The Sun.
London, England, 1866-04-09 00:00:00

The following is the substance of the official re-
port of the inquiry into the conduct of Captain
Campbell :

" The charges against the master aro for gross miscon-
duct, tyranny, and drunkenness, and are preferred against
him under the following circumstances. The Scotland left

London for Calcutta on Dec. 1, 1864. During that voyage
the master, for some cause not explained, seems to have
taken up a hostile feeling against the officers of the ship,

particularly the first mate, Joseph Singleton, who makes
the following entry in the ship's log of the date Jan. 25,
1865 The master turned me away from the tea-table,
calling me a wretch, a brute, and thief, &c.,
and told the steward to serve out my allowance the same as
the men' About three or four weeks after this the mas-
ter's animosity against the first mate, Singleton, bi oke forth
in an act of great and illegal violence, which is thus de-
scribed by ono of the witnesses, Alexander Sangster, the
sailmaker, the substance of whose evidence is briefly as
follows : —He says that Singleton was ordered by the mas-
ter to go over the ship's side and scrape barnacles off the
ship; that on his refusal to do so the master ordered him
to be put in irons, and he was handcuffed and placed in a
water-closet off the cabin, where be remained from 4 p.m.
till midnight, when he contrived to release himself, and
was found lying in the cabin, when the master took a piece
of rattlin and rove it round the mate's arms, and gripped
both elbows behind him, put the iron handcuffs on again,
and tied the line to a staple in the stanchion, and lashed
him up with his hands flush with his shoulders, and his
toes just touching the deck ; that the first mate was cry-
ing all the time, and in this state he was left for several
hours in the water-closet, the master saying he would
tame him there,' and that he would not refuse him again
in a hurry.' No entry of the alleged offences or of the
punishment appears in the official log, nor is there any
notice of the fact in the ship's log, nor indeed any notice
whatever either of misconduct by the crew, or ill-treatment
by the master on the outward voyage. On the arrival of
the ship, however, at Calcutta, charges and counter- charges
seem to have been made, and several appearances before
magistrates, but nothing decided by them until the dis-
putes ended in an assualt upon the master by some of the
crew, for vihich several of them were sentenced to various
terms of imprisonment. Eventually the officers and all
the crew, with the exception of four, were paid off, and the
Scotland, having taken in her cargo and obtained a fresh
crew, commenced her homeward voyage on the 21st of
July, 1865. Before the ship got out of the River Hooghly
the master seems to have given way to his irritable humour,
behaving,' as the first mate, Peterson, says, more like a
madman than a Christian, calling the pilot a name of the
most offensive kind, and running about the deck to get the
men to work, but I answered it was interrupting the
work.' In one of these fits of excitement he obstinately
put himself in the way of the hawser, which being strained
flew up and broke his leg. This injury no doubt increased
the irritability of his temper, and caused him to use the
threatening expressions and behave in such a manner as,
coupled with what they had heard of his conduct on the
previous voyage, to excite the apprehensions or resentment
of the crew, and led to their committing an act of insubor-
dination by taking possession of the ship, and insisting
upon going to Madras or back to Calcutta. No violence,
however, was offered or threatened by them, and by the
inference of the officers and one or two of the crew the
matter was arranged, the crew agreeing to abandon their
intention of returning to Calcutta on condition that the
master signed a paper exculpating them, and destroyed
the entries against them in the official log. This
was agreed to, and the pages of the official log con-
taining those entries were torn out by the master, and
the ship proceeded on her voyage. No further outbreak oc-
curred, though a feeling of dissatisfaction existed, and the
master's threats and irritating behaviour were occasionally
repeated. On the arrival of the ship at the Island of Ascen-
sion a formal charge of insubordination was preferred by
the master against six of the seamen, and a naval court was
held to investigate the charge, who advised that the persons
accused should be sent to England for trial, 'the Court con-
sidering the offence so grave that no punishment they could
award would be sufficient.' The six prisoners were accord-
ingly sent to England, and indicted at the last February
sessions of the Central Criminal Court 'for piratically and
feloniously making a revolt on board the ship,' when evi-
dence to the effect hereinbefore mentioned as to the conduct
of the master towards his crew, and particularly in refer-
ence to his treatment of the first mate, Singleton, on the
outward voyage, was produced, and a verdict of acquittal
was returned as to two of the prisoners, and a formal con-
viction of the other four, one of whom was discharged on
recognisances to appear to receive judgment when called
upon ; and the other three were sentenced to one week's
imprisonment each. So slight a punishment for an offence
so grave as that charged was virtually an acquittal, and an
inquiry was, in consequence, ordered to be held, under the
Merchant Shipping Act, upon the charge of gross miscon-
duct, tyranny, and drunkenness on the part of the master.
On this inquiry, the witnesses whose evidence accom-
panies this report have been examined, and upon their
testimony we have come to the following conclusions :
First, that though the habitual drunkenness has not been
proved, the free use of spirituous liquors by a man of
such an excitable and violent temper is to be condemned.
Secondly, that the putting the first mate, Joseph Singleton,
in irons in the manner and for the reasons alleged was
illegal and tyrannical, and that the master t hows his
consciousness that it was so by his not making an
entry of the fact in the official log. Thirdly, that the irri-
tating language and behaviour of the master towards the
crew on the homeward voyage were acts of gross miscon-
duct, and calculated to produce a mutiny in his ship. For
these reasons we have suspended his certificate for two
years from this date, and transmit the same to your lord-
ships."