The Sun.
London, England, 1852-08-23 00:00:00

AUG-UST 23, 185'2.

THE WRECKERS AT THE NORE.
SOUTHEND, SATURDAY.—An investigation of Con-
siderable importance, arising out of the recent attack
of the Southend boatmen upon the wreck of the Re-
nown, has just been brought to a close, after three
entire days' duration. The prsceedings were opened
on Thursday last, in the magistrates' room at Roch-
furd, when the leaders of the alleged wreckers were
brought up on a summons, which had been issued at
the instance of the owner and underwriters of the
wrecked schooner. Their names are Henry Childs,
master of the New Dart ; John Jemson, master of
the William, of Southend ; William Frost, master of
the Assistance ; Abraham Robinson, master of the
Hemburgh ; George Myall, of the New Dart ;
William Robinson, master of the Susannah; and
William Robinson, master of the Four Brothers; and
they were severally charged with committing the
double offence of having, on the night of the 24th of
July, " wrongfully carried away certain large quan-
tities of stores and property from a stranded ship,
called the Renown, then lying wrecked on the Nore
Sand ;" and "forcibly entering on board the vessel
Renown, without leave or consent of the persons in
charge thereof."
The bench comprised the Rev. T. S. Scraton,
charman ; the Rev. Dr. Eden, Bishop of Moray and
Ross, in Scotland; Mr. Daniel Scraton, Deputy
Lieutenant of the county; the Rev. Calcutta White,
and Mr. Jones Tabor. The examination excited a
vast amount of interest, as was evidenced by the
crowded state of the court.
Mr. Henry Horn, barrister, of the Home Circuit,
with Mr. Morgan, attorney of Maidstone, conducted
the prosecution ; and Mr. Pelham, the London at-
torney, in conjunction with Mr. Vood, of Rochford,
appmearr.ed Hofronr, tihne defendants.
oponiogthe
case, said the proceeding
was instituted under the 45th section of the Wreck
and Salvage Act, the 9th and 10th of Victoria, chap.
99, which enacted, " that every person who shall
wrongfully carry away or remove any part of any
ship or vessel which shall be in distress, wrecked,
stranded, or cast on shore, or any goods, &c., of such
ship, shall forfeit any sum not exceeding 501." He
must tell the defendants that they were much be-
holden to the clemency of the prosecutors that they
were not charged with the offence, not many years
ago a capital one, of piratically plundering a stranded
vessel. It was important that these lawless defen-
dants, as well as others similarly situated and similarly
disposed, should learn through the medium of this
prosecution, that the acts which they had committed
could not be tolerated in any civilized and trading
country. The Learned Counsel then proceeded to
detail the facts, and concluded by calling a number
of witnesses.
The evidence adduced in support of the information
was exceedingly voluminous, but the subjoined narra-
tave will furnish the main facts. The schooner was
bound from Alloa to London, with a cargo of pig
iron and glass bottles, and on the night of the 24th of
July struck on the Nore Sand, and shortly filled.
The crew left her at two o'clock on the following
morning and proceeded in a boat to Sheerness, which
they reached at four o'clock. There they were re-
ferred to Mr. Edgecombe, a shipping agent in the
town, who advised the master to send the mate and
hands back to the ship, which he acceded to, and the
mate and two Sheerness boatmen went off to the
wreck. They got to her about half-past seven, and
found her in chage of Lieutenant St. Aubyn, R.N.,
of the Shoeburyness Coast Guard station, and that
gentleman, satisfying himself as to the authority of
the mate, surrendered to him the possession of the
vessel. The mate and men unbent some sails, and
were proceeding with their work, when, at about
half-past nine, their attention was drawn to the ap-
pearance of ten or twelve boats sailing from South-
end. One boat came alongside, and the defendant
Childs sprang into the main rigging, and, hailing the
mate, who was then upon the Corevard unbending
the mainsail, inquired if the vessel was insured. Tee
mate replied that she was, but he did not want their
help, as there was a boat coming from Sheerness.
Another of the defendants followed Childs, and they
observed that, as the vessel was insured, they should
go to work for the benefit of the underwriters, as there
was no time to be lost, as she was going down in the
sand. Notwithstanding the mate's remonstrance, the
men commenced with knives and hatchets to strip
the vessel of her rigging, sails, and everything which
could be reached, and to deposit what they obtained in
their boats. At the end of half-an-hour it would
seem that the mate, at the request of the boatmen, as
averred, informed them as to the places in the hold
where the stores and cargo were stowed, and as-
sisted in getting a sail into the boat. About eleven
o'clock a whale-boat, containing Mr. Edgecombe,
with the master of the schooner and some Sheerness
boatmen, arrived, and the agent and master addressed
the Southend men, and told them that they were act-
ing very wrong. Mr. Edgecombe desired them to
leave, as did the master. They replied that they knew
what they were about, and were determined that Edge-
combe should not make 'another Apollo of her." The
agent, fearing from their threats and violent language
