The Custom of the Sea

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Custom of the Sea was a maritime custom in which stranded survivors draw lots to see who would be killed and eaten so that some of the men might live.

[edit] Examples in history

After the sinking of the Whaleship Essex of Nantucket by a whale, on November 20, 1820, (an important source event for Herman Melville's Moby Dick) the survivors, in three small boats, resorted, by common consent, to cannibalism in order for some to survive [1].

The case of R v. Dudley and Stephens (1884) 14 QBD 273 (QB) is an English case which is said to be one of the origins of the defense of necessity in modern common law. The case dealt with four crewmembers of an English yacht, the "Mignonette," who were cast away in a storm some 1600 miles from the Cape of Good Hope. After a few weeks one of the crew fell unconscious due to a combination of the famine and drinking sea-water. The others (one objecting) decided then to kill him and eat him. They were picked up four days later. The fact that not everyone had agreed to draw lots contravened The Custom of the Sea and was held to be murder. At the trial was the first recorded use of the defence of necessity.

[edit] Examples in popular culture

WS Gilbert describes such a practice in his rhyme "The Yarn of the Nancy Bell" [2]

In the television show Futurama, while trapped underwater the Bureaucrat Hermes Conrad cites a rulebook labelled "the Code of Conduct for Cannibalism". He then suggests that they cook up lobster for lunch (referring to Dr. Zoidberg, a crustacean-like alien.)

In the Edgar Allan Poe novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, the main characters end up in a partially sunken ship. Soon hunger becomes a serious problem, and the survivors draw straws to decide who among them is to be killed and then eaten by the remaining survivors. The contest eventually takes place and one of the survivors is murdered and then eaten.