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=The Raft of Medusa=


 * (Le Radeau de la Méduse)**

In June 1816, the French frigate Méduse departed from Rochefort heading to the port of Saint Louis.It headed a convoy of three other ships: the Storeship Loire, the Brig Argus and the Corvette Écho. Viscount Hugues Duroy de Chaumereys was the captain of the Méduse. The frigate's mission was to accept the British return of Senegal under the terms of France's acceptance of the Peace of Paris. In an effort to make good time, the Méduse overtook the other ships, but due to its speed it drifted 161 km off course. On July 2, it ran aground on a sandbank off the West African coast. Efforts to free the ship failed, so, on July 5, the frightened passengers and crew started an attempt to travel the 97 km to the African coast in the frigate's six life boats. Although the Méduse was carrying 400 people, including 160 crew, there was space for only about 250 in the life boats. At least 146 men and one woman were piled onto raft that was made by the ships Carpenter, that partially submerged once it was loaded. Seventeen crew members opted to stay aboard the grounded Méduse. The captain and crew aboard the other boats intended to tow the raft, but after only a few miles the raft was turned loose. The crew of the raft had only a bag of ship's biscuit (consumed on the first day), two casks of water (lost overboard during fighting) and a few casks of wine. The raft carried 15 survivors "to the frontiers of human experience. Crazed, parched and starved, they slaughtered mutineers, ate their dead companions and killed the weakest. After 13 days, on July 17, 1816, the raft was rescued by the Argus. By this time only 15 men were still alive; the others had been killed or thrown overboard by their comrades, died of starvation, or thrown themselves into the sea in despair.