We see that javascript is disabled or not supported by your browser - javascript is needed for important actions on the site. Read more

What's New - Home - Login

Member $avings: $81,749,230.55 | Books Available: 731,164 | Members Online: 259

Swap Used Books - Buy New Books at Great Prices!

How To Swap Books Sign Up Search submenu

PBS Market (New Books)

Gift Buying Guide

Book Browser Advanced Search Books Posted Today Member Book Reviews Award Winning Books NYT Best Sellers Amazon Best Sellers Most Traveled Copies Club Wish List

Discussion Forums Book Lists

Club Lists My Book Lists My Watched Lists Create a List

Blog Donations

School Donation Program In Memory of... Military Donation Program Friends of PBS

Box-O-Books Maps The Eclectic Pen Fun Stuff

20 Questions Sudoku Bookmark Creator

Top 100

Requests Posts Swappers Referrers Reviewers

Pulse of PBS Spread The Word

Invite Friends Bookmarks Facebook Page Facebook App More Ways...

Photo Gallery Recipes Club Tag Cloud Member Testimonials

Help Center submenu

How To Swap Books Browse Help Docs Ask the Librarian PBS Member Icons Live Help

Kiosk

PBS Market (New Books) Go Shopping Buy Credits Buy PBS Money Upgrade Membership Gift Certificates Transfer Credits

Need Help?

Search - The Custom of the Sea

The Custom of the Sea
Author: Neil Hanson

Cast adrift in a tiny boat on a vast and desolate ocean, faced with almost certain death, what would you do to survive? This is the agonizing question that lies at the heart of the gripping true drama of The Custom of the Sea. On May 19, 1884, the yacht Mignonette set sail from Southampton, England, bound for Sydney, Australia. Halfway thro... more »ugh the 12,000-mile voyage, Captain Tom Dudley and his three- member crew were beset by a monstrous storm off the coast of West Africa. After four terrifying days battling towering waves and hurricane-force gales, the Mignonette was sunk by a massive forty-foot "freak" wave. Captain Dudley and his crew were cast adrift a thousand miles from the nearest land in a leaky thirteen-foot dinghy with only two small tins of turnips for food, no water, and no shelter from the scorching sun. After nineteen days, they were all near death, and Dudley determined that they must resort to the horrifying practice well known among seamen of the time called "the custom of the sea." While the others watched, the captain killed the weakest of them, the seventeen-year-old cabin boy, and his body was eaten. Five days later, the survivors were picked up by a passing ship, and although such cases of survival cannibalism were usually either hushed up or condoned as terrible but justified acts of desperation, in this case the men were arrested for murder. The sensational trial that followed kept a shocked public enthralled during the following winter, from the lowliest ship’s deckhand to Queen Victoria herself. In this riveting account, Neil Hanson re-creates with vivid detail the harrowing ordeal of the Mignonette’s crew. Drawing from newspaper accounts, personal letters and diaries, court proceedings, and first-person accounts of the principals, he has brilliantly pieced together their tragic story, a talerife with moral twists and turns that will draw you deeper and deeper into the drama of the men’s fate. Four shipwrecked sailors...one must die so the others might live.

What should they do?

A terrifying true-to-life account of peril on the high seas—and of the electrifying murder trial that shocked the world. Praise for THE CUSTOM OF THE SEA "Makes astonishing reading . . . extraordinary." —Times Literary Supplement (London)

"An engrossing account."—The Sunday Times (London)

"A terrific story. . . . A riveting read."—The Spectator (London)

"Sensational."—Daily Telegraph (London)

ISBN-13: 9780471383895
ISBN-10: 0471383899
Publication Date: 5/2000
Pages: 336
Rating:

Currently 4.1/5 Stars.

4.1 stars, based on 10 ratings

Publisher: Wiley
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

Read All 4 Book Reviews of "The Custom of the Sea"

Genres:

History >> Europe >> England >> General
History >> Europe >> England >> London
History >> World >> Transportation >> Ships >> General
History >> World >> Transportation >> Ships >> Ships & Shipwrecks
Science & Math >> Earth Sciences >> Geography
Engineering & Transportation >> Professional Science >> Earth Sciences >> Geography

Back to the Top ↑

Search - The Custom of the Sea

Loading...