My son, not Richard Parker

When I caught sight of him getting ready to embark catch the bus to work this morning, suitably clad for the weather, I was glad it was only his hat and not his job that was designated Cabin Boy.
Because a cabin boy's fate has not always been a happy one.

The case of Regina v. Dudley and Stephens in 1884 set an important legal precedent: that necessity cannot be an excuse for murder. The background to the case was the shipwreck of the yacht Mignonette, which went down in a gale off the Cape of Good Hope en route to Australia, on July 5th. The crew of four managed to launch a flimsy lifeboat but had no water and only two tins of turnips to sustain them.
They managed to kill a turtle but when this and the turnips were consumed, and when, after 19 days, neither rescue nor landfall seemed imminent, the possibility of cannibalism was raised. The cabin boy, Richard Parker, had drunk salt water and was already comatose. Since he was only 17 and, unlike the rest without dependents, he was dispatched by two of the sailors, Stephens and Dudley, with a penknife to the jugular. (The third, Brooks, joined in the eating but not the killing.) A few days later they were picked up by a passing vessel.

The surviving sailors were confident that they would be protected from indictment by 'The Custom of the Sea' which traditionally had tacitly allowed cannibalism in cases of extremity (as in the wreck of whaleship Essex ). However the Home Secretary decided to prosecute, despite popular opinion swinging in support of the sailors, and after a complex trial, in which Brooks turned Queen's Evidence, Dudley and Stephens were found guilty, although only given a short custodial sentence.

The victim's memorial, in a churchyard near Southampton, reads
Sacred to the memory of Richard Parker, aged 17, who died at sea July 25th 1884 after nineteen days dreadful suffering in an open boat in the tropics having been wrecked in the yacht Mignonette.
Though he slay me yet will I trust in Him. Job 15 v 15
Lay not this sin to their charge. Acts vii 6
A second inscription gives further information.
Richard Parker was killed and eaten by Tom Dudley and Edwin Stephens to prevent starvation.
Regina versus Dudley and Stephens (1884) established the precedent that necessity is no defence against a charge of murder.

By an odd coincidence, 47 years prior to this event, Edgar Allen Poe had written a story called The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym. It concerns four sailors adrift at sea. One of the sailors suggests that they all draw lots to decide who will be sacrificed as food for the other three. The loser is the very sailor who came up with the idea, his name - Richard Parker.

In 2001 the best-selling novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel was published. It won the Booker Prize and has subseqently been filmed. It's a magical-realism tale of a boy who is shipwrecked and ends up drifting on a small boat alone except for a hungry tiger whose name is - Richard Parker. The name was not chosen by chance.

Heartfelt thanks to everyone who left such positive comments following my blip-crisis yesterday. As on an earlier occasion I felt rather bad afterwards in case it seemed I was fishing for compliments (as my mother would say). I haven't caught up with you all yet but rest assured I will carry on at least to, and probably beyond, my 1000th.