The Sun.
London, England, 1853-02-04 00:00:00

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

MANSION-HOUSE.—In consequence of a represen-
tation made to the Lord Mayor by the secretary to the
Hudson's Bay Company; that a native of the Sandwich
Isles, who had been engaged, together with fourteen
others, inhabitants of Honolulu, to navigate the ship
called the Pekin home to England, had been killed on the
passage, an inquiry was actively instituted. Mr. May-
nard, of the firm of Crowder and Maynard, appeared to
take part in the investigation, and Mr. MuHens, of the
firm of Bush and Mullens, attended for Thomas Golden
Vaile, mate of the vessel, the person charged upon suspi-
cion of having caused the death of the deceased with
violence. With the assistance of the Rev. Mr. Ellis, who
had been during a considerable period a missionary at
those islands, the statements made by the natives who
witnessed the transaction on board were laid before the
Lord Mayor, who was during the day occupied exclusively
in examining the witnesses.
By the consent of the solicitors on both sides, Mr.
Goodman, the chief clerk, read the depositions taken as
the foundation of an application for a warrant against
the mate, in order that they might be used as evidence
to sanction the remand of the accused. The following is
the substance of the testimony, which was given without
the slightest hesitation by the black crew.
Each of the islanders, upon being questioned by the
Lord Mayor as to his knowledge of the nature of an
oath, said, "A man who tells a lie will have nothing
but pain hereafter (pointing to the fire.) The spirit of a
good man will leave his body and go to heaven. The
truth is always told when the heart is warm (purely
directed.) God is Jehovah in heaven. The body dies
—goes to dust. The soul lives after death. It never
dies. The oath I take is like a prayer calling upon God
to look and see that what I say is true."
Tom, a native of the Sandwich Island Oahu, said—l
was on board the Pekin as a sailor. There were fifteen
of us natives on board. I know the man named Doyle.
He was one of our number, and I recollect his dying on
board. I saw the mate (Mr. Vaile) hit him on the
back of the neck. The blow was struck about eleven
o'clock in the day. Doyle did not die at that time. He
died at four grogs (four o'clock) in the night after.
Doyle was down on the deck, but was going up
into the rigging. I was up in the rigging at the time.
The mate struck him four times, and Doyle fell down. He
lay down on the deck, and I did not hear him speak after
that. I never heard him ask for some water after that.
He died at four o'clock, down below. None of the
natives beat Doyle. The mate beat him with big wood
(a large piece of firewood), about the size of my arm. I
was in the middle rigging, and Doyle was behind me.
He was a little way up, and the mate was on the deck,
and went up after him and struck him, and Doyle fell
down on the deck, and then the mate struck him again,
and Doyle never spoke afterwards.
Joe, a native of Oahu, said—l knew Doyle. I think
his name was Macaulie. I recollect his dying in the
ship. I have not seen anybody do anything to him be-
fore he died, except the mate, who beat him. I was in
the maintopsail. I was down on deck. The mate beat
him with a stick, or wood, or rope, or something or
other across the back of the neck. He beat him once,
then Doyle fell, and was going to get up, but could not
rise. He fell down, and was like sleep, and he lay down.
That's all. I did not hear him speak. No one else beat
him. He was taken forward. He had nothing to eat
after that. I spoke to him, but he could not speak. I
helped
to carry him down, and he did so [here the wit-
ness turned up his eyes and drew his breath in imitation of
a person in the last agonies]. The mate was Mr. "Wale."
Doyle was not sick before, He was black in the neck
and eye—one eye when I sewed him up. He was also
black on the side. The mate struck him two or three
times after the first time, and he could not get up again,
and I think he died from that. I was in the maintop.
Doyle was ordered to go up, but he had a large foot and
could not, and that was the cause of the mate's striking
