The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-12-14

The bark Hesper, Captain J. F. o..
Sodergren, arrived yesterday, sixty
two days from Newcastle. She
brought 1853 tons of coal for W. O..
Irwin & Co. Captain Sodergren re-
ports a tedious and stormy voyage.
The Hesper is well known in this
harbor and is widely known else
took place on board on January IS,
1893, while the vessel was at sea. The
leader of the mutiny, Thomas lie
Clair, was tried and convicted in San
Francisco and sentenced to be hung.
He has been respited three times since
by President Cleveland. The date
now set for the execution is the 23d
inst. Captain Sodergren was indig-
nant yesterday when informed that
the murderer had not been executed.
The story of the mutiny is as follows:
The plot was Matched by Thomas LIE
Clair, a sailor who shipped as native
of Norway, but it was afterwards
learned that he was born in New
York. lie Clair's partners in crime
man Sparf, Hans Hansen, Thomas
Green and Edward Larsen.
The men were shipped at Newcastle
and, judging from their actions, they
were very dangerous men. Their
plot was to murder the captain, mate,
second mate, cook and Greek sailor
in the forecastle, and then run the
vessel either to the China or Chilean
coast, sell the cargo and mt the bark
out for piratical cruise.
The men were all on one watch and
they had ample opportunity to for
mulate their dsstardly programme
without the knowledge of the captain
or the officers under him. They start
cd in on the 18th of January TO carry
out their bloody work. They picked
out q dark night and about 1880
O'Clock lie Clair cruelty murdered the
second mate by attacking him with
hatchet. The murderer lay in wait
about amidships, and when his victim
came along he struck him a blow on
the back OF the head with the sharp
edge Of the hatchet and almost in
stantly killed him.
After the mate fell down the fiend-
ish mutineer struck and struck again
with the weapon until his victim
ceased TO struggle. As soon as the
murder was committed two OF his ac-
along. They wanted TO throw the
body overheard and then remove all
traces OF the terrible crime by wash
ing up the blood stains. lie Clair
would not consent to this and imme-
diately proposed that they go after
the captain and the other marked
men and murder them also. His
companions weakened and would not
give their consent and lie Clair left
n oFN he rrx-n N
then picked up the body Of the muir
dered man, carried il to the side OF
the vessel and then threw II over
board.
The murderer was not satisfied with
his nights work, and when he reached
the wheel, he told the man on watch
to call the captain from the cabin, with
the intention of killing him as soon as
he made his appearance, but the
wheelman would not obey lie Clair 5
command. The next day the captain
placed lie Clair, Sparf and Hansen in
irons, and then changed his course
and made for Tahiti, which was
reached after a voyage of fourteen
days.
While the vessel was on her way to
the French settlement to turn over the
men TO the American consul, the
other two mutineers, Green and Lar
sen, attempted several times TO release
the imprisoned men, but without sue
cess. When the Hesper reached Ia
hiti, the five men were taken before
United States Consul Doty at that
pIace. He held an examination dur
ing which Sparf and Hansen made q
clean breast OF everything, and finally
LIE Clair, the murderer and ringleader,
made a full confession OF his crime
The men were afterward sent to San
Francisco for trial.