The Richard Parker Coincidence
How did Poe predict Richard Parker's death?
4.4 (22)
38 mins
Discover the eerie Richard Parker coincidence, in which Edgar Allan Poe's 1838 novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym featured shipwreck survivors who kill and eat a cabin boy named Richard Parker. Decades later, a real shipwreck involving the yacht Mignonette ended with survivors cannibalizing a cabin boy who was also named Richard Parker.
Ep 1:
The Boat That Shouldn't Have Sailed
A storm-wrecked yacht, a doomed voyage, and an eerie 1838 Poe novel collide as we meet the Mignonette's crew moments before disaster strikes in the South Atlantic.
Ep 2:
Twenty Days in a Thirteen-Foot Boat
Stranded with no food or water, four desperate sailors drift toward an unthinkable choice—one that ends with a penknife, a boy named Richard Parker, and a confession that stuns Victorian Britain.
Ep 3:
The Trial of the Castaways
The survivors face trial for murder in a case that reshapes English law forever, while their fates—and the quiet grave of the boy they killed—tell three very different stories afterward.
Ep 4:
A Name Written Before It Happened
Decades before the Mignonette sank, Edgar Allan Poe wrote a chillingly identical tale. We unravel the uncanny coincidence that still haunts sailors, scholars, and skeptics alike.
Discussions (5)
Milo
Level 4 · 1 week agoBrooks literally joined a circus after this and called himself 'The Cannibal of the High Seas' while Dudley spent 6 months in prison refusing to admit wrongdoing. The audacity gap between those two is staggering.
Nathaniel
Level 7 · 1 week agoBrooks joined a circus showing people how they ate Parker lmao
Rory
Level 2 · 1 week agoPoe called it 46 years early
