The Sun.
London, England, 1860-01-04 00:00:00

.ALLEGED 13RUTAL MURDER ON Till

HIGH SEAS.

On Monday, at the Hull Police-court, William
Lorenseu, a seaman, 18 years of age, attended be-
fore the stipendiary magistrate, Mr. Travis, and
made the following deposition upon oath :—" I am
a seaman OA board the Dutch schooner Maria. She
arrived in Hull three or four weeks'ago, from Mar-
seilles. She sailed from that pipit to Hull ; she
sailed from Malta to Trieste, and thence to
Marseilles. They had on board one able seaman,
two ordinary seamen, the cook, the mate, and
master. The cook's name was Fritz Lausman,
and he was shipped at Hamburgh. His age was
16, and he had never been to sea before, and the
day after he left Hamburg he was sent aloft to furl
one of the sails. He was very much frightened,
and only partly did the work. When he came
down on the deckjthe captain:and the:mate beat the
lad. On that occasion he got ten lashes with a
rope's end. Whenever Lausman could not work
he was beaten, and the captain and mate had a
violent hatred against him after the first beating.
He was beaten a day or two after the first time
because he could not remember the names of the
different ropes. On that occasion he got 20 lashes
with a cane. He called out terribly, and there were
marks all over him. The captain and mate beat
him many times afterwards. On the last day he
was beaten he got 80 lashes, but the captain
threatened to give him 160 lashes. The day before
he died he was not beaten ; but they tied his head
between his legs. Then they put a piece of wood
behind his neck, and another behind his knees,
then tied both pieces of wood together, having first
made the deceased bend double. In this
state they threw him about the deck, and
the mate threw chains upon him. •On ten or
twelve different days he was treated in this way,
sometimes twice a day, remaining so tied for half
an hour, and:sometimes for an hour. The captain
also made him drink urine ; but this the witness
did not see. The captain hungered the deceased.
:When he,was tied up, and the chains were upon
him, ho cried out that he could not breathe, and
could endure it no longer. The day before
he died the chains were upon him for half an
hour—from the time he was tied up to the time
he was liberated. He was tied up at half-
past five, and at midnight he was ordered to
go to the pump. When he got hold of the pump
he fell down and 'never spoke again. He died
about ten o'clock the next morning. That was on
the 13th of August, and the vessel was off a small
island belonging to Sicily. In the evening, when
the sun went down, deceased was thrown over-
board in his sleeping clothes. There were marks all
over the body, except the chest. There were also
many small holes and wounds. The body was
coloured red and blue. About four weeks before
deceased died on one day he got first ten lashes,
then twenty, then forty, and then eighty. The
face of deceased was so swollen with blows that he
could not be recognised. Sometimes he had to take
off his clothes and receive lashes on the bare skin."
The Danish consul and the collector of customs at
Hull were , corresponded with by the magistrate,
and the case is to be further inquired into.