephens decided that if rescue did not come before morning that Richard would be the one to die. Though some sources claim that the men drew lots to decide, this is most definitely not true.
The next morning while Brooks was resting in the front of the boat, Stephens held down Richard while Dudley cut his throat with a penknife and drained his blood. Although Brooks did not participate in the killing, he did participate in the eating. The men removed Richard’s heart and liver and stripped away the meat from his limbs before tossing the rest of the body overboard.
Four days after killing Richard, the three remaining men were found by rescuers. Hiding what they did was not an option, as some of Richard’s flesh and a rib bone were still on board their lifeboat when the rescuers boarded to assist them. Still, they had no wish to remain silent and Captain Dudley told everyone who would listen \about what they had done to poor little Ricky.
When they finally arrived back at their home port, the three men were shocked at being arrested. They didn’t see anything wrong with killing and eating the teenaged Richard – they had been hungry, dagnabbit! Richard’s older brother Daniel had even shaken the hand that had killed his sibling, as if conceding that thems the rules when you are out at sea, and the men had only done what was to be expected. Captain Dudley had initially requested to keep the knife he had used to cut Richard’s throat “as a keepsake” of their adventure. Little did they know, their case would set a legal precedent regarding the act of killing out of “necessity”: you can’t.
Examples of “necessity”: I had to steal that coat; I was going to freeze to death. I had to drive drunk; I was going to be kidnapped. Note that self-defense is not the same as necessity, so unless he’s coming at you, you can’t kill someone just because he’s looking like a snack.
Edmon Brooks was released almost immediately, as everyone agreed he had the little involvement with the killing itself. Also, there were no witnesses, and the entire trial would have to have been based on all 3 men testifying against themselves. The court needed Brooks as a witness against the other two men. Stephens and Dudley were put on trial, and even though they didn’t deny what had happened, the jury was reluctant to convict. It was a tough case, because on one hand you could argue that they were just trying to survive a devastating shipwreck. But on the the other hand THEY FRIGGIN’ ATE A KID. The jury ultimately proclaimed themselves “ignorant” and left it up to a panel of judges. The judges, unwilling to sentence the men to death (the punishment for murder at the time), returned a Special Verdict where they proclaimed the men “kind of guilty”, and gave them six months in prison. Mr. Want never did get his yacht.
The story is said to be the inspiration for the novel Life of Pi, a spiritual story about the relativity of truth, with some cannibalism on the side.
References
Editors, Law Review (1967) "In Warm Blood: Some Historical and Procedural Aspects of Regina v. Dudley and Stephens," University of Chicago Law Review: Vol. 34: Iss. 2, Article 7. Retrieved from https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclrev/vol34/iss2/7
Robins, J. (1989). The world’s greatest’s mysteries. New York, NY: Gallery Books.
Thompson, C. (2021). “Cannibalism at sea: the starving Victorian sailors who ate a cabin boy.” Retrieved from https://www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/cannibalism-at-sea-sailors-ate-the-cabin-boy/