The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-02-06 00:00:00

ANOTHER SERIOUS CHARGE AGAINST

A CAPTAIN.

(From our Second Edition of Tuesday last.)

At the Police-court this day, Capt. Charles M'Donald,
of the ship Cleofrid, was brought to the bar, charged,
under the following circumstances. which were briefly stated
by Mr. Dowling :—ln the month of August the Cleofrid,
the Susan, and the William Rat hbone were lying in the
Cameroons River, in Africa ; that on the 30th August the
captain came on board the Cleofrid, and addressing him-
self to the chief officer, said he could not stand the mate
of the William Rathbone, Green, taking oil from the kegs
belonging to his employers, and ordered him to put the trade
pistols in the boat, with which he complied. The captain
took with him a person of the name of Boyle. who was
a kind of captain's clerk, and the rest were all Kroo men.
Shortly after this a boat, with the mats of the William
Rathbone. Mr. Green, who was wounded, came alongside
the Cleofrid, and he was put on board. It would be shown,
in evidence, that previous to his death, the wounded man
stated that be was shot by Boyle. Boyle had, however,
died a short time after, from natural causes. Mr. Dow-
ling then called _

Andrew Potter, who stated that he was chief mate of
the Cleofrid, that about half-past seven on the morning
of the 30th of August the captain came on board from the
beach, and stated to him that Green was taking the oil be-
longing to the owners of the Cleofrid, and that he would
not stand to see the oil taken away in his own casks. He
then ordered witness to put 2 or 3 of the trade pistols in the
boat ; the pistols were loaded with ball cartridge, which he
(witness) had cast himself ; he obeyed the captain's orders,
and the boat shoved off, the captain and Boyle being the
only white persons on board. About a quarter of an hour
after this the mate, with a crew of seven, followed the
captain to the shore, and on the passage the witness heard
the reports of two or three pistols, and saw the flash of
another that bad missed fire. The captain had two of his
own pistols, but the bore of them was smaller than those of
the trade pistois, and the captain was in the habit of having
the balls cut down to fit them. When the mate reached the
shore, the captain was in the boat alongside the beach.
He (the captain) ordered the mate to take the oil on
board a vessel called the Susan, that the dispute might
be settled there, and accompanied the mate to the Susan,
on tha deck of which he (witness) heard the captain say
" he would rather have lost a thousand pounds than that
Green should have been shot." This was the first he had
heard of it, and at this time the captain had a silk hand-
kerchief round bis waist, in which were his own pistols
and one of the trade pistols. From the Susan witness
proceeded to the Cleofrid, and there, near the round-
house, saw the wounded man ; the ball had entered on
the left side of the stomach, and was afterwards extracted
near the ribs on the right side by Mr. Thompson,
a surgeon. The ball was not one that would have
loaded the trade pistols, but one similar to those which
were cut down for the captain's pistols. In reply to a
question from Mr. Rushton, witness said the ball extracted
from Green had been cut down and reduced to fit the
captain's pistol. Green lived three weeks after the wound
and did not, in the witnesses opinion, think himself in dan-