The Raft of the Medusa
We are products of our environment. As people of the sea, we are exposed to environmental factors that produce startling results in our behavior. Through time, the social isolation that comes with seafaring has challenged social and civil norms at every port and on every ship. Within small groups, detached from the larger herds, we’ve developed unique styles of adapting to one another. We conform to each other to fit in, and as we loosen the need to conform to civil societies, we simply create a unified social order that fits the structure of our own isolated social groups and authentic minds.
Of course, this phenomenon has changed through maritime history. The age of exploration and discovery saw an explosion of cultural and behavioral change. Today the unknown is mostly known, and otherwise it can be googled. Today, technology not only helps us navigate free of reefs, it keeps us from becoming a-luff, it keeps us connected to the civil-society back home. And, to digress a quick sec, it keeps that civil-society back home connected to us. But the order of detachment, isolation, and mystique still remains. The sea is a tremendous and tumultuous place, if across a glass like ocean at dawn. It will continue to create significant stories for individuals and for mankind. It is the everchanging place that stay the same…
Sea Stories exist because of what I’ve written above – They are the novel features and the best examples of what the maritime does to people. The stories tell of loss, suffering, adventure, craziness, collapse, myth, and glory. Below is a Sea Story that slipped by me for 35 years, and then slid comfortably onto my shelf and then, not so comfortably, in my mind.
The story of the Medusa and her company is such a supposed one-of-a-kind story. It is the apex of human failure and suffering. It’s full of the most god-awful behavior one could imagine. The suffering of children. The brutality of politicians and their captains. The taste of rotten human flesh. The swallowing of black tongues. The savageness of beach combers. The whimsical ideas of power-hungry moronic leader… The story fails to gain attraction as an epic sea story, as the actions of the ship’s company traditionally have appeared to be outside the realms of normal, and therefore the episode is dismissed as nothing more than a satanic coup at sea, with no relation to either the maritime or normal human behavior. But the author of “Death Raft” ends his book with the following: “During the preliminary study for this book, I made a note: ‘In almost all disasters at sea, historians like to point out, there is some ennobling or moving feature. They decline to give the story of the Medusa the status of a tragedy because, they conclude, the victims were largely responsible for what happened to them. I wonder how true that is?’.”
I side with Alexander McKee’s take on the story of the Raft of the Medusa. The environment led to lunacy among the passengers of the raft. The events should not be dismissed as extremity to human behavior, rather it should be studied as an example of behavior within the realm of extreme environment. And the output to that study would suggest we use all available resource to avoid this type of environment. This is why the movement towards safety of life at sea is so important. This is why the studies of ethics and the push to remove conflicts of interest from contract is so paramount. The extreme case of suffering should be reviewed for what it actually is, and we should avoid labeling it as something that won’t happen again. McKee’s “Death Raft” concludes with present day examples of similar situations…
The Incident:
The Napoleonic Wars had concluded and Napoleon had been sent to die in exile on the small Atlantic Island of St. Helena. The countries of Europe had been colonizing the Coast of Africa for the better part of 3 centuries, and with changes of power happening with diplomacy instead of aggression, a fleet of French merchant and trade ships was sent to a slave trading outpost on the African Coast to take control of the town from English control, as a peaceful deal had been reached by both governments. The fleet contained 4 ships, lead by the commander de Chaumareys. Unfortunately for everyone, de Chaumareys was not only a friend of the French political class, he was also an incompetent, self-centered, and zero-hearted leader. He ignored the advice of his maritime officers, and he took the most dangerous route he could find to his destination in order to arrive first, ahead of the rest of his fleet.
His ship, the Medusa, ran aground on a known sand bank off the coast of Africa. There, the ship began to take on water. With 400 people onboard, and a cargo of gold, cannons, food and grain for establishing a strong beginning in their new colony, de Chaumarey delayed orders. He soon began to see the panic and ordered a raft to be built, as the vessel’s skiffs could only hold 200 people. All ideas to save the ship by throwing the grain and cannons overboard were dismissed by de Chaumery, as he planned to explain the loss of the ship due to uncontrolled events. The idea to shuttle people to the Coast of Africa was dismissed as well. Instead, de Chaumery loaded himself and his preferred staff into the small boats and the remainder of the ship’s company aboard the raft. Within hours of setting sail, the tow lines to the raft were cut, and the small boats departed for the coast. The small boats would never return, and each one of them endured their own struggles, though eventually made it to their original destination.
The raft was submerged three feet below the waterline and there was not enough space for any of the 150 persons aboard to sit. Within 12 hours 40 humans had washed overboard and drowned. Over the next 13 days the raft turned into a war zone. The only substances aboard were wine and human flesh. The lunacy that overtook the soldiers and families aboard was nothing short of suicidal mania. Men fought to destroy the raft. Men fought to hoard the wine. Men fought their night-mares. By day twelve it was agreed that the strongest would kill the weakest in order to survive. They did. On day 13, only fifteen of the original 150 were rescued. A week later only ten survived.
There are multiple accounts of what happened on all the different vessels and on the raft. Two survivors on the raft went on to write complete accounts of the events, including admitting to cannibalism and murder. These two accounts have become the most disgusting and sad sea story ever written.
Within years, a trial was had to determine who was the guilty party. The political class tried to frame the survivors of the raft. De Chaumery, knowing he was facing a death sentence for abandoning his crew, his passengers, and his ship, pulled every string he could to place further blame on his crew, the charts, and the weather. He was eventually let free after serving only 5 years in prison.
In addition to the ten survivors from the raft, another 5 survivors were found on the remains of the Medusa, when a salvage team went for the gold that was sunk there. The ship was soundly embedded in the sand, and served as an island for 17 crew who originally hid from the fate of the submerged raft. The story of the 17 was just as bad as the story of the raft. There was war. Drunkenness. Cannibalism. When the survivors were found, they were each hiding in separate parts of the ship. They were afraid of each other and they each clinched a weapon in their hand, as they scoured in the corners, slowly dying.
Aboard one of the small boats, a family with five children faced starvation. The children cried themselves to death, as the small boat rowed onwards to the slave trading post. The father was physically prevented from feeding his own blood to his dying children.
On the Coast, 100 miles north of the colony, a party of 60 was landed. This party shortly fell into the hands of local Moorish tribes, and despite their fears of being sold into the slave trade, they were offered water and lead to safety.
