Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1889-08-22

mate could think OF, and was more
than once rendered ihsensible by their
cruelty. / heard the men cursing the
officers for their conduct. and en-
couraging each other TO interfere, but
] was passive. Indeed, after a beat
ing or two / was SO harried that l
could scarcely remember my own
name. On the afternoon of the third
day, soon after dinner, while / was
forward with the watch and assisting
the sail-maker to repair a sail, the
first mate called me aft. The wind
was light and the sea smooth, and a
few fathoms astern Of the brig was an
enormous shark. 1t had occurred to
the two brutes to have some fun with
me. The mate noosed a rope and
passed it around my waist. and then,
when l struggled and shrieked and
begged for mercy, he carried me to
the port quarter and dropped me over
board for shark bait. The shark
made rush for me, but was hauled
up just in advance of his jaws. The
captain and mate laughed uproarous-
ly and the latter had picked me up to
drop me from the other quarter when
the entire crew came running aft. j
saw that much and then tainted away,
and what took place while I was mn
conscious was never clearly related TO
me- 81 MIX mi Z & s.
The crew had determined to inter
fere, and their action excited the cap.
tain and mate to a terrible degree.
The former had a revolver In his
pocket, and when the crew refused to
go forward he fred at and wounded
one of them. This brought on fight
in which both officers and one of the
sailors were killed. 1t was rebellion
NOT mutiny. The sole idea of the
crew was to protect me from further
cruelty. In carrying this out murder
was done and all were liable to the
gallows. The dead bodies were lying
on deck when / recovered conscious.
ness, while the men had congregated
in the waist of the brig for consulta,
tion. The second mate, whose name
was Chapman, bad sympathized with
the crew, although he had no hand in
the fight. Hs was now asked to take
command of the brig until it could be
determined what should be done, and
he did so. The three dead men were
prepared fo- burial in the usual way
and launched over the side without
service, and an hour after the fight
not q trace of it. was left N a.
When the question of what should
be done came up for dlscussion, mos
Of the men were APPALLED, at the seri.
BUSINESS of the case. 1t was the first
duty of the mate to set a signal of dis.
tress, but, of course, nothing Of the
sort was done. Under the law he
should head for the nearest port anc
there surrender brig and crew, but, Of
course, he had no thought of this
While he had not melted the crew tc
resistance, he had not come to the aic
Of the officers. 1t would have beer
easy to prove his sympathy for me
and that would have made him the &C
cessory Of the crew. It was realized
that all had outlawed themselves anc
the question was, where to go and
what to do With the brig. 1t wa
finally decided to haul up for the
Solomon Islands. The brig wal
bound home through Torres Strait, as
lshe had two ports Of call 10 make be.
fore reaching the Cape Of Good Hope
and we were not over 450 miles out oil
Sidney when the murders occurred
We therefore had a voyage of l,5OC
miles before us.
For the first week men could moi
have behaved more sensibly. The dis
cipline was good, and all were under
proper restraint. We were sighting
vessels daily, and on several occasion,
we were passed so closely that we hac
to signal our number and report all
we'll. On the third day a man -of-wal
exchanged signals withus, and through
some bungling on our part his sus,
picions seemed to, have been aroused,
ard he would perhaps have boarded us
had not achange IN Che weather oc-
Cured. After about week, however
the men began to get Independent: and
to bring forward new plans, and there
was no longer any harmony among
fthe crew. While Chapman was the
only man who could navigate ship,
and while he had been put in charge Of
the brig, the men finally refused to do
any work beyond that of sailing the
craft. Some openly advocated that
we turn pirate, and others wanted to
run into some port and sell orig and
cargo and divide the money. This
was hooted at by the more intelligent
and gave rise to further ill l-feeling.
The brig had, light or contrary
winds and made slow progress, and
at the end Of two weeks the situation
on board could not have heen much
worse. There were nine of us, in.
cluding the cook, a black, and each
man OF them seemed determined to do
as he pleased. All messed in the
cabin, and all had access TO the liouor