him. The mate struck him on the ribs as well as the
neck, and struck him on the eye too, and made that bad.
I told the captain in the morning the man was dead, and
the captain told me to sew the dead man up. We all
went to tell the captain.
The following are the statements made by the captain
and second mate of the vessel :
Capt. George Whitby said—l was master of the ship
Pekin, which belongs to Messrs. Smith, of London and
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on a voyage from Columbia River,
Oregon Territory, to Honolulu, in the Sandwich Isles, and
from thence to England. We left Columbia River on the
26th of July, 1852, and arrived at Honolulu at the end of
August. I had at that time only three able seamen in ad-
dition to myself, two officers, and three apprentices, to na-
vigate the ship. As I could not find any Europeans there
whom I could engage to assist in navigating the vessel,
I engaged at Honoluhu 15 natives to help me in so doing.
We left Honoluhu on the 2d of September, and on the
25th or 26th December one of the men, whom we nick-
named Doyle, died suddenly on board whilst we were
about a day's sail from the Western Islands. About
eight o'clock on the morning, the chief mate, Thomas
Golden Vaile, came to the door of the cuddy, and said
that Doyle was dead, and that the cook had told him so.
The weather at that time was so boisterous that I had
not an opportunity of examining the body until two
o'clock in the afternoon, but I then found no appear-
ances indicating that any violence had been committed,
nor was I aware, nor am I now aware, of any violence
having been committed upon him. On the day before
the death all hands were ordered aloft to reef the main-
topsail, and the deceased was the last to go up. He
had gone about half way up the rigging, but could not
go up higher. I believe he was then in proper
health. The chief mate, seeing that he would not
go up, went up to him, and told him to go up, and
he refused. The mate then took a rope and tied
if round his body once, and tied him to the rigging for
about one minute. I ordered the mate to let the man
come down, as it was no use to punish him. No personal
violence was used by the mate beyond the tying the man
round the body. I saw Doyle afterwards during the day.
He made no complaint, but he asked for a little water,
which was not given to him. He did not appear ill.
There had been a great deal of quarreling between the
deceased and the other natives during the voyage. The
other natives had refused to allow him to go into the
forecastle off Cape Horn. I saw no difference in the
state of Doyle's health after he came down from the
rigging. When he come down he lay upon the deck,
and the mate ordered hira to be carried below, but the
other natives carried him under the forecastle, and did
not take him below. I afterwards ordered him to be
taken down below, and he was accordingly carried down.
I did not see him again till he was dead. It was so
much the custom of the natives to lie about the deck that
I did not consider his doing so anything unusual.
Francis Saarsfield Comyn, second mate on board the
Pekin, said I remember the death of the native named
Doyle. I was not aware of his having been ill or sick,
nor did I hear him complain of sickness. I did not see
whenps
the mate strike Doyle the day before the man died. I
saw him going to strike him with a piece of old lead line,
but I told him not to do so, and he did not. After
wDaosylsetawoadsiodgeaodo his face
and
the li
matew e were
wasgoingswollen. t
strikeo Doyle
him. I saw Doyle lie down. Valle did not knock him
down. I did not see the mate or any other person use
violence to the deceased. I believe the death of Doyle
to have been natural. I saw him in the rigging the day
before. I did not see him tied there. He might have
been there perhaps half an hour. I had seen him at
work well enough four hours before that time. I was
not aware that he was ill till after he was dead. I think
it was between eleven and twelve o'clock when I saw
the mate going to strike him ; but I know that the mate
did not strike him. I never heard of any complaint
being made about the deceased having been subjected to
any ill-treatment.