that forcible opposition on his part would lead to a
collision, and perhaps to bloodshed, he left the
schooner, and, with the master, returned to Sheer-
ness, and they applied to the admiral of the port,
Admiral Percy. The African steamer, well manned
and armed, under the command of Lieutenant Bul-
lock, R.N., was instantly sent out, and as she neared
the schooner, at about half-past two, the boats hoisted
sail and fled with the greatest precipitation to South-
end. The steamer, with the assistance of her boats,
succeeded in capturing five of the delinquent vessels.
Two marines were then placed on board each captured
vessel, and the cargo deposited with Mr. Hay, the
receiver of the droits, for security, under the superin-
tendence of Commander Henry, of the Coast Guard.
The witnesses were cross-examined by Mr. Pelham
at some length, and from Mr. Edgecombe it was
elicited that the affair of the Apollo alluded to took
place some time ago. It was that of a vessel which
was stranded in the neighbourhood, and the defen-
dants, at his desire, took what was saved from her
into Sheerness. For some reasons, not correctly
explained, the men were not remunerated for their
services.
Mr. PELHAM then addressed the bench for the
defendants, and contended that the case must fail, as
the Act of Parliament gave power to salvors to per-
form salvage service with or without consent; the
19th section was passed doubtlessly to meet a case of
emergency like this, and it never could be contem-
plated that the 40th section was intended to prevent
salvage service being rendered while the 19th section
encouraged it. But he would urge that the case must
fall to the ground, as the defendants were authorised
by the receiver of droits at Southend to go to the
wreck, and to assist in saving property from the
wreck, and another important fact in their favour
was, that the mate had actually encouraged the men
by assisting them in saving the goods, and stowing
them away in the boats. The real cause and origin
of the prosecution was the envy Mr. Edgecombe bore
to the Southend people. The men acted upon the
supposed right of saving all they possibly could from
vessels stranded on the shoals in the vicinity of the
Thames. What they had done was done boldly, fear-
lessly, and honestly, never supposing that they were
violating the law in not obtaining permission, although
they were armed with the authority of the receiver of
droits and of those who were on the wreck to enter
on board.
Mr. WOOD then made a powerful appeal on behalf
of some other of the defendants.
Witnesses for the defence were then examined.
Mr. Hay, the receiver of droits, deposed to having
given authority to one of the defendants to go to the
vessel to render assistance, as he had done on pre-
vious occasions when vessels were stranded in the
neighbourhood. He knew all the defendants, and
gave them an excellent character.
A large number of boatmen who had gone out in
the vessels belonging to the defendants were examined
at considerable length, and they positively contra-
dicted, with one exception, the statement made by the
mate, to the effect that they had been forbidden to
go on board ; on the contrary, they said the mate
permitted them to go on board, and assisted them in
saving the property.
This having closed the evidence, the court was
cleared, and, after some deliberation,
The Rev. Mr. SCRATTAN (the Chairman) in a brief
address, acquitted the defendants of the first charge—
that they had wrongfully carried away cargo. On the
second complaint, however, the Bench were unani-
mously of opinion that it had been proved, and that
they had entered on board the vessel without_ They
therefore leave or permission of the persons in charge-
therefore sentenced each of them to pay a fine ofs 1 ,
or be imprisoned one month. He trusted that the
lenient course the Bench had taken would not be lost
sight of, and that it would act as a warning to the
men to be more cautious for the future in boarding
vessels against the will of those in charge.
The proceeding; then terminated.

IMPUDENT ROBBERY AT IVIGAN.-011 Saturday
night last, or early on Sunday morning, the corner stone of
the Public Hall, to be erected in King-street, was removed
by some thieves, who stole a glass bottle, containing a
crown, a half-crown, a florin, a shilling, a sixpence, a four-
penny piece, a threepenny piece, and a three-halfpenny
piece, in silver, and some copper coins, together with a
number of papers and documents connected with the origin
of the Public llall, On Sunday morning the bottle was
found broken in Darlington-street, and with it were found
the papers that had been deposited therein. —Manchester
Guardian.
IMPORTANT SEIZURE or SMUGGLERS AND TOBACCO.
—On Thursday the Coast Guard officers near Gravesend ob-
served a French lugger, with four men, dodging about the
entrance to one of the creeks in that locality. Suspicion
being entertained, the lugger was boarded by the Cotist
Guard and rummaged, when twelve baskets and eighteen
barrels of herrings were found, and underneath these were
eighty-one bales of , foreign unmanufactured tobacco, each
bale weighing 501bs. tobacco has been delivered into
the Queen's warehouse at this port, and the vessel seized,
while the men await directions from the Commissioners as
to their prosecation.