The Sun.
London, England, 1862-10-27 00:00:00

EXTRAORDINARY FREAK OF A CAPTAIN.

1 The fine barque Usk, built in this port three
years ago, and owned by Mr. Thomas Beynon,
Dock-street, left Swansea for Caldera, with coals,
towards the end of April last. After being a short
time out, Captain Mathias, the master, put back to
Newport, and the owner had the vessel thoroughly
re-caulked and re-metalled. She proceeded to sea
from Newport in May, and, after a fine passage,
reached Falkland Islands, having been 59 days out,
and Cape Horn in 62 days. Here a gale came on,
which rapidly increased to a hurricane, and
threatened the ship every instant with total destruc-
tion: She stood beating about to the southward of
the Cape, and at length the captain walked aft and
" up with the wheel," telling the men " to wear
the ship." The mate was then asleep below, and
the crew of course judged that the object of this
must have been to get out of the hurricane and
into smooth water to the eastward of the Cape.
They soon found that the ship was speeding along
in the direction of Falkland Islands. This also
gave satisfaction. But Falkland Islands were
passed, and the ship still proceeded on her course,
leaving the Cape far behind. The mate then
came aft and asked Captain Mathias where he
was taking the ship, and why he neithertook
her into a place of shelter, nor prosecuted the voy-
age to Caldera. Captain Mathias told him that
" God Almighty had come into his cabin and ordered
him to take the ship back to Newport, threatening
him that if he took her on her voyage the ship and
all her crew should be destroyed." He added that
a mystery hung over the matter which should
never be revealed, but that the vision appeared to
him on the occasion of the hurricane off Cape Horn,
and " such being the will of the Almighty, he
should not place himself in opposition to it for the
sake of the owner, the ship, or anything else." This
intelligence must have startled the mate, but he re-
monstrated with the captain with some firmness.
He said, " Consider the serious loss you will cause
the owner by pursuing this course." And willing
at any rate to save the owners, he went further, and
proposed that Captain Mathias should go ashore,
leaving him, or putting some one else on board to
take command and prosecute the voyage. This
course, he urged, would release the captain from the
consequences of disobeying the commands of the
Most High. Captain Mathias immediately said,
" When my command of this ship is taken from
me, take a knife and stab me with it till I die. It
cuts me to the heart to take the ship home, and
perhaps ruin the owners, but such being the will of
God, I cannot disobey it for the sake of man." The
mate appealed to the crew, but they said that they
saw nothing the matter with the captain, and they
therefore thought it was their duty to continue to
obey him. Consequently, he ceased all opposition
to the captain's will, and the Usk continued her
passage home safe and sound from top to bottom,
her captain apparently happy and free from all
care, and devoting his leisure hours to the "conver-
sion" of his crew. Prayers were held nightly at
seven, and from that till nine none were allowed to
enter his sanctum, the cabin, where no doubt he
passed the time in ghostly studies. Newport and
Newport Docks were reached safely on Tuesday
evening, and, as may be supposed, this extraordi-
nary tale was repeated with a thousand exaggera-
tions and additions throughout the town, with the
speed of wildfire. Captain Mathias at once pro-
ceeded to Mr. Benyon's residence, and reported his
arrival to his amazed owner, who became very
naturally somewhat excited, when Mathias said,
"If you can't behave like a gentleman I shall go
home." Mr. Benyon replied that he was his em-
ployer, and he merely demanded a report of how
'he had acquitted himself of the trust he had
reposed in him. Mathias then detailed how the
Most High had entered his cabin and warned him
against prosecuting the voyage, telling him that he
was to go back straight to Newport, and if not, the
ship and the whole of her crew should perish. Mr.
Benyon, we are told, highly scandalised, here told
Mathia to " blaspheme no more," and the conversa-
tion took a more reasonable turn, Mathias insisting
upon his statement, and the owner listening to the
tale as the narration of some strange dream. The
captain, on Wednesday morning, took away every-
thing belonging to him from the ship. We may
add that the foregoing has been taken entirely from
the statements of the mate and the captain them-
selves, and may be relied upon as the correct version
or this extraordinary affair.—Brzstol Mercury.

ARRES7 OF A BANK MANAGER AT
MANCHESTER.

A good deal of excitement was created at Man-
chester on Saturday, by the arrest of Mr. Jonah
Andrews, " manager" of the City Bank of Man-
chester, on a charge of abstracting and applying to
his own use property of the bank to a very large
amount. The bank stopped payment last Tuesday,
and on Saturday evening a meeting of from 300 to
400 " shareholders" and creditors of the concern
was held in the Assembly-room, Free-trade hall, to
hear from the manager an exposition of its affairs.
The meeting had just commenced, and the manager
was about to speak, when it was observed that
there was a stranger in the room. The intruder
was no other than Sergeant Shanley, of the city
police, who on being ordered to withdraw produced
a warrant for the apprehension of Andrews, and at
once proceeded to execute it. The prisoner was con-
veyed in a hackney coach to the lockup at the Town-
hall. The warrant had been granted by the city
magistrates on Friday at the instance of Mr. Samuel
Lyon, merchant and broker, and charges the pri-
soner with having taken and applied to his own
use the sum of £37 17s. 6d., entrusted to him for
the purpose of meeting a bill of exchange at the
Union Bank, Moorgate-street, London. There are
other charges against him, one of which is that he
has abstracted and pledged securities held by the
bank, and these malpractices will involve, it is
said, a loss to the proprietors of something like
£120,000. The City Bank of Manchester, we are
informed, was originally started by Mr. Andrews
on his own account, but with a very insignificant
capital, as a savings bank, but by degrees it
changed its character and became a loan and insur-
ance as well as a savings bank, the persons who
lodged their savings in the bank becoming, under
the scheme of Mr. Andrews, proprietors, and loan-
ing their money at high rates of interest. The shares
were fixed at £5O each, which a depositor might
pay either in one sum, or by monthly instalments of
£1 extending over 50 months. The proprietors
were divided into and worked in classes, each class
appointing a committee to act on its behalf and re-
ceive and deal with applications for loans under the
advice and with the assistance of Mr. Andrews,
who for these services was paid a salary of £5,000
per annum, and was in fact the manager. We do
not know how many shareholders there are in the
bank, and how many constitute a class, but we
learn that there are 120 classes, and that the
holder of two shares of (£100) is eligible for elec-
tion upon the committee of his class. Some of the
proprietors are mon of property, many of them
shopkeepers and small tradesmen, and some of them
warehousemen and clerks, who have come in under
the monthly deposit scheme. The shareholders
appear to have had almost unbounded confidence
in their manager, and he had consequently access
to all the deeds and other securities held for loans,
and some of these securities are said to be for as
much as £7,000. The charges for loans varied from
10 to 15 per cent., according to the supposed value
of the security offered, and where advances were
large the borrower was required to give a life