The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-12-20 00:00:00

BRUTAL CONDUCT AT SEA.

At the Central Criminal Court, on Thursday last, before
Barons Alderson • and Gurney, John Bowman Reynolds,
David Barnes, George Deane, James M`Donald, and George
Sole, sailors, were charged with having killed Philip Keel
upon the high sea, within the jurisdiction of the Admiralty
of England. Mr. Bodkin and Mr. Doane conducted the
prosecution ; Mr. Clarkson appeared for Reynolds, the mate
of the vessel, and Mr. Wilkins appeared for the other de-
fendants. _ _ _

The prisoners and the deceased were sailors on board the.
barque Clydesdale, which was homeward bound from Bom-
bay. On the Ist instant, when almost in the port of Liver-
pool, the prisoner Reynolds, the mate of the vessel, went to
the forecastle, in which Philip Keel, the cook, a man of
colour, was lying ill. Reynolds told him to get up to pre-
pare breakfast, but he said he was too ill, and was not able
to do so. The mate said that he was skulking, and he would
bowse him up if he did not get up. The cook, it appeared,
was ill from exposure to the cold, after having been accus-
tomed to a warm climate. He said to the mate, " You don't
know my feelings." Several persons who were in bed in the
forecastle heard Keel groaning. Barnes said, "If you don't
hold your noise I'll put a rope round your neck." George
Sole and Deane said, if the rope were put round his neck,
they would haul him up. The rope was put down, and
Barnes went to tho 000lt and put.the end of it round his
neck. The other end was on deck, and three men hauling at
it drogged the cook from his berth. Newman, the carpenter,
called out that the man would be choked. He sprung from
his berth, and stopping the hauling, took the rope from the
poor fellow's neek.and slipped it down over his breast. The
other prisoners tl resumed the hauling, and the head of
the cook jammed a ainst the skuttle. Sole cleared the head
from the scuttle, and the cook was dragged on deck. Keel
was left some time on deck, after which, appearing " io a
stagnant state, he was carried down and placed in his berth."
Thomas Stephens, also a coloured man who was ill from
the cold, went to him in about five minutes and found him
dead. _

The surgeon who examined the deceased was inclined to
think he had died of suffocation ; but on cross-examination
he said, the remarkable appearances which the chest and
brain of the deceased presented might have ensued from
exposure to cold. 'ln reply to a question from Baron Alder-
son, he said he did not think that dragging out of bed by a
rope, which was afterwards slackened, would produce suffo-
cation.

Baron Alderson stopped the case, and, addressing the jury,
said there was no evidence that the man died of strangula-
tion, and the charge of manslaughter could not be sustained.
His opinion was, that the man's death was caused by the
brutal exposure upon the deck.
The jury returned a verdict of not guilty.
Baron Alderson asked if there were another count in the
indictment to meet this case ?
The counsel for the prosecution replied that there was not.
He knew nothing of the case till it was sent to their hands.
Baron Alderson said there ought to have been such a count.
It was not right that, in a Christian country, the ends of
justice should be so defeated. Guilty persons ought not to
he thus suffered to escape upon a mere point of form. It
deserved the attention of the highest authorities in the
State, and, in particular, of the Attorney and Solicitor
Generals. The learned baron made these statements with
much earnestness.

Baron Gurney.—These matters were much better managed
in the time of the advocate for the Admiralty. Great care
was then taken in bringing forward these cases, and they
were properly managed. The same care ought to be ob-
served now.

RETURNING FROM TRANSPORTATION.—A man named
George Saxon is in custody at Manchester, on a charge of
having escaped from a penal settlement to which he had been
transported. The prisoner narrated to a police-officer the
particulars of his escape from New Sonth Wales, three years
hgo, from which it appeared that he had suffered great hard-
ships. He said that he and nine other convicts made their
escape at one time, that eight of them were massacred and
eaten by the natives, and that, after travelling six hundred
miles on foot, he got on board a ship and worked as a sailor.
He was one of the hands on, board the Era steamer at the
time it was burnt on the Mississippi river, in America.

THE COTTON TRADE AT HAMBURG.—In the returns of
the trade of Hamburg it is stated that the imports of raw
cotton were less by 11,000 bales in 1841 than in 1840, whilst
at the same time the stock on hand at the close of 1841 was
17,000 bales against 10,800 bales only at the end of 1840.
The cause assigned is the stagnation of the German spin-
neties through the competition of those in this country.
The masses of English yarn exported upon the German mar-
kets bronglit down prices to the lowest point, so that the
spinners there limited themselves to such supplies of the raw
material only as were rigorously necessary not to close their
factories altogether. The quantity of cotton yarns received
from hence...in Prussia ava.L.l.lanove;._ was estimated at.
35,000,000 lbs.—Morning Herald.
SHIPWRECKS AND Loss OF LIFE.—On Wednesday ac-
counts were received of further wrecks of vessels and loss of
human life by the authorities and under-writers at Lloyds,
the particulars relating to which, as far as can be obtained,
are briefly as follows :—Great Yarmouth, December 13.—
Yesterday morning, shortly after 10 o'clock, the Wear packet,
master T. Mueson, belonging to Sunderland, while on her
passage from that port to Southampton, with the wind fresh
from the S.S.W., observing at about six or seven miles dis-
tant a vessel. with signals of distress flying at the masthead.
All way was instantly made upon the vessel to render assis-
tance, and upon coming up to her she proved to be the brig
Parker, heavily laden with coal, bound to London, and in a
sinking state. Her crew were all stripped and working
labouriously at the pumps, and every point was being strained
by them to save the vessel, but there was already many feet
of water in the bold, and, from the fact of its increasing
instead of decreasing, the master at length ordered his men
to take to the boat, which they did, and proceeded on board
of the Wear packet, where every kindness was shown to them.
They had, however, scarcely reached that vessel before their
own, with all her sails set, gave a lurch and went down in 14
fathoms' water. The master, Mr. Davidson, states they left
Sunderland on Saturday night, and that at 7 o'clock that
morning their vessel, the Parker, struck on the Shipwash
Sand, and thus occasioned the leak. The wreck lies off the
Sizewell Banks with her topgallantmast above water. It is
considered impossible to raise her on account of the strong
current continually running at that spot. Her crew were
safely landed here this morning. For several days past the
most painful anxiety has prevailed at this port relative to the
fate of a large fishing lugger, the Sea Bird, and her crew of
12 individuals, which left Yarmouth on the night of Sunday,
the 13th of last month, on a fishing excursion. Many were
of opinion that she had put into some of the French ports
until the weather and wind became favourable, but the arrival
of the Ceres to-day in the roads clearly proved that the ill-
fated vessel and crew were totally lost on the following night
after leaving Yarmouth: The master of the Ceres (Mr.
Shain) states he was in cdmpany with the Sea Bird on that
night. They were lying at hnchor off Lowestoff, about 15 or
16 miles from the shore, and about 300 yards apart of each
ether, where it was evidently the intention of the Sea Bird
to remain for the night. However, on thefollowing morning
she was found to have disappeared, and no tidings could be
obtained of her until two or three days after, when they picked
up a capstan with the words " Sea Bird " branded upon it,
clearly showing that the vessel had gone to pieces. They also
found other pieces of the wreck which had been identified
as belonging to that vessel. Many of the poor fellows who
perished were married men, and have left large families en-
tirely destitute. Information was likewise received yesterday
of the loss of a vessel, supposed to be British, on a rock near
Ferder Light, in Christiana Flood, on the morning of the 9th.
Crew reported to be saved.