The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-01-10

in on an ancient placer digging, near
the once famous Vulture mine, in Cen
trail Arizona, not more than a month
ago, there died a very old man named
Cyrus W. Plummer Had he lived I'M
til Christmas day of this year he would
have rounded out the fortieth anniver-
sary of the most terrible crimes known
to the whaling industry in the Pacific
ocean. crimes in which one named Cy-
rus w Plumrner was the chief insti-
gator and executioner; the mutiny of
the crew Of the ship Junior and the
cruel butchery of its commanding Off
GERS.
Were Cyrus w. Plummer, who died a
few weeks ago in a hermit'S cabin at
the gold diggings, and Cyrus w. Plum
mer. who on Christmas morning 1861,
in the south Pacific. buried his sea
mans Ratchet in the skull of Captain
Archibald Mellen-Were these one and
the same man?
There are many people who believe
they were identical, and among them
are some who knew Cyrus w
hermit. since his advent on
the Pacific slope nearly twelve
years ago. He came to southern Utah
and New Mexico first; then he went to
the Puget Sound region; in Sonora,
Mexico he was heard from next. He
has wandered everywhere on the slope,
stopping in no place more than a 70
month. He was a reticent man, had no
companions or comrades and never
spoke Of his earlier years to any one.
He had been a soldier, for he walked
erect and put forward the left foot
first in walking-a thing that is mark
ed and remembered by frontierSmen.
He had been a sailor, for he could tie
more knots in a rope than a cow
puncher. He came from the states, but
no one knew from what state. Among
the landsmen of the frontier, with
whom he lived in his latter years, but
few of those he came in contact with
remembered, or perhaps had ever heard
with what adherence the people of
New England speak the name Cyrus
w. Plummer
1t would be a thankless task to spec
ulate largely upon the identity of these
two men who bore the same name, but
the lonely, unmOurned death of the
wandering prOspector would at least
have given a fitting end to the career
of the most accused and most noted
marine criminal of the century. To be
condemned to live, with the conscious
ness Of that awful guilt upon him. was
no doubt, more terrible fate for the
ringleader of the Junior mutiny than
tue SPECIFY uGdll the SdllOWS he so
richly deserved.
Many man and woman in New Bed
ford, in their horror at the crimes of
Cyrus w Plummer and in the heat of
their righteous Indignation when the
skill of such famous lawyers as Ben
Butler and Richard H. Dana saved him
from the extreme penalty of the law
declared that justice was at an end in
New England. But if the laws of man
fail ar times. apparently, they but full
fill the DEGREES of the great law where
IN justice is truly a blind goddess and
the scales Unerring. The fate that sent
Cyrum w. Plummer a living wanderer
weighed better than man the enormity
of his crimes.
These crimes were nurtured in dis
content and hatred for lawful authority
from almost the day the ship Junior
sailed out of New Bedford harbor, July
q, 1851, and We're executed with an eX-
traordinary ferocity and malice on
Christmas morning, while in latitude
3S.5S south, longitude 1857 east. The
Junior was commanded by Captain
Archibald Mellen of Edgartown, Conn.
with Nelson Provost and Henry Lord
of New Bedford as mate and second
mate respectively and John Smith of
Boston third mate. The owners were
David r. Greene, Robert B. Greene,
Dennis Wood and Willard Nye. She
was provisioned for a two-year cruise
after the sperm whale in the northern
Pacific.
The CAPTAIN proved hard taskmas-
ter and Mate Provost was said-at the
trial which followed the capture and
return of the mutineerS-to have been
an exceptionally cruel man. 1t was
also testified that the food was of a
very inferior quality, and that the men
were not only ill-treated, but underfed.
However true these charges may have
been, they could in no manner have
palliated the crimes Of Plummer ana
his followers, but merely have in
creased the responsibility for them !
When but five weeks out murmurings
ard mutterings of INSTRUMENTATION be-
gan to come up from the forecastle /
Cyrus w Plummer boatsteerer. /
hailing from Providence, r. l., disliked
the idea of going to the northern
whaling grounds. He found the men
dissatisfied and growing over their
poor rare and rough treatment by the I
officers, and it was not long before he /
had a sufficient following among them I
10 warrant him in an attempt TO seize /
the ship All the mutineers were /
sworn by Plummer upon the Bible TO /
hang together
When off Fayal in the Western is
lands, the first attempt was made. 1t /
proved unsuccessful, and Plummer and .
his men were punished for it, A few +
weeks later a second attempt also
proved futile, but the third essay,
made while cruising between New
Zealand and New Holland, was. for a
time at least horribly successful.
Sail had been shortened for the night
and the captain and his three mates
had retired, leaving the deck in charge
OF Plummer- At an hour after mid
night the cabin was attacked by Plum
mer and his men, some armed with
hatchets others with whaling spades.
while Plummer and two of his heuten-
ants had firearms. The captains
state room was entered first, and with
out an instants warning, the com
handing officer was shot in his bed.
Two bullets from a double-barreIed
rifle in the hands of the ring
leader entered the captains body
al the left side and buried
themselves in the wall of the cabin.
Captain Mellen sprang from his berth
exclaiming, "Oh, my God, what is
this ?"
He was answered by Plummer with