CAPTAIN'S DINNER

Shipwreck accounts are an established genre, but this is well off the usual track.

Journalist and author Cohen, author of Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck, strikes gold with a story from Victorian Britain that comes with a scholar’s favorite documentation: court transcripts. In 1883 a wealthy Australian bought a used yacht in Britain and hired a crew to deliver it: an experienced captain, two crewmen, and a cabin boy. After six weeks sailing south in the Atlantic, a storm sank it. With only minutes to save themselves, the crew fled to its dinghy with time to grab two cans of turnips and a few instruments but no water. After nearly three weeks, with all nearly moribund from thirst and starvation, the captain cut the boy’s throat, and all consumed his blood and organs “with quite as much relish as ordinary food.” Four days later, a ship appeared. The survivors did not conceal their actions, and their rescuers were not scandalized because all knew similar stories. Cohen describes half a dozen documented occasions and summarizes the history of human cannibalism before moving on to what followed after the men landed in England. Newspapers covered the story mostly favorably. No sailor in history had been prosecuted for cannibalism, so the men were shocked to be arrested and charged with murder. The decision came from the government where senior officials rejected the ancient tradition that allowed sailors in danger of starving to eat someone. More than half the book recounts the trials, which concluded for the first time in history that the men had committed homicide. Almost no one wanted them hanged, so they served six months in prison. Readers will likely agree with current legal opinion that denies that murder is justified when it can be presented as the lesser of two evils.

A legal milestone and a good read.