Mr. Mullens said that his client had left Newcastle-
upon-Tyne for the purpose of coming to London, to face
the inquiry the moment he heard of the accusation, and
was ready to give bail to any amount to appear and an-
swer the charge in its future stages.
The Lord Mayor said he would accept bail ; and, un-
exceptionable securities having been offered and taken,
the case was adjourned for further examination.

GIIILDHALL.—Mr. John Chuck, a broker, in Shoe-
lane, was summoned before Sir James Duke and Alder-
man Copeland, to answer a complaint for making other
charges in respect to a distress for rates than are per-
mitted to be made in the schedule of such charges in the
act for regulating distresses,
John Richards, a coffee-house keeper, of 14, London-
wall, said the defendant distrained his goods three weeks
before Christmas for 15s, the consolidated rate, and 10s.
the sewers rate. The goods were taken away, sold by
public auction for 3/. 6s. 6d., and the expenses with the
rates amounted to 3/. 9s. 3.; neither a copy of the dis-
tress warrant, inventory, or any other paper was left by
the defendant at the time of the seizure.
Alderman Copeland asked for the warrant, and on re-
ceiving it expressed his astonishment at perceiving that
it contained the names of several other parties, whose
goods had also been distrained. The worthy alderman
inquired if it was customary to include the names of
twenty persons in one warrant ?
Mr. Wood, the chief clerk, said that such was the
universal practice with regard to rates.
Alderman Copeland then asked if every person named
in the warrant was charged the expense of it ?
Mr. Wood said it was so.
Alderman Copeland said if that was the case the prac-
tice ought to be altered, and the sooner it WM brought
before the Court of Sewers the better, for such a prac-
tice ought not to be allowed to exist in the city of
London.

Sir James Duke inquired if the defendant seized all
the furniture in the place for 255.
The defendant said he had done so.
Alderman Copeland asked if it was the practice to
seize all the furniture in the house for rates over and
above the amount of the claim?
The defendant said ho generally took what was suffi-
cient to cover the rates, and sometimes he did not seize
enough, and when he took more than would meet the
claim he returned the overplus.
Alderman Copeland said he did not consider, with re-
gard to the goods, that there had been a bona fide sale,
and he also thought that the complainant had not been
fairly dealt by in the matter. However, he would ad-
journ the case until Tuesday next, and in the meantime
see Mr. Deputy Peacock upon the subject, in order that
the Court of Sewers might be held at an earlier hour,
to enable him to give his decision in the case before him.
The papers and documents were then impounded by
the Court, and the summons was adjourned.

WESTMINSTER.— Wm. Potter, a cab-driver, was
charged with the following disgraceful conduct :
Benjamin Williams, servant in the establishment of
Mr. R. Martin, 21, aton-square, stated that defendant
drove home a lady to his master's house She little Fe
fore one on the morning of the 26th ult. gav hip
a shilling for his fare and came into the hall, when wit-
ness was about to close the door, but defendant pre
vented him, and thrusting the door open followed the

lady. He then exclaimed, "Two shillings I must have,
and two shillings I will have before I leave the house,"
and he would see witness before he went out of
the house without. He then trust his fist it witness's
face. The latter, • notwithstanding his threats, seized
him by the collar and forced him outside the door, but
was unable to close it in consequence of defendant's
clinging to the frame.
Mr. Broderip said he would not be doing his duty to
the public if he did not make an example of this case.
He therefore committed defendant for one month to hard
labour in the House of Correction. •

LIFE 130 ATS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.

