Tom Dudley was the captain,Richard Parker was an inexperienced seventeen years old seaman. The yacht was in trouble. They got the lifeboat out and salvaged important navigational instruments and two tins of turnips . Judging from the way things were, they were not going to be rescued immediately. How long they’d have to wait was unsure. The fact they had very little food for sustenance was in itself a very dangerous thing. To make matters worse they didn’t have sufficient water to drink.a
Two tins of turnips would not be enough when they weren’t sure how long they’d be floating on sea. To eat each other is not out of question. They picked the weakest member on their team to kill for food. Yes he was unwell and according to the story would die,the man is Parker.
Rather than wait till he died two of the members i.e., the Captain Tom Dudley and Edwin Stephens,signalled each other to kill Parker before he dies,because his blood would be pure to drink. He was the target because he didn’t have a family,but the other three were fathers with children.
The whole story makes me sick. I personally do not think what Tom Dudley did was defensible. If I was confronted with this I certainly wouldn’t slaughter my co-worker with a pen knife and make a meal out of him.
Sabethville 