After 13 days, 15 survivors remained on the raft from the Méduse.
The French frigate Méduse ran aground off the coast of present-day Mauritania in July 1816. Because there were not enough lifeboats, 147 people were placed on a makeshift raft. The raft was cut loose after the boats towing it traveled only a short distance, leaving its passengers adrift.
Conditions rapidly became catastrophic. The raft had only a small bag of ship’s biscuit, which was eaten on the first day. Water was lost overboard, supplies ran out, and the survivors faced starvation, thirst, violence and delirium. Some people were killed or thrown overboard, while others died or took their own lives.
The raft was rescued by the Argus on 17 July 1816, after thirteen days at sea. Only fifteen men were still alive at that point, although four or five later died aboard the rescue ship. The disaster became a major political scandal in France and inspired Théodore Géricault’s monumental painting “The Raft of the Medusa.”