The Custom of the Sea by Sean Hanson is the harrowing tale of four men who were left adrift at sea after being forced to abandon the Mignonette, which was suck by a "freak" 60 ft wave. Captain Tom Dudley had been hired to sail the old "but sturdy" yacht to Sydney, Australia from Southampton in May 1884. Accompanying him were mate Edwin Stephens, cook Edmund Brooks, and cabin boy Richard Parker. On July 5, while fighting a terrible gale, the keel is ripped asunder. The men had only 5 minutes to scramble into their lifeboat. It was a 13ft dinghy, and the only supplies they managed to grab were two tins of turnips, a chronometer and a baling bucket. After 19 days at sea, the men suffer from severe sunburns, malnutrition, dehydration and excruciating sores. Then, in desperation, Parker drinks sea water, putting him into a delirious coma. The other three, near death themselves, decide to mercy kill Parker and perform "the custom of the sea." On day 24, they are finally rescued and returned to Falmouth. However, a jury must then decide if what they did was murder or a necessity...

I really enjoyed Hanson's writing style and their ability to build a personality for each victim without stretching the truth. There's a lot of nautical terminology and jargon throughout, but I don't think that this slows down the narrative in any way. Dudley was surprisingly candid about what he and his men had done, which leads me to believe that the men weren't exactly plotting Parker's demise.. Dudley took pity on Parker, treating him kindly otherwise, which makes this story particularly tragic. The chapter on the sinking itself was very intense and well done. The image of the men clinging to the rigging as the wave hit will stick with me for a while. ( )

The story itself is fascinating - the story of the four men whose horrible experience became a minor, highly politicized trial that affirmed the illegality of the custom of the sea, the unspoken acknowledgement that shipwrecked sailors would, sooner or later, most likely kill one of their company to feed the others.

The way it's told is absolutely awful. Hanson couldn't decide if he wanted to write a novel or a nonfiction account, and he makes a bad job of both options. Long passages are told as "recreations," which are entirely un-footnoted or endnoted, meaning there's no way to tell which bits are attributable to these particular men in this particular case and which bits are added in for atmosphere. They're not even particularly good narratives, unfortunately. I'd love to read an account of this case written by someone who knows what he's doing. ( )

A compelling and tragic story of the human condition set in a context of the common man's adventure, privation and nobility vs. the aristocrat's manipulation of position and power at the former's expense.

Does the end justify the means? Both the common man and aristocrat make terribly difficult, questionable decisions that in the grand sweep of history seem like the "right thing " ( )

What struck me most was the determination of those in authority to twist and turn to get the result THEY wanted.
The ability of semi-delirious men to recall chronological events was remarkable. ( )

Not my kind of book, but I did think it was well written. ( )