The Portland daily press., 1870-12-19


The murder on board shark Ellen Feeny,
reported by telegraph few nights ago. APP
pears to have been committed on board orig
Helen o. Phinney, Capt. Boyd, OF TINS port.
The vessel cleared from Portland for Montevi-
deo. loaded with lumber, and was manned by
John Scott, mate; Thomas Ward, second mate,
David Leech, steward, and six seamen, among
whom was an Australian, who shipped under
the name of Jack Shields, and spoke English
imperfectly. The brig arrived at Montevideo
on the 9th of August, and while the captain
was ashore to dispose of his cargo the mate Or
dered the mainmast to be scraped. Three men
were sent aloft, one of whom was Jack Shields.
Presently be sang out to the man on deck who
was tending the balyarks to slower away"
The triangle was lowered, and Jack cried out,
that will do" The man on deck not under
| standing Jack, kept on lowering, when the
latter, in very loud tone said: "What the
| hi are you doing? Make fast" The chief
| mate, hearing the remark, sang out, come
wered, Eyes, yes, me come down. and re no
| sooner reached the deck than he was savagely
assaulted with an iron Delaying pin.
The attack was SO sudden and unexpected
| that poor Jack at first made no attempt to de-
lend himself; but soOn recovering his presence
L
his face fr,m a dozen cuts, he seized the mate,
| threw him down, aud was about to punish him,
when the second mate rushed to the sceDe of
blood and Selling q billet of wood Knocked
he poor fellow down and beat and kicked him
until be was almost insensible. Th- mates
then walked aft, apparently satisfied with
their brutality, when Jack rose from the deck
| with his knife in his right hand
At This moment the steward stepped out of
| The Cabin with revolver in his baud, and de-
lIberately stepping up to wnhil lou. or five
feet OF The almost UNCONSCIOUS and bleeding
sailor, be fired and ball went crushing
through the BRAIN of poor Jack. He fell I'M
conscious to tho deck and bis lite's blood was
oozine out, the steward exclaimed, as the sea
men ran aft to see the cause and effect of the
pistol shot,
you all"
Poor Jack lived about twenty minutes and
as soon as the poor fellow died the captain was
| signalled Pc was iniorm OF the occurrence
| and the case was hurriedly investigated by the
captain aud two OF his frieuds, and reported to
| the consul uext day. Leech was not arrested
| or confined, aud when the consul sent FIR the
| witnesses, the murderer was allowed to es-
| cape to Buen0s Ayres, distant about ninety
miles. The murdered man was buried ashore,
and no effort was made to find the assassin. A
cargo OF hides was takeu in, aud the vessel
sailed for BuenOs Ayres on the 10th of OctO-
Der. Two days alter the murderer went on
board the vessel and she sailed for New York,
where she arrived on Tuesday last after very
rough passage Leech and Ward and three Of
the crew are in jail, the former as principals,
The latter as witnesses.
Leech is native Of Boston, low seized, ap-
palently a. out 80 years OF age. He said that
believing here was premeditated mutiny, be
went to the bun and took the captains pistol !;
hat as be came out Jack was trying to stab
tbe chief mate, and in order to save his life he
discharged the fatal shot. He inquired par
ticularly the probable result o. his trial, and,
on being told that The evidence was very strong
against him. he exclaimed:
| "Well, by, it is a. hard case that a
man should be punished Tor saving another
mans life."
Thomas Ward is Dane from Baltimore,
tall, well built and with good face, much
Drowned by exposure. He said that from con-
versatiOn overheard on the voyage out he ex-
pected trouble at Montevideo with the men,
He denied hitting Jack with piece of wood,
but acknOw lodged beating him, because he
was beating the maze. Jack, he said, made
two lunges at the mate with bis knife, when
the steward shot him. and he fell and died in
| few minutes. He then called all hands 10 wit
ness that the dead man had knife firmly
clasped in his hand.
The witnesses cOrroborated each other in
their stories of the unprovoked murder OF their
sh'pmate, whom they describe as quiet, in
offensive man, whose only crime was his ig-
norance of the English language.