The Shipwreck So Gruesome It Changed Laws

in 1884 an incident occurred in the Atlantic Ocean that was so gruesome that it would eventually forever be written into English law with the hope that something like it would never happen again this is that horrifying story and although the events in this video are fleeting and non-descriptive they are still highly disturbing so viewer discretion is strongly advised [Music] there's a name that's become so synonymous with Maritime tragedy that anyone who has it is recommended to keep both feet firmly planted on dry land for life that name is Richard Parker and it has a unique

place in the history of seaf fairing it All Began in 1797 when a man named Richard Parker was a lead conspirator in a naval Mutiny when his plans were discovered though he was hanged from his own Chip's yardarm then exactly 40 years later writer Ed Gren po published a novel called The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pim and in it a character named Richard Parker led a mutiny board ship called the grus which eventually wrecked Richard along with the other survivors of the sinking were left to drift in the vast ocean in a dinghy with no

supplies after days of torturous hunger and thirst Richard suggests to the others that they invoke something called the custom of the sea this is a tradition no one who's ever sailed wants to be involved in but all the circumstances were just right for carrying it out unfortunately this this suggestion backfired Richard and resulted in something horrific happening to him but even that is not the final Richard it's often said that fact is Stranger Than Fiction and in 1884 another Richard Parker would be entered into Maritime Legend and law books as part of a legal precedent

that is still taught to this day on May 19th of that year a yacht known as the Minette left Port from Southampton England with four men aboard Captain Tom Dudley crewman Ed Brooks and Edwin Stevens and Richard Parker who is the cabin boy the yacht had been bought by a wealthy Australian man and the cruise job was going to be to deliver the boat to him Tom had gotten the job because he had a long reputation as an excellent sailor and a man of integrity and honesty he was also a natural leader for experienced and

inexperienced men alike add and Edwin were also seasoned experienced Sailors who had seen it all at sea but for 17-year-old Richard this would be his first big Open Water Voyage he did come from a family of seaf farers and he was no stranger to sailing but the extent of his experience had been in shallower Coast the waters but despite this it was a trip he was looking forward to with both excitement and apprehension but his concerns eased after a few days on the open ocean their trip to Australia from Southampton was obviously a long one

and required the ship sell South past Europe then around Africa before finally crossing the Indian Ocean to Australia for more than a month of sailing the crew faced very little trouble the weather short of a few squalls here and there was cooperative and the Seas remained mostly calm which the men were thankful for being in such a small ship the minion was only 52 ft or 16 M long and getting it to Australia would be 15,000 mi of sailing in fact this was such a dangerous task that the wealthy Australian owner struggled to even form

a crew to deliver it Yachts for the most part typically weren't built for this type of Journey but unfortunately there was no other way to get the minion to its new owner otherwise so the four aboard the ship stayed cautious while still enjoying sailing in pristine conditions all of this would change around, 1500 Mi off the coast of Africa when the Minette was traveling from the Portuguese island of madira to Cape Town South Africa on July 5th the yacht was ahead of a storm with winds up to 54 mph or 87 km an hour Tom

then gave the order to perform something called a heave 2 this is a way to adjust the sails and Rudder so that they counteract one another this then allows a boat to stay fairly stationary even in a storm and if done correctly the boat's bow will also be pointed slightly off wind to reduce the impact of the wavs as well when Tom gave the order late at night the men performed the heath tu and as it was just about to be complete he sent Richard below deck to grab him a cup of tea as Richard

got below deck though a rogue wave smashed into the yacht and basically removed one entire side of it seeing this Tom knew there was no chance of keeping the minion above water and ordered that the Lifeboat be lowered immediately then in less than 5 minutes the Minette was already on its way to the bottom of the ocean and the four stunned men watched from their small dingy that was barely suitable for a day of fishing in a calm lake the boards that made up the Lifeboat were only a/4 in or 6 mm thick and if

that wasn't bad enough the lowering in the Lifeboat punctured a small hole in its Hull this was just the beginning though before the ship sank Tom was only able to grab two 1B tins of canned turnips and a chronometer which is an instrument used for navigation when the storm cleared they found that there wasn't a speck of land in sight and they had no drinkable water for the four of them and if that wasn't bad enough on their first night a shark began bumping the Lifeboat around causing the crew to have to beat it back

with their ores then for 2 days the four men ate and drank nothing at all and it was then that Tom pulled out one of the cans of turnips and divided them into five pieces which were then rationed out to the men over the next 2 days but obviously wasn't nearly enough to survive on for long around July 9th and a stroke of luck ad spotted a sea turtle and Edwin is able to capture it with no way to cook it they had to eat it raw but with about 3 lbs of meat on it

