The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-07-05
ITWASATERROR OF ACREW.
Capt. Young Of the Nellie Troop and
Mates Forced to Watch the Men.
Hatchets, Knives and Razors-The
Hospital Authorities Ordered One
of the Men Taken Out of the
From the Philadelphia Press.

I ne dllO lis On4CCIS SpCLb blAG CnlllG NON
/ age wrestling with a mutinous crew and
/ proven ting their attempts to kill him and
/ the mates and the boatswain and burn the
/ ship. The captain has the written con-
/ LESSONS of several of the men to prove his
/ statements.
/ The Nellie Troop is a white ship of
/ 1900 tons burden. She rates from Bris-
( toll, England, but is owned chiefly in ST.
John. New Brunswick. V. J. Young. her
| captain, an honest looking man of middle
/ age, lives at Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, but
/ served three years in the American navy
/ during the civil war.
On the first of last August the Nellie
! Troop lay in the Atlantic Docks, Brook
| Ign. and while there shipped as varie-
gated a lot of sailors as were ever taken
aboard vessel. Two of them were ma
I tives of Manila, in the Philippine Islands;
| two were Mexican negroes or mixed
| bloods; two were Spanish negroes or
mixed bloods; two were Portuguese ne
groes from the Island of Trinidad, and
one was a negro from Boston. This last
negro. named John Reinhart, the captain
says, had just been discharged from the
| state prison and carried a bullet in his
leg. The cook was Chinaman called
John Gum, and the steward was a young
blood born in Demarara. The captains
wife and his two daughters, of about IL
and IA years, respectively, accompanied
him on the voyage.
After shipping her crew the Nellie
Troop sailed TO Philadelphia, where she
took on cargo of $4,000 cases of pc
troeum. She sailed thence for Batavia
| and Samarang, Java, intending to bring
back a cargo of sugar.
The story told by Capt. Young is as fol-
lows: AS soon as they started the crew
became mutinous. The men armed them
selves with Delaying pins or any other
weapons they found handy and prepared
to attack the officers. The captain and
his mates got together, armed themselves
and cowed the men, for the time at least
They were assisted by the boatswain,
James Edwards, black man, who proved
| to be most trusty and efficient, The
ringleader among the mutineers was a
very black seaman named Roderick
Baber, y years old, from the island of
Trinidad
The captain soon discovered that the
sailors before they came aboard the ship
had planned TO kill all the officers, and
that it was only by incessant vigilance
that such an attempt was prevented. The
presence of his wife and daughters on the
ship made the situation all the worse,
and he or one of the mates kept guard
every QlgQJ al JOclE CdDlQ door.
Thus. with the ship resembling an
armed camp, they reached Batavia. As
the men had shipped for the whole voy-
age and he did not then have direct proof
against them, Capt Young could not
discharge them While they were in
port there and before the petroleum was
unlOaded they tried to burn the ship.
They set fire TO some of the cases of pc
| troleum but one of the mates smelled the
| co1nlyA 1-11Cbpd down tho laHdar iarlya6
off his coat and extinguished the incipient
blaze before it could reach the oil. Two
or three of the cases, burned on the out
side, are still aboard the Nellie Troop in
the Erie Basin
A few days later Baber, the Trinidad
negro, asked one of the mates for pernis-
sion to go on shore. 1t was refused and
Baber seized a sharp Ratchet lying near,
spread out his own left hand fiat on the
rail, and whacked 1t across the fingers
with the Ratchet. The index finger was
completely severed and the next two
fingers We're cut nearly off.
Baber dropped his Ratchet held up his
bleeding hand, and with his eyes flaming
with South Sea madness or temporary
insanity, rushed down to the captain in
the cabin. He thrust the managed hand
IN the capain's face, and shouted:
''See there See there! | couldn't get
permission TO go ashore Now, see there :"
who did that?' asked the captain.
Il did did !" shouted Baber as be
! jumped up and down and Haunted the
! bleeding hand.
The captain Immediately had a boat
manned and sent Baber ashore to the
| hospital in Batavia. There he proved
most troublesome patient, the captain
says, and when his hand healed the hos
pital authorities sent him to Samarang,
where the Nellie Troop had gone, with
instructions 10 the captain to take him on
| board.
The Nellie Troop started back to Amer
lea with the same crew, but the officers
never for a moment relaxed their watch
over them. When about half way back,
the captain says, some of the men came
to him and promised to betray all their
plots He ordered the whole crew down
into the cabin one day, and then and
| there they confessed that they intended
to kill the officers Their statements
were taken in writing by the steward,
Thomas Sowden, and were signed by the
men. Most of them were given by the
captain after his arrival here to John
! Williams the shipping agent of Coenties
! slip, and are now in his possession, Capt.
! Young says
The Nellie Troop arrived at the Erie
Basin several days ago, and all the men
! except Baker were very quiet after that.
| A few nights ago according to the cap
| tain Antonio, one of the Portuguese, was
| sitting at the wheel. Baker rushed at
| him with a Ratchet and tried to kill him
+ one of the mates oyerpowered BaCer and
took the Ratchet from him Baber af-
terward got knife and again tried to
kill Antorio, but was prevented. A day
later they were all paid off and dis
charged except Baber The captain said
the thing was all over and he did NOT
care to prosecute the men. Baber
claimed that more money was due him
than the captain would allow and would
not sign his dis barge papers.
Baoer is in this city and was seen yes
terday in company with the steward.
Thomas Sowden. He showed his mutt
lated hand ana when asked why he had
maucled it replied:
u ess did it. They wouldn't let me go
ashore and jess did it"
| He claimed he and the crew had been
( treated most barbarously by the captain
and the mates that as soon as they were
out Of sight Of land the odicers began to
knock them down with Delaying pins, and
they suffered so much they did not care
whether they lived or died. Baber
claimed also that the captain was trying
TO rob by charging him two or three
prices for supplies obtained from the
! ships stores on the voyage.
/ Baber is still very belligerent. He
said yesterday that he had employed a
/ la vDv yer m obtain for him the nancy that