Imagine being shipwrecked in the Age of Sail. There’s no global positioning system. There’s no radio distress call. Worst of all, so many voyages were expected to take months or years, so it would take forever for anyone to notice something was amiss. For sailors set adrift across miles of ocean or marooned as castaways on a deserted island, hunger and thirst were the most pressing obstacles to survival. According to the various customs of the sea, when push came to shove, the sailors knew they would eventually draw lots to see who would make the ultimate sacrifice. 

It was called “The Custom of the Sea,” and it was a grim situation but still widely accepted by everyone involved in the profession of sailing. You just never really knew when or if it could happen to you. 

“The Custom of the Sea” is so widely known amongst sailors that it could even be found in the literature of the day and from some of the best authors. For example, Richard Parker was the name of a sailor in Edgar Allan Poe’s only novel, “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket.” In this 25-chapter epic, Pym and his pal Augustus Barnard end up shipwrecked with Dirk Peters and Parker. After a few days of rationing sea turtle meat, the sailors had to draw lots to see who would be eaten to save the rest, in accordance with “the Custom of the Sea.” Parker lost the draw and was subsequently eaten by his mates. No harm, no foul, even if it was a grisly scene. 

Origin of the Custom of the Sea

Poe’s tale is a macabre tale, typical of much of the rest of his dark, poetic work. But it was also a stunningly prescient story. Some 50 years after Poe published his book, a very real yacht called the Mignonette was shipwrecked in a storm more than 1,600 miles from the Cape of Good Hope, the southern tip of the African continent. Four sailors aboard that yacht survived, adrift but alive. One of them, a sailor, actually named Richard Parker, was killed and eaten so the others might live. Parker’s death also ensured that shipwrecked sailors in the future might avoid a similar fate (but more on that later). 

In the days before machine-powered ships, cannibalism among sailors just wasn’t as taboo as it is today. Most things weren’t taboo among sailors, but eating your mates to survive was just a hazard of the job. The only thing they ever thought twice about was how to decide who becomes food. There were simply times when murder and cannibalism were considered a necessity. 

As time away from port wore on, food and water aboard these old-timey wooden ships could run short for any reason – shipwrecks, marooning, doldrums, etc. – and when they did, it was a (more or less) universally agreed-upon outcome that the survivors would draw lots to see who would be killed and eaten to help the rest of the group get back home. While “The Custom of the Sea” wasn’t the most pleasant way out of the situation, dying of hunger was the alternative.

A History Lesson

In August 1819, the crew of the whaler Essex set out from Nantucket, Massachusetts, in pursuit of sperm whales in the South Pacific. Some 21 crewmembers set out for what was supposed to be a two-and-a-half-yearlong journey. Although the voyage to the hunting grounds was extremely unlucky, the actual hunting was uneventful until November of that year. That’s when a large whale attacked the Essex, sinking her and relegating the crew to their smaller whaleboats with whatever rations and water they could grab in the time it took for Essex to capsize and, eventually, sink. They aimed for South America, some 2,000 miles away, but most would never make it. 

The remaining Essex crewmembers first landed on nearby Henderson Island in December 1819. It was a tiny, uninhabited island with some food and naturally flowing spring water when the tide was out. But the little island couldn’t support everyone who survived the whale attack. Three men stayed behind, hoping to be rescued by any passing ship, while everyone else took their chances in the open water. Sadly, no one would be rescued before the year’s end, and by January 1820, those in the whaleboats floating around the Pacific began to die. 

Open Water

At first, the dead were buried at sea, but as provisions ran lower and lower, the dead were consumed to bolster their meager food supplies. When February came around, and there were no more corpses, the crew was forced to turn to the custom of the sea. They drew lots, and the loser, Owen Coffin, was prepared to meet his fate. The captain of the Essex tried to take the hit for Coffin, but the sailor was resigned to the custom of the sea and was subsequently shot and eaten. Only five of the 17 men who set out on the ocean survived. Seven were eaten, but no one was charged with the murder of the man who was shot because that was the custom, as the seamen knew it. 

And that brings us back to the unfortunately-named Richard Parker. It’s a shame his family hadn’t read Poe’s book because they either might not have chosen this name for their baby boy or prevented him from becoming a sailor. Not everyone who was eaten in the Age of Sail became a meal due to a fair lottery. Many times, the lottery was just done for appearances. 

Parker, the sailor whose fate Edgar Allen Poe predicted a half-century before, was killed after he passed out from drinking seawater and was never given a fair chance at surviving. The two men who ate him were charged with his murder (one of them abstained). They were then tried, convicted, and sentenced to death (which was later commuted to six months in prison). The custom of the sea was supposed to allow for an equal chance of being eaten for survival. That’s just not how it usually played out. 

Part of the Ship, Part of the Crew

At times when the shipwrecked weren’t part of just one crew, the ship’s crew would often take advantage of that situation. Life aboard a ship wasn’t a democracy, and even in times of crisis, it might make right – especially when it comes to survival at sea. Passengers were usually eaten before crewmembers. Teens were eaten before men. Blacks were eaten before whites. It was likely not fair if crewmembers held any lottery for the eaten. In one instance, the lottery was only held between the ship’s four teenage cabin boys while the rest of the crew looked on (presumably hungrily). There was a clear hierarchy, whether the sailors wanted to admit it or not.

In the case of the Essex, only white men from Nantucket survived the shipwreck. The only three sailors who weren’t from Nantucket wisely decided to stay on Henderson Island and take their chances with its meager food and water supply. They were eventually rescued, but had they sailed on with the rest. They would undoubtedly have been food. It might have been a coincidence that the men who chose to stay marooned on a small atoll weren’t from Nantucket or that only white men survived the Essex sinking, but it also might not. Those were the chances these sailors all took. 

Strange Custom?

The “Custom of the Sea” likely continued throughout the Age of Sail, as ships could be wrecked for any number of reasons, from storms to pirates to aggressive sperm whales. They could even be wrecked for nothing. Sitting in the middle of the ocean without any wind or rain can happen, and it did happen as the men used up their provisions, waiting for favorable weather. But while the custom of drawing lots likely survived, everyone did it on the down low after the crew of the Mignonette was handed a death sentence.

It turns out that Richard Parker was just 17 years old when he boarded the Mignonette and was far from an able seaman. The other crewmembers were not just older. They were much more experienced. It took less than two weeks from the ship’s capsizing before they floated the idea of drawing lots, but they ended up stabbing Parker without a lottery. Five days after the meal, they were all rescued. In the resulting trial, the judge ruled that the need for survival was not grounds for murder, even though sailors had been doing it for centuries. 

The ruling officially ended the well-known “Custom of the Sea,” along with any open talk of cannibalism. That doesn’t mean a crew of sailors wouldn’t resort to cannibalism when the situation called. They just no longer told anyone about it. Bon voyage