Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-11-23
AGAIN FREE.
( Continued from page ~

rolling deck, and said, Dip it up,
there's plenty
Our food, cooked in salt water, con-
sisted of gristly meat covered with
scum. and corn bread, which was made
e nauseating by being cooked in salt and
brackish water. I showed some of it
10 the mate and asked him if that was
nj TO give men who were working night
ana day. He replied: That's good
enough for you. If was captain you
wouldn't get even that
! complained to Capt. Patterson, and
ne brought us a flour bag filled with
plot bread which had been cooked in
salt water and was all widowed. l
told him to take it out of the forecastle
quick. He did so, threatening to fix
me yet.
Miller was sent aloft in a bos'n's
chair to oil down the topmasts. He
clutched the rigging to steady himself
and the mate shouted: Keep your
hands off the rigging; they are all oil.
After repeating the warning three
times the mate lowered Miller to the
deck and had him strung up by the
thumbs. Afterward Miller was dashed
to the main hatch four days. The crew
rebelled and Capt. Patterson finally
agreed to wipe out the slate and turn
over a new leaf.
| From that moment his hellish work
began, and he did everything possible
to provoke us into a state of mutiny.
One day l was swept overheard while
| furling sail. A shipmate flung me a
| no nd ,vx lad ,to
deck when the captain rushed to the
rail and lowered me back. He repeated
this three times, and had been in the
water half an hour when he finally
| consented to have me pulled on deck.
| Afterward 1 heard the mate say he
wished the line had been creased and
| that next time they would succeed.
LAS God is my Witness" and here
Clark solemnly raised his right hand,
chose are the very words which were
used.
THE mutiny began after long
series of abuses. We had lost our
sleep and drank salt water until we
scarcely knew if we were in our right
senses. Because we didn't jump at the
officers bidding there began riot
which lasted three days and nights
The second mate rushed at me when
l was standing on the forecastle and
struck me with a Delaying pin. The
condition I have described put vim into
my arm and Selling a capstan bar
struck him on the head. He fell over
board from the forecastle and was
drowned.
"All the wrongs which we had suf
fered arose in my mind before 1 did
this deed and something in my heart
told me it was right to strike this blow.
The killing of the first mate, for which
1 have served % long years, l did not
even see, although as charged 1 was
one of the three men who threw him
overheard after he was dead.
after this fight we were harricaded
in the forecastle. The captain and
mates were armed with shot guns and
would fire the moment they saw us
moving. One bullet pierced my right
arm and we were all wounded during
the three days siege.
1.-The captains wife, who was no baby
stood guard while the officers slept. and
marched up and down in front of the
cabin. armed with gun. We became eX-
hausted on the third night and fell asleep
The captain and mates soon realized our
predicament. came and bored holes in the
forecastle partitions and then fired at our
sleeping bodies. The captain shot John
Glew in the spine and the EnSliShman
throwing up both hands, begged for mer
cy. He and Miller were put in irons and
| was chained to, the pump so tightly
that ] could scarcely move muscle
1.-The mutiny, if such you can call it,
was not the work of a moment; it was
the elimination of many days of suffering
such as are seldom experienced. even on
the high seas Goaded to desperation
starved and crazed by drinking sea wa
ter. we were in a condition which may
appeal to the public in the light OF justi-
fication.
This is the true story of the great
tragedy and / have never before revealed
it to any living person.
When the case came up in Boston we
were assigned counsel. but not permitted
to state our side of the case. We sat
there through the long days of the trial
listening to lies and charges which would
have been laughable but for their fatal
tell all that had tranSpred. CounselleG
to silence, we Kept to ourselves much that
might otherwise have aided us. We Were
was cast and three men who had suffered
horrible agony for some offences which
were never committed entered upon a
prison career"
Clark was asked about the death-bed
confession of Miller. in which the latter
charged him with instigating the wholc
mMsny for the hea sake rs of false love
shall say nothing harsh about him. He
was demented. that's all. and the prison
officials know it.
After we had been sentenced to hang
| ing, my friends worked in his interests
as well as mine. My sister visited the
prison one day and in my presence Miller
said to her: I don't know how to thank
you for what you are doing. I am very
sorry got your brother into trouble"
In spite of the many discouragements
which have confronted him. Clark never
lost heart in prison. He knew that power
| full allies were working for him. and felt
sure that the Presidents pardon was
coming some Cay.
Isockland, Me-, Nov. 22.-Ephriam
Clark, pardoned by the President after
serving % years for completely in the
jefferson Borden mutiny, arrived here
a half-hour after his liberation from