Chapter 11 Summary

On Jan. 20, eight days after losing sight of Chase's boat, Pollard's and Hendricks' boats were almost out of provisions. That same day, Lawson Thomas died. He was one of the black men on Hendricks's boat. With only about a pound of hardtack left, the men spoke about whether they should eat rather than bury the body.

Famished sailors had long kept themselves alive through their dead shipmates. By the nineteenth century, cannibalism at sea was widespread, compelling survivors to report when they had not done this. Shipwrecked sailors often ate their dead shipmates when there was no alternative.

The men reached the conclusion that they would have to do this in order to stay alive. Two months after deciding not to sail for the Society Islands for fear of being devoured by cannibals, the men were about to eat one of their own...