Sir,—Another lamentable accident, causing the loss o
six lives, having happened to one of the " prize life
boats," and the occurrence of a third within so short a
period being well calculated to shake all confidence in
them, I beg to solicit the admission into your columns 4e°
an explanation of its cause, together with a few remarks
which I believe may be useful towardspreventing similar
accidents in future, not only to other life boats at those
places where there management may not already bo un-
derstood, but also to ordinary ships' boats when com-
pelled to desert their vessels and attempt to land in a
heavy surf.
In again offering my opinion on this subject through
the medium of The Times, I do so with the more confi-
dence from being in no manner interested in the success
of Mr. Beeching's over other life boats, or being in any
way connected with the society which has adopted them,
beyond the sympathy naturally existing between those
who are labouring in the same cause ; my object being,
by pointing out what I believe to have been the true
cause of this calamity, to pre rent a prejudice, without
sufficient foundation, from beng taken against the many
boats of this build, already stationed on the coast, and
to lead, by discussion of the question, to some more uni-
versally recognised and established rule for the manage-
ment of life boats in general.
As was the case with the boats at Lytham and Caer-
narvon, so also this one was under sail at the time she
was upset. She had been to a wreck at a distance of six
or eight miles from the land, and was on her return in
the night time, running before the wind and sea, when,
on nearing the shore and getting within the broken
water, a heavy breaker threw her stern up and buried
her lea gunwale under water ; she then broached-to,
broadside on to the sea, and was turned over by the fol-
lowing wave. The wind had previously fallen light, so
that the accident was occasioned by the action of the sea
alone.
As this is the most frequent mode by which boats are
lost in a surf, whether with a sail set or not, and as the
safety of any boat depends on her proper management
under such circumstancees, it will be well in the first
place to explain the nature of the danger, and especially
as it is understood by even few sailors, except the most
experienced fishermen and boatmen who pursue their
avocations on the open coast; and this for the simple
reason, that the crews of vessels, whether merchantmen
or men of war, never attempt to land in a heavy surf
but from necessity, and so have no means of acquiring
the practical knowledge which might avail them in the
hour of danger.
It is a well known thing to the seamen on the most
exposed parts of our coast that the chief danger to a
boat does not occur when going off against a heavy sea,
but on returning before it, at which time the greatest
skill and carefulness are necessary, even under oars, to
prevent a boat from broaching-to and turning broadside
on to the sea. Their experience has taught them that,
when seeing a heavy breaker following their boat up
from astern, instead of yielding to the natural impulse
of giving her all possible speed away from it, and so, as
might be expected, to lessen the violence of the shock,
their only safety lies in checking the boat's way through
the water, and keeping her end on to the sea until it has
passed them, to effect which they back their oars, or
even face a portion of the crew round the reverse way,
who row backwards with all their force against the
heaviest of the seas as they approach. If this precau-
tion be neglected, it is almost a matter of certainty that
the boat will broach-to broadside to the sea and be cap-
sized. In truth, in this manner nearly all the crews of
distressed vessels who take to their boats and attempt
to land through a heavy surf are drowned.
The circulation of this information among merchant
seamen may, I believe, be instrumental in saving many
lives. It is not, of course, pretended that it is an infal-
lible rule of safety ; a boat may be so short or small in
proportion to the magnitude of the waves, that they may
break over her bow or stern (whichever is to seaward)
at fill her at once, or throw her "end over end ;" but in
such a case it is their only chance.
With a boat under the command of oars this manage-
ment may be readily effected, but not so under sail,
since, even if the sails be lowered, the boat will probably
still retain too much speed, and if she broach-to with
the top weight of a mast and sail nothing can prevent
her capsizing if the sea be very heavy.
Without the top weight of a mast and sail, and with a
considerable amount of ballast, a life boat may, in the
like circumstances, go no further than her beam ends,
merely half filling with water, and then turning round
head to the sea ; and as I have witnessed such an effect
take place in one of Mr. Beeching's boats, of much
smaller dimensions than the one now in question (alluded
to in my former letter, which appeared in the Times of
the 15th October last), we may fairly conclude that had
this one had no mast and sail up she might not have been
upset.
It cannot, I conceive, be too urgently forced on the
attention of the crews of such life boats as have the
means of both rowing and sailing, that, if they have been
off to a distant wreck under sail, their proper course on
nearing the land, and before getting into broken water,
even if it be daylight, will be to get down their mast and
sail, and to take their boat carefully in under oars. In
the night time, as was the case in this instance, when
the breakers cannot be seen until the boat is among
them, to run over the bar of a river, or through any
heavy broken water, under sail, I consider to be an act
of extreme imprudence.
It may not be uninteresting even to the general reader
to point out what is evidently the cause of this unex-
pected effect of the action of the sea, which requires a
treatment the reverse of that which we should pursue on
an impending collision between two opposite forces upon
the land, and which makes it safer to boldly charge the
danger than to flee from it.

