Overview

On May 19, 1884, the yacht Mignonette left England bound for Australia. What followed was not merely a maritime disaster, but one of the most disturbing moral and legal dilemmas ever recorded. After the vessel was destroyed by a violent storm, Captain Thomas Dudley and his crew were cast adrift in a small lifeboat with no food, no water, and little hope of rescue. As days turned into weeks, survival demanded a terrible choice. The killing of the young cabin boy, Richard Parker-later remembered as the ""Captain's Dinner""-would save three lives and destroy four others in ways no one could have predicted. In The Story of the Captain's Dinner, Julian Pembroke delivers a gripping reconstruction of the ordeal at sea and the landmark trial that followed: Regina v. Dudley and Stephens. The case forever established that necessity is not a defense for murder, shaping legal systems across the world and igniting debates in philosophy, ethics, and human nature that continue to this day. Meticulously researched and powerfully told, this book is both a survival narrative and a courtroom drama-one that forces readers to confront the darkest question of all: What would you do when survival demands the unthinkable?

Full Product Details

9798242220102

Table of Contents

Reviews

Author Information

Tab Content 6

Countries Available