Chapter 12 Summary

On Jan. 28, 1821, Chase and his men lay in the bottom on the boat, using a tattered piece of canvas to shield them from the cold drizzle that fell. They had fourteen days of hardtack left but they had too few provisions and too far to go. Chase abandoned his strict rationing, realizing that if he didn't, they would all die anyway. The men were all still alive on Feb. 6, but barely. Isaac Cole declared he was giving up. On Feb. 8, Cole ranted incoherently. The men placed him on a board across the seats where he whimpered and moaned before convulsing. He died later that afternoon.

The corpse lay in the boat that night but none of the remaining men raised the option of eating the body. As Lawrence and Nickerson prepared the body for burial the next morning, Chase stopped them. The men...