The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-07-31
LAST AMERICAN PIRATES.
Eight Men Hung BY Shark-True Tale From the Yves
Indies.

clear, for his own defense was master
full. and without the missing papers the
| charge of piracy could not be sustained.
| Even Captain Roberts of the Sparrow and
his officers forgot their prospective prize
| money in admiration of the cool bearing
of the audacious American.
1t was $3.50 on the afternoon of the sec
ond day of the trial. In another half hour
J the court must close in favor of the Amer
lean. The circumstantial evidence against
him was strong, but the actual proof was
not such as would satisfy any ordinary
! jury. A few minutes more and the court
would adjourn, after having declared Cap
| tain Briggs guiltleSS. and the schooner
Nancy free to proceed on her voyage TO
| Curacao.
While the preliminaries for closing the
| court were about to begin, the booming OF
gun was heard down the bay. In a
! short time the news flew through the
court that the war brig Abergavenny had
/ just arrived from the south coast of Hay
II. This news in itself was not startling.
There was no reason why the arrival of
an English man-of-war should in any way
interfere with the proceedings of a court.
a few minutes more and the gavel of
! the judge would announce the closing of
the court. and, to Briggs, the favorable
ending of the trial. In the meantime an
officer in undress uniform entered the
court, and advancing to the bench, laid
before the judge a bundle of water-stained
documents. They proved to be the miss
ing papers of the schooner Nancy Now
comes the most remarkable part of this
remarkable story, the part which it would
be hard to believe were it not backed by
the sworn evidence of the Abergavenney's
officers and crew:
A few days before this tender of the
Albergavenny. in fishing off the coast of
Hayti. struck a shark. The shark was
taken on board the Abergavenny. There
1t was cut open in order that the sailors
might secure the liver for the sake of
the oil which it is known to contain.
Great was the surprise of these rude
dissecters at finding in the stomach of the
shark a bundle of PAPERS These papers
were the records of the schooner Nancy
which Captain Briggs had thrown over
board when he found that he was being
overhauled by. the Sparrow.
DramattStS have racked their brains to
produce a startling situation, but there is
nothing in dramatic literature, nor in the
pages of fiction, that at all equals the
scene that followed in that Kingston
ed with the evidence of his own infamy
and was declared by the court Just about
to free him, to be a pirate.
The evidence was overwhelming. Con-
fronted with this testimony from the sea
brave though he was, all the courage and
GOODNESS of the American skipper depart
ed. Feeling that heaven had arrayed its
powers against him, Captain Briggs con-
This man must have had in him some
elements of nobility. for when he found
that his own fate was sealed he tried to
shield his crew. He made a speech still
remembered for its eloquence and reason
in which he tried to show that he was the
ruling spirit, and that his men were en-
tlrely gulltlesS, or at least that they did
not understand his purpose, and that in
doing what they did they simply obeyed
his orders. The outcome of the trial was
that Captain Briggs and his crew of seven
men were found guilty of piracy and soon
afterward were executed in accordance
of the vessel on which they had recently
sailed. ROCHEFORT CALHOUN.