It would be unsuitable here to enter on the theory of
the waves as far as it is understood, and the fact is ob-
served by every one, that as they approach the shore,
and meet the rebound of those which have preceded
them, their violence is increased, and, acquiring now an
actually progressive motion, their upper stratum rushes
onward, and falls over like a cataract, while a constant
undercurrent or backwater at the same time setting off
against them serves but to increase their fury mil adds
greatly to their dangerous effects.
On a boat advancing against one of these waves, or, as
they are now denominated, rollers, from their rolling or
tumbling motion, or breakers, from their broken sur-
face, she receives the concussion of the blow, parts the
wave with her bow, by her own inertia retains her posi-
tion, and the immediate danger is past. To be sure, if
she be too short and small in proportion to the height of
the waves, she may be thrown almost into a perpendicu-
lar position and turned "end over end," as it is termed.
Or, again, if she be too cumbersome or her bow present
too broad or bluff a surface to the water, she may in a
very heavy sea lose her head way and be driven astern,
when, if she be straight sheered and have but little
height at her ends, she may be forced down stern fore-
most, or be turned over quarter ways. If, however, she
have sufficient height of bow to prevent the sea from
breaking in a large body over it, and enough power to
retain her headway over the crest of the wave, she has
nothing to fear.
On returning to the shore, however, if she attempt a
run from a heavy breaker or roller, it soon catches her,
throws her stern up, and carries her away with it ; she
cannot get away from it ; she and it together are run-
ning along at a frightful pace over the ground, yet she
has not steerage-way through the water, and is quite
unmanageable ; it hugs her and crowds on her more and
more ; it runs her bow under water ; the under current,
acting on her fore foot, turns her round broadside to the
sea, which still presses on her ; her whole lee side is
under water, and, if an ordinary open boat, she is in-
stantly upset. Even if she be a life-boat, unless she
has a large amount of well secured ballast, and although
she have no mast or sail up, she will probably be turned
quite over either by the same wave, or else by the fol-
lowing one, which will fall on her before she can recover
her position.
It may, therefore, be considered an axiom in the
management of all boats in a heavy sea and shoal water,
when going to windward to give the boat the greatest
possible speed against each sea as it approaches, and
when rowing to leeward to check her way and back her
against each wave until it has passed.
It may be useful here, if not intruding too much on
your space, to describe a contrivance adopted by the
fishermen on the Norfolk coast to prevent their boats
from broaching-to, which might 'with advantage be
imitated elsewhere. They have a long canvas bag called
a " drogue," made in the shape of a common candle ex-
tinguisher, the larger end, being two feet or more wide,
and the smaller having a hole through it. When a boat
is running before the sea in broken water, the drogue is
thrown over and towed astern by a stout rope with the
larger end foremost, and which, from the resistance that
it opposed to the water, holds the boat's stern back, and
tends to keep her endways to the sea. When the dan-
ger has passed the large tow rope can be let go, and it
is then towed, with the smaller end or apex of the cone
foremost, by a small line previously attached, when its
sides collapse, and it offers but little resistance to the
water. I believe that an article of this description
would be a valuable addition to the gear of every life-
boat. _

11; conclusion, Sir, I beg to state that, in my opinion,
this casualty ought not to militate against Mr. Beech-
ing's boats, although a recurrence of it might possibly
be less likely to occur had they iron keels instead of
water ballast ; that the same result might possibly have
taken place in any other description of boat under the
same circumstances ; and that the most profitable use
which may now be made of it is as a beacon to warn
against similar injudicious management in future cases.
Hoping that the above remarks may not be without
some use, if they only lead to a careful consideration of
the subject, and to collecting the opinions of those who
have greater experience than I have had an opportunity
for acquiring.—l am, Sir, your obedient servant,
J. R. WARD, Commander, R.N. ,
Inspector of Life-boats to the Royal National
Shipwreck Institution.

The Council of Legal Education have awarded to Mr.
William Whittaker Barry, of Lincoln's-inn, as the most
distinguished student at the public examination held
during the present Hillary Term, the studentship of 201.
a-year, to continuo for a period of three years.