Richard Parker is the name of several people in real life and fiction who became shipwrecked, with some of them subsequently being cannibalised by their fellow seamen:

• In Edgar Allan Poe
  Edgar Allan Poe
  Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
  
  's only novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
  The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
  The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket is the only complete novel written by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. The work relates the tale of the young Arthur Gordon Pym, who stows away aboard a whaling ship called the Grampus...
  
  , published in 1838, Richard Parker is a mutinous sailor on the whaling ship Grampus. After the ship capsizes in a storm, he and three other survivors draw lots upon Parker's suggestion to kill one of them to sustain the others. Parker then gets cannibalized.

• In 1846, the Francis Spaight foundered at sea. Apprentice Richard Parker was among the twenty-one drowning victims of that incident, though there were no cases of cannibalism.

• In 1884, the yacht Mignonette sank. Four people survived and drifted in a life boat before one of them, the cabin boy Richard Parker, was killed by the others for food. This led to the R v Dudley and Stephens
  R v Dudley and Stephens
  R v Dudley and Stephens [1884] 14 QBD 273 DC is a leading English criminal case that established a precedent, throughout the common law world, that necessity is no defense against a charge of murder. It concerned survival cannibalism following a shipwreck and its purported justification on the...
  
   criminal case.

Another Richard Parker was involved in the Spithead and Nore mutinies

Spithead and Nore mutinies

The Spithead and Nore mutinies were two major mutinies by sailors of the Royal Navy in 1797. There were also discontent and minor incidents on ships in other locations in the same year. They were not violent insurrections, being more in the nature of strikes, demanding better pay and conditions...

 in 1797 and subsequently hanged, but not eaten.

Writer Yann Martel

Yann Martel

Yann Martel is a Canadian author best known for the Man Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi.-Early life:Martel was born in Salamanca, Spain where his father was posted as a diplomat for the Canadian government. He was raised in Costa Rica, France, Mexico, and Canada...

 in his 2001 novel Life of Pi

Life of Pi

Life of Pi is a fantasy adventure novel by Yann Martel published in 2001. The protagonist, Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry, explores issues of spirituality and practicality from an early age...

picked up on these occurrences, surmising "So many Richard Parkers had to mean something", and included a shipwrecked tiger by the name of "Richard Parker" in the book.

Playwright Owen Thomas

Owen Thomas (playwright)

Owen Thomas is a playwright, originally from Mid Wales who is now living and working in Cardiff.He is Head of Drama at Y Pant School, Llantrisant, where he also runs a successful Youth Theatre. He has also taught Youth Theatre sessions in various theatres around South Wales including 6 years at...

 wrote a play called "Richard Parker

Richard Parker

-People:*Richard Parker , American economist and member of The Nation Editorial Board*Richard Parker , British sailor and leader of the Nore Mutiny*Richard A...

". The play was a dark comedy exploring the notion of coincidence.