Two weeks without food. A Barnes & Noble Best History Book of 2025 Four men in a lifeboat. One impossible choice that would reshape the boundaries between survival and murder. “A perfect enunciation of the classic philosophical conundrum: can you sacrifice one innocent life to save many?" (Yann Martel, author of Life of Pi) On May 19, 1884, the yacht Mignonette set sail from England on what should have been an uneventful voyage.