Statistics will show that this article will get very few “reads” unless I substitute the heading with the words “FREE BOAT!” And fair enough, because people don’t come to SWS for a dose of political and social reality. But there are plenty of small things we can do in our daily lives to try to reduce the frequency of these ongoing tragedies.

In May 2021 a boat from Mauritania full of dead men was found adrift off the coast of the Caribbean Island of Tobago. Forensic investigation by local police discovered that the boat came from Mauritania, a West African nation on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Who were these men and why have they been found so far from home?