# Did pigs really eat people on a ship in WW2? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 11, 2022, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-pigs-really-eat-people-on-a-ship-in-ww2/966050 "2022-06-11T23:13:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2022, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-pigs-really-eat-people-on-a-ship-in-ww2/966050/1 "2022-06-11T23:13:16Z")
I was reading one of Stephen Ambrose’s WW2 books and came across a throwaway line about pigs that had been kept on board a ship (for food, I’d guess) and got out during an attack by German aircraft? This was years ago, but the line always stuck with me. Is there any record of something like this happening? I know there was some controversy about his writing in other books. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2022, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-pigs-really-eat-people-on-a-ship-in-ww2/966050/2 "2022-06-11T23:45:13Z")
Is the title correct? The title asks about pigs eating people, but nothing about that in your actual question. Did you mean "Did people eat pigs … " instead? If so, maybe you are thinking of [Tirpitz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirpitz_(pig)), although you’ve got a lot of details wrong. What matches: - a pig kept on board for food - escaped during a battle What doesn’t match - WW1 not 2 - Escaped from a German ship attacked by British, not vice-versa. - didn’t eat anyone. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2022, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-pigs-really-eat-people-on-a-ship-in-ww2/966050/3 "2022-06-11T23:56:22Z")
Dammit, I made a goof. I did intend to add that the escaped pigs allegedly ate some dead bodies on the ship during the battle. Pretty sure it was WW2, unless Ambrose wrote WW1 books as well. I didn’t know about Tirpitz, though. Thanks for the interesting story. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2022, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-pigs-really-eat-people-on-a-ship-in-ww2/966050/4 "2022-06-12T00:17:38Z")
Legends (and facts) about people being eaten by pigs long predate WW2. Just a peek at out own archives show - > [@Civil War Mythology \[pigs eating battlefield dead\]](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-mythology-pigs-eating-battlefield-dead/521015): > > I recall in college we were discussing Arkansas experiences in the Civil War. There was one rather disturbing story about a famous battle on the Missouri/Arkansas border. Brig. Gen. John S. Marmaduke launched a preemptive strike into Missouri on April 26, 1863. Brig. Gen. John McNeil defeated the confederate troops at the battle of Cape Girardeau. Marmaduke retreated back into Arkansas and was pursued relentlessly until Little Rock ultimately fell and was occupied by the Union forces. Sterlin… But AFAIK, the only WW era story specific to any of your details was the one @Peter_Morris linked earlier. I mean, the story has a certain limited plausibility, in that shipboard animals were kept for food, and probably weren’t well fed themselves, but seems more like an urban legend rather than documented fact. Especially if it was a throwaway line, or someone repeating something they themselves had only heard 2nd/3rd/etc hand. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2022, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-pigs-really-eat-people-on-a-ship-in-ww2/966050/5 "2022-06-12T00:28:21Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > Especially if it was a throwaway line, or someone repeating something they themselves had only heard 2nd/3rd/etc hand. It could very well be secondhand, especially if Ambrose interviewed veterans for his book. I just remember it because it was such an odd story. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2022, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-pigs-really-eat-people-on-a-ship-in-ww2/966050/6 "2022-06-13T04:41:24Z")
Pigs were absolutely kept on ships for food, although I wasn’t aware that carried on as late as WWII. That’s in fact how guinea pigs got the second half of their name, as they were kept on ships off the Pacific coast of South America for the same purpose as pigs were used elsewhere - would eat any scraps on board, and were good eating themselves - so they say, anyway! ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2022, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-pigs-really-eat-people-on-a-ship-in-ww2/966050/7 "2022-06-14T21:44:16Z")
According to his Viet Nam memoir _Rumor of War_, Phillip Caputo saw pigs eating the corpses of naplamed villagers; he wrote of the surreality of seeing pigs eat roast people. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2022, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-pigs-really-eat-people-on-a-ship-in-ww2/966050/8 "2022-06-14T23:31:22Z")
I’ve seen news reports about farmers falling in hog pens. The result wasn’t pretty. > [@](#): > > Terry Vance Garner, 69, was raising several hogs weighing up to 700 pounds. His remains were found last week in the hog enclosure at his farm, but authorities have not been able to determine a cause of death. > “All we know is he died some way, and the pigs ate him. Most of him,” Garner’s brother, Michael Garner, told the Los Angeles Times. > Coos County Dist. Atty. R. Paul Frasier said in a news release that authorities are trying to determine whether Garner was attacked by the animals and knocked to the ground, or whether he perhaps suffered a heart attack or other malady and fell unconscious inside the pen. Foul play has not been ruled out. Site: [Oregon farmer eaten by hogs: Did he fall -- or was he attacked?](https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-xpm-2012-oct-02-la-na-nn-oregon-farmer-eaten-by-hogs-20121002-story.html) ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2022, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-pigs-really-eat-people-on-a-ship-in-ww2/966050/9 "2022-06-19T10:23:23Z")
The Japanese put POW’s into pig cages ( cages used to transport pigs or keep them safe at night, or on a ship. ) . It wouldn’t be totally implausible to think that the japanese fed pigs with whatever food was at hand… They massacred POW’s . executed them on implausible charges, and just neglected them badly. They didnt keep good records of POW’s , let alone deceased POW’s. There was apparently an incident where POW’s were transported to the sea in the pig cages, and thrown in. Perhaps it was done this way so as the culprits could not be identified, they couldn’t even know if the POW’s were transported elsewhere, and not thrown into the sea. The accused Lieutenant General was prosecuted and jailed for other POW murders so its plausible in that respect. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2022, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-pigs-really-eat-people-on-a-ship-in-ww2/966050/10 "2022-06-20T13:39:38Z")
Google Robert Pickton. They charged him based on the number of victims identified - by DNA in the teeth found in the pig manure pile. The one thing too tough for the pigs to chew up was teeth. Apparently the police hired the entire graduating archeology class of the University of British Columbia for a summer job sifting pig manure for teeth. Pigs are omnivores - they eat anything; just like humans. (Or, in Hawaiian jargon, “long pig”). There’s also the Michael Palin movie “A Private Function” where the village upper crust are raising an illegal pig for a feast to celebrate the royal wedding and some hilarious bits include finding anything and everything they can to feed it, including trivial bits like nail clippings.