Daily Kennebec journal., 1905-11-23

and tren he grabbed the steward. 1 saw
Hall, the mate, coming and Coakley
turned the cook loose and grabbed Hall
and shot him three times. Sawyer ran
up and grabbed the steward. When l
heard it, l ran on the starbOard side,
and Coakley had the mate. throwing
him overheard. Sawyer fired two shots
into the steward. During this time
Adams was wrestling with the engi-
neer and when Coakley and Sawyer
had thrown the mate and cook over
board. they came to Adams assistance
and each of them fired two shots into
the engineer. Then they threw them
overheard.
Il found a pistol on top of the cabin
with five cartridges in it. took 1t and
showed it in my belt. The three men
went forward and 1 did not see them
again fer about half an hour, when
they came aft again. This was between
1 and O'Clock. Sawyer came back to
the wheel at 3 bells. When he relieved
me I said: 81 am going into the cabin
to, put out the lights" l wanted to see
6f the captain was there, as l had not
fseen HIM II saