Encyclopedia II - Discussion

[Berethos]

Also the records of a missionary expedition that ended up adrift and cannibalizing each other is kind of grim, but also strangely quick, given everything happened in the course of 24 or so days. One would assume they'd be able to last at least a few months, just for a regular ship voyage.

Did a quick check, and that particular voyage was only supposed to last 8 days or, give or take, and it seems they supplied the ship with that specific voyage in mind, running out of fresh food stores by day 10 and turning to wormy hard tack and (I think importantly) salted pork.

By day 16, they had run out of fresh water and had to start using rum.

Salty foods and alcohol typically make thirst worse and dehydrate faster, and so the rum only lasted a couple days.

And so in the end it isn't the flesh that they were cannibalizing, but the blood, which started sometime 3+ days (and thus is consistent with the amount of time one can go before they really start to need water) after the last of the rum had been consumed, which happened on day 18 of what was supposed to be a short 8 day trip.

Hope that clears up that timeline a bit and why the situation still works, despite taking roughly a month to play out from start to bloody finish.