the turtle sustained them for a few extra days and stretch their supply of turn-ups unfortunately for them killing the turtle was difficult messy and the blood became contaminated with sea water so they weren't able to drink it they did manage to consume the rest of it but the turnips and turtle were completely gone by mid July as they got ever closer to dying of dehydration the four men tried to catch rain water to drink but other than a few sips here and there they weren't able to collect nearly enough to put a dent in their

thirst things got so bad they started drinking their own urine which had the opposite effect of their intentions contrary to popular belief this only dehydrates the body faster than not drinking anything at all Additionally the water content of it decreases with each ingestion and as that happens it becomes more concentrated with harmful waste after a few more days Richard couldn't take the pain of dehydration anymore and leaned over the side of the dinghy and started lapping up the seawater by the handful unlike drinking urine it was already long known that drinking sea water was a

big mistake had Richard haded a small amount of water he probably would have been fine but drinking it in large quantities like he did was likely a death sentence when he drank his fil he immediately felt relief but as hours passed he became violently sick first he was overcome with diarrhea as the seawater ran through him and this only dehydrated him more then another day later Richard's condition only worsened and he collapsed onto the bottom of the dingy basically unable to move meanwhile the other three weren't much better off they may not have been ill

from drinking too much sea water but they were ravenously hungry and very close to dying of thirst it was then as they watched Richard on the bottom of the boat that Tom brought up the custom of the sea as they talked about it Edwin wasn't sure about it and Ed flat out would not agree to it that night Richard deteriorated even more and was clearly close to death upon seeing this in the morning Tom brought up the topic again and once again he was rebuffed by Ed beyond the obvious reason that no one wants to

eat another person there was another good reason for his hesitancy the custom of the sea requires such serious consideration because agreeing to it puts your own life on the line it requires that everyone draw straws to determine the fate of one of the survivors of shipwreck whoever drew the shortest straw would be sacrificed so the others could live meaning the loser would be eaten this custom was obviously reserved for the most dire situations and obviously is about as barbaric as it gets but the way it was done or said to have been done was always

strict into the letter in an odd way there was a supposed Integrity to the process that Sailors at the time honored the rules were Unwritten but as Sailors understood them there was very little room for interpretation these are the three requirements that must be met for the customer seat to be performed the first is that the situation had to be a dire one of life or death on the verge of starvation or dehydration the second is that the decision had to be unanimous among survivors if even one person was against the idea it could go

no further and the third is that the selection process had to be fair giving each sailor an equal chance to end up being chosen incredibly at the time although not what you might call socially acceptable there was more of an understanding of this practice if the custom was performed to the letter and the selection was Fair participating it was seen as nothing hide even if it was still an incredibly difficult subject there were sort of a grudging recognition of its necessity under certain circumstances and because of the many dangers of the sea the custom was

not as rare as you might hope the threat of a shipwreck during this time period was very real and there were many unfortunate Crews left to make the decision to sacrifice one of their own so the others could live legally however countries struggled to determine how to handle the custom while wrestling with the question of whether or not a murder could be justified by the necessity of a dire situation uation like for example in the 1600s seven English Sailors were lost to seat for more than 2 weeks and like the crew the minion nette they

had very little supplies in their Lifeboat in a twist of fate the man who proposed the customac seat was the very same one who drew the shore straw when the survivors were rescued they were returned to the Caribbean island of St Christopher to stand TR for murder however the remaining survivors were pardoned after the judge found that the killing was indeed a necessity in another example in 1820 a whaling ship called the Essex was ran by well and its survivors were scattered and separated into three small boats during the survival ordeal six died from either

starvation or exposure of both and one was sacrificed chosen by the custom after drawing straws a man named Owen was the unfortunate crewman who pulled the short one his sacrifice then allowed the others to live and ultimately survive the ordeal back on the little dinghy later that night Tom brought it up again only this time with a slight change in his proposition this time instead of drawing straws he proposed that they could just sacrif Richard since it appeared as though he was going to die anyway if that was the case he might as well die

so that the other three could live long enough to hopefully be rescued once again though Ed would not hear of it he found the idea to be repulsive and was surprised that someone of Tom's character distinction would even suggest it for Edwin on the other hand the idea began to make sense as Tom pointed out each of them had wives and multiple children while Richard was still a teenager and it would be better for a single man to die than for many children to grow up without fathers with this suggestion tension began to rise in

the dinghy even though Ed was against the idea since it was 2on one and Tom had already decided to forego the rules his protest might mean nothing in the end but either way no decision was made that night and the men agreed to sleep on it as the next day wore on and there was no sign of land or life anywhere Tom and Edwin made eye contact which they both took as silent agreement to Tom's plan for a moment Tom paused to say a prayer while Edwin slowly knelt down at the bottom of the dinghy

when Tom was ready Edwin grabbed hold of Richard's legs to keep him from flailing and Tom brought his pen knife down into Richard's neck Edwin then continued to hold him down while Tom grabed the case for the chronometer and began filling it from the moon he just made when enough of it had accumulated he then drank from the case before handing it to Edwin who did the same Edwin then extended it to Ed who was stunned and horrified by what he was witnessing reluctantly though he took the case and liquid filled his dry mouth for

