Murder and the Mignonette

Apple  | Audible |  Spotify  |  RSS  |  YouTube (captioned)
​

In 1884, a yacht called Mignonette left England for Australia but never reached its destination. After it was lost, those aboard were adrift at sea for weeks, resorting to desperate measures for survival. Here, Christine covers the ill-fated voyage, the murder trial it sparked, and how the story lives on in pop culture. 

Host: Christine

Help keep Footnoting History going, click here to find out how

Further Reading

Elizabeth Blair, "Truth, forgiveness: 'Swept Away' is a theatrical vessel for Avett Bros' music", NPR, (2024).​

"The Bubonic Plague. Fatal Case Near Sydney." Argus, (1900, Feb. 24), p. 13.

"The Bubonic Plague. Internment of the Body of Captain Dudley", The Sydney Morning Herald, (1900, Feb. 26), p. 6.

"Can humans drink seawater?", National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration, (updated 2023).

""Cannibalism in Court," St. Louis Globe-Democrat, (1884, Nov. 19) p. 6.

Paul Finn, "John Henry Want (1846–1905)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, (1990, 2006).

Keith Hamilton, "The Life of Pi's Southampton links", Southampton Daily Echo, (2013, Feb. 11).

Neil Hanson, The Custom of the Sea, Wiley (1999).

Henry Winthrop Hardon, "The Case of the Mignonette", US Naval Institute, (1886).

Adam Hetrick, "John Gallagher Jr. and Stark Sands Cast in Avett Brothers Musical at Berkeley Repertory Theatre", Playbill, (2019).

"The Ill-Fated Mignonette", Evening Journal, (1884, Oct. 25), p. 6.

“In Warm Blood: Some Historical and Procedural Aspects of Regina v. Dudley and Stephens.” The University of Chicago Law Review 34, no. 2 (1967): 387–407. 

Edgar Allan Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, (1838).

A.W. B. Simpson, Cannibalism and the Common Law, Penguin, (1986).

Roger Stephens, "The Story of the Mignonette", National Maritime Museum.

"SWEPT AWAY Musical - Interviews with The Avett Brothers, John Gallagher Jr, Stark Sands and More", Paul Wontorek, (2023).

Carl Thompson, "Cannibalism at sea: the starving Victorian sailors who ate a cabin boy", History Extra, (2021).

"A Tragedy of the Sea," North American, (1884, Nov. 20).

"Why do ships have a gender?", Imperial War Museums.

Music: "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin Macleod (www.incompetech.com)

Shop the design inspired by this episode here!