Volume 20, Number 11 · June 28, 1973
Unsinkable Painting
By Hugh Honour
Géricault's "Raft of the Medusa"
by Lorenz Eitner
Praeger, 184, 158 illus pp., $35.00
On July 2, 1816, a French government frigate, La Méduse, carrying troops to Senegal, ran aground on the West African coast. The captain and senior officers commandeered the few seaworthy lifeboats, while the rest of the passengers and crew—149 men and one woman—were cast adrift on a make-shift raft, with some barrels of wine but very little food or drinking water. The occupants of this raft fought among themselves. Many were killed, some died of starvation, others lost their minds and were cast overboard. Eventually driven to the horror of cannibalism and, to supplementing the supply of wine with urine, fifteen men survived for thirteen days, and five of them died shortly after they were rescued.
Review, 3453 words
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