Geoffrey wrote: ↑Thu Oct 07, 2021 4:47 pm
...i looked it up on wikipedia. it says they were sentenced to death at first, and then imprisoned for six months before being let loose. six months for a murder under those circumstances was an acceptable punishment. not an easy case to find a fitting punishment, but a good one was found nevertheless.
Indeed. I thought it was a bit hypocritical to sentence them to death. However, that may have been more merciful in the long run.
In my brief online search to try to find out what became of Dudley and Stephens after they were released, it sounds like they were both quite traumatised and forever haunted by what happened on that boat -- from what I could find, Stephens went "quietly mad", and Dudley sought solace in large quantities of opium (and then died of bubonic plague). No happy ending for those men, but not really a surprise, under the circumstances.
This conversation is getting depressing. Time to move on!