the first time in days when Richard had passed Tom and Edwin then undressed him and began removing the edible portions finally they were full and satisfied for the first time since I caught the turtle Tom and Edwin then continued to remove the edible portions they ate raw for as long as the remain stayed fresh for the next 4 days the three consumed as much as they could before it started to rot hunger set back in soon after but on July 29th only a few days after killing Richard they finally saw a ship coming toward them

a German vessel named the montazuma was on its way to Hamburg when it spotted the dinghy and and brought Tom Edwin and Ed on board ending what was almost a month-long ordeal when they picked up the three survivors the crew of the ship couldn't help but notice the state of the dinghy the inside of it was coated in Blood and some of the remains were still on board this obviously led to a lot of questions but Tom told them everything as Captain he felt justified in the decision because it was done at a necessity after

all it was a survival practice that was more understood at the time this didn't really lessen the impact but then even more stunning for the crew of The monuma Tom and insisted on bringing the rotting remains on board so they could be given a proper Christian burial in England it took more than a month for the ship to finish its journey and when it arrived on September 6th in England The Mont Zuma's Captain accompanied Tom Edwin and Ed to see the Customs officer and Report their arrival the four men then met with customs and Tom

explained the ordeal of being set a drift at Sea and what happened to Richard and as he did a local police Sergeant was in the room listening in on everything given the disturbing events he just learned the sergeant didn't know what to do with the Three Men and sought legal advice while keeping them detained the captain and crew of The Mont Zuma were also not allowed to leave for Hamburg during this time because they'd be crucial Witnesses if there were any legal proceedings then after a brief investigation that included multiple interviews Tom Edwin and Ed

were charged with Richard's murder and Tom more than anyone else was shocked by this the way he saw it anyone else in the same situation would have done the same thing what Tom didn't know was that the English legal system was looking for an opportunity to establish murder at c as a punishable crime the law was still without a set precedent in cases of violent death at the hands of others at Sea until the crew of The Minion arrived back in England so in the days following their return Tom Edwin and Ed were taken for

arraignment during this and after learning of Ed's unwillingness to participate in Richard's killing he was allowed to go free without penalty either way this case and story would go to be covered feverishly by European media the story had Sensational elements that gried the public and the sentiment was mostly in favor of Tom and Edwin's decision there was even occasion for Tom and Ed to meet Richard's brother Daniel and Daniel shook both their hands as a sailor Daniel believe they made the right decision the judge who would hear the case however made it clear as the

trial got started in November that there was no justification for killing another human being that the law would recognize which many viewed as clear favoritism shown towards prosecutors additionally being found guilty of murder at the time meant immediate execution so if Tom and Edwin were found guilty they would be put to death but and when the jury finished their deliberations they came to a unanimous decision that all of the men would have died if they hadn't done what they did there was a caveat though the judge had informed the jury prior to deliberations that they

would have the option of returning a special Verdict by doing so the jury would collectively recognize they couldn't tell if Tom and Edwin were guilty of murder and that's exactly the verdict they opted for as a result the case was sent to a higher Court which consisted of five judges and no jury little time was wasted between the decision and the higher Court beginning its proceedings and this is where some sticky legal topics were sorted out the defense argued that Richard's killing was a necessity based on the context of the situation the problem with that

argument though was that it had never been made before so the trial was as much about the validity of that caim as it was about determining the guilt or innocence of Tom and Edwin afterward there were two different precedents that the judges were presented as they heard the case the first was killing in self-defense which was recognized as a necessity in certain cases like for example if things played where Richard fought back against Tom and Tom is the one who ended up dead this would be considered a justifiable homicide on the other hand the prosecution

argued that there was also established precedent for not justifying murder in English law a homeless man who steals a loaf of bread because he's starving is not justified in doing so even though the theft was at a necessity so in the end the judges decided with the prosecution and Tom and Edwood were sentenced to death the one thing the two men did have going for them throughout the trial though was public opinion even after the verdict and sentence were handed down and because the two had so much support among citizens of the United Kingdom the

court felt pressured to Pardon them and this is what the media was expecting to happen to them next then a few days passed with no word of one and it looked Bleak for Tom and Edwin but thankfully for them instead of a pardon the court commuted the sentence down to just 6 months in prison this was the first time any country had made any sort of legal decision on how to handle the custom of the seat and the case remains a foundational reference to this day so I'm curious legal issues aside since it's clearly understood

what would happen if it were to happen today what would you have done in the same situation as the man on the dinghy would you have drawn straws as per tradition or would you have chosen the weakest like they did or is there some other scenario that makes more sense let me know down in the comments what you think you would have done in any case thanks so much for watching if you have a story suggestion feel free to submit it to the form found in the description and hopefully I will see you in the

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