They Threw 132 People Overboard For Insurance Money The Zong Massacre of 1781: British slave ship crew systematically murdered 132 enslaved Africans by throwing them overboard to collect insurance money. Captain Luke Collingwood and his crew pushed women and children through cabin windows, then men, over three days in November-December 1781. The ship's owners sued insurers for "lost cargo" under maritime law's "general average" principle. British courts initially ruled in favor of the murderers,