Following in the footsteps of our favorite lawyer @senamoyo I’ll share some interesting cases, I’ll not touch on IP Law though, follow him for that.

Today our story is about a ship crew that decided to eat human flesh & their justification on why they did.

Thread

-Our story is set in 1883 when Australian lawyer John Henry Want purchased a leisure vessel, an English yacht named Mignonette. The only way to transport it was by sailing it for 24,000km. But she wasn’t built for long voyages. Nevertheless, Want found a willing crew.-

-Captain Edwin Stephens, Tom Dudley, Edmund Brooks & Richard Parker who was the cabin boy, an orphan inexperienced at sea & 17 years old, all set sail on 19 May 1884 for Sydney from Southampton. All was honky-dory as the crew enjoyed the voyage.-

-On 5 July whilst around 2,600 km north west of the Cape of Good Hope a wave struck the yacht & they had to lower the lifeboat to save their lives & abandon ship. It didn’t take time before sweet Mignonette sunk after the wave.-

-On the first night they had to fight off a shark using nothing but their oars. Things were not looking good, they were castaway, did not have enough food & the nearest land was 1,100 km away. After two days, they shared a tin of turnips which was meant to last two days.-

-They spotted a turtle & dragged it on board on 9 July. The turtle together with the second tin of turnips lasted them a few more days. All the while they were not drinking water as it was believed that seawater was fatal.-

-They were left with no option but to drink their own urine, desperate moments call for desperate measures right. Fast-forward to around 20 July young Parker got ill after he had been drinking seawater. Things were looking pretty dark for them all now.-

-They cast lots so that they could choose someone amongst them to die for the others to eat for survival. But this was never going to be an easy thing to do. From around 16 July to 23 July they debated this move.-

-Parker was now in what appeared to be a coma by then & they decided to kill him because he was dying anyways, but Brooks dissented. Killing him was done in order to preserve his blood for drinking. Dudley drove his penknife into the boy’s jugular vein killing him.-

-They feasted over the ghastly meal. Then 4 days later they were rescued by a German vessel sailing to Hamburg. When they arrived in Falmouth, they attended the customs house where Dudley & Stephens entered statutory statements as required in the event of a shipping loss.-

-A sergeant questioned Dudley on how he had killed Parker & took the knife promising to return it. Their depositions were telegraphed to London. The sergeant obtained warrants of arrests that day & the three were arrested for murder on the high seas.-

-After failed bail, they were remanded until 11 September. By the time they appeared in front of the magistrate, they had the full support of the PUBLIC OPINION when they knew what was up. The case was adjourned until 18 September when they finally got their bail & went home.-

-Court resumed on 4 December. The defence of necessity is special in that it acknowledges the necessity of having commited some crimes. For example, over speeding to reach the hospital in time, damaging property to escape a fire. This was the same argument by the defendants.-

-The court rejected this because there was no common law defence of necessity to a charge of murder, either on the basis of legal precedent or of ethics & morality. They were convicted of murder & sentenced to death. The sentence was however commuted to 6 months in prison.-

-If you’re still looking at your phone like this then I’m sorry but that’s the end. That defense is rarely applicable in most cases & murder was murder here.