[mahmud]

That doesn't really stop him from the recreational murder of X prisoners, and replenishing his inventory with X Kiwis before heading to Parramatta :-)

(I have the Australia Almanac and it's full of interesting tidbits. One of them was when I read "The English met with the Aborigines during a time of hunger .. 5 men where eaten". I shook my head briefly at the inhumanity and went on to read .. then paused, and re-read the passage again. Turns out, the English ate the Aborigines.)

[hugh3]

Got a reference for that? The history of precisely who killed whom in British/Aboriginal relations is pretty well studied, and I've never heard of any cannibalism on either side.

Whether the Aborigines ever engaged in cannibalism was a somewhat fraught political topic in Australia a few years ago. (The answer is "probably someone got eaten by somebody at some point in the 40,000 year history of the thousands of Aborginal tribes, but you're not supposed to talk about it.")

Anyway, the story isn't about captains "recreationally murdering" prisoners, which is the kind of thing that only a tiny number of psychopaths would do. It's just about them failing to take quite as much care of them in terms of food, water and medical treatment as they really should have.

[mahmud]

Heh. I said right there "Australia Almanac". It's a popular book in Aus, and have seen it in a few places. It chronicles Australia from the stone ages to late 80s (at least my old copy does.)

As for cannibalism, my profile info has been a passing reference to it, in jest; it doesn't concern me at all, at least not until the zombie apocalypse (if food rations run low, I might have to hunt a few zombies and raid the mall shops for flat-screens and warm Heineken!)

[hugh3]

I'm still not sure where you got the idea that the British ate the aborigines from.

I'm filing this under "extraordinary claims demanding extraordinary proof" for now.

[mahmud]

Will scan a page when I return to Aus in a few more days.

[jeffesp]

Although I am sure there is the opportunity for this kind of depravity among sea captains, for the majority of them it was probably a crime of convenience. It is easy to say "he is a criminal, let him die." It is much more difficult to say "I am going to take a free man from his life in order to make an incremental amount more in my business."