Self Preservation on the High Seas

Cultural Redressing
The basis of the following stories are actual events reported in the 19th century newspapers. Now that I look back, I am quite thankful that I have usually prefaced my stories with the phrasing that the work “is based off a true-story” not that it actually is a true story. I have tried to list my works under the BISAC (Book Industry Standards and Communications) category of ‘Historical Fiction’ and not history. At first I did so, because I depicted the story from the perspective of the ship’s spirit. I have no way of proving the story that is seen from her point of view. Later I realized that some of the stories reported in the 18th - 19th century newspapers, although seeming plausible, may be contrivances or partial contrivances, to entertain the readers.

The Story
As for the subject of this book, cannibalism on the high seas is a grisly topic to discuss. All the same, I thought it was important to bring these old maritime stories to light. They need to be retold as a form of cultural redressing, a defense as it were, for the South Sea Islanders who’s ancestors have often been deplored by others for their practices of cannibalism. As the Europeans were busy condemning these ‘backward’ cultures, they needed to look inward and realize that in desperate situations their own people committed the very same act they were deploring in others. The hypocrisy reminds me of the biblical verse from the book of John:

“So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself and said unto them. He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” (King James Bible, John 8:7)