Most Notorious! A True Crime History Podcast · Blue Ewe Media

417: The Shipwreck of the Mignonette w/ Adam Cohen

·58 min·3 clips

The cannibalism case that became one of the first human rights cases in history.

Eric Rivenes hosts journalist and lawyer Adam Cohen to discuss his book 'Captain's Dinner' about the Mignonette shipwreck—a 1884 maritime disaster that became a pivotal human rights case. The yacht, 54 feet and 17 years old, is hired by an Australian lawyer to sail from England to Australia. Captain Dudley assembles a small crew: Stevens (a mate recovering from career damage), Brooks (a sailor), and Richard Parker, a 17-year-old orphan cabin boy. The voyage is smooth until the equator, when a giant wave suddenly sinks the ship in five minutes. The four men escape to a lifeboat with only two cans of supplies (discovered to be turnips). The lifeboat leaks, a shark rams them, and for weeks they drift with minimal food and water—occasional rainwater and one sea turtle providing brief sustenance. On July 16-17, Captain Dudley proposes drawing lots (the 'custom of the sea' for sacrifice). Brooks refuses outright (won't participate in murder). Stevens initially resists drawing lots but agrees when Dudley suggests simply killing Parker, who is the sickest and an orphan with no dependents. Stevens agrees to hold Parker down. Dudley takes his penknife and kills the boy—the actual historical cannibalism that led to the trial of Dudley v. Stevens, a case that Cohen argues was one of the first human rights precedents in legal history.

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