How to Navigate This Substack
Your guide to everything we've explored (so far).
Welcome to The Captain’s Dinner Official Substack—we’re glad you’re here!
Whether you discovered us before Captain’s Dinner came out, found the link in the pages of the book, or just stumbled aboard—welcome. If you like intellectual rabbit holes, impossible moral questions, and historical deep dives, you’re in the right place.
This Substack started as a companion to Adam Cohen’s book about the 1884 Mignonette case (the shipwreck and cannibalism trial that transformed law and ethics forever), but it’s become something bigger: a community for people who actually enjoy wrestling with hard questions.
Questions like: When does survival justify murder? What separates civilization from barbarism? How do we balance individual rights against collective good? And yes, what does human flesh taste like? (We asked a zoologist.)
How This Works
Unlike a traditional book club where you have to wait for everyone to catch up, everything we’ve published is already here. You can read it all at once, pick and choose what interests you, or follow along as we continue publishing new content. There’s no “right” way to do this—just dive in wherever you’re most curious.
Some of our readers have read the book. Some haven’t. Some are here for the maritime history, others for the philosophy, still others because they have a morbid fascination with survival cannibalism. All are welcome.
Where to Start: Your Reading Guide
Not sure what to read first? Here’s what’s waiting for you, organized by what you might be most interested in:
If You Want the Story
Start here if you want to understand what actually happened on that lifeboat—and in the courtroom afterward.
Introducing a New Weekly Serialization of Captain’s Dinner - The shipwreck, the desperate days at sea, and the decision that changed everything.
An Unexpected Homecoming - The crew’s rescue and the murder trial that followed.
Survival Cannibalism Goes on Trial - As the men stand trial for murder, England experiences a dark night of the soul.
Crime, Punishment, and What Comes After - The crew’s bitter endings and the enduring legacy of the court case.
If You Want to Go Deep on the Ideas
Start here if you’re interested in the philosophical, ethical, and cultural questions the case raises.
An Introduction to The Trolley Problem - The classic thought experiment that law students debate to this day, featuring responses from some of our favorite Substackers.
From the Mignonette to Yellowjackets: Why We’re Obsessed with Cannibalism - A Yellowjackets writer and cultural critic explores how survival cannibalism shows up in contemporary pop culture.
A Sailor’s Life For Me - A maritime historian takes us inside the Age of Sail—the world the Mignonette crew inhabited.
Everything You Could Ever Want to Know About Cannibalism - Zoologist Bill Schutt answers our burning questions about survival cannibalism (yes, including taste, nutrition, and why humans sometimes eat each other).
If You Want Behind-the-Scenes Content from Captain’s Dinner
Start here if you’re curious about how this book came to be and what it took to research it.
Why I Wrote a Book About Cannibalism - Adam Cohen on the law school Halloween party conversation that sparked this entire project.
On the Trail of the Cannibals: I Slept in a Prison Cell to Research a Murder - Adam’s adventures researching at England’s National Archives and the Bodleian Libraries (and yes, actually sleeping in a Victorian prison cell).
What’s Coming
We’re continuing to publish new content as we have more to explore—expert conversations, deeper dives into the legal and philosophical questions the case raises, and explorations of how these 141-year-old questions show up in contemporary debates.
Subscribe so you don’t miss new pieces when they publish, and feel free to explore the archive on your own timeline.
—Adam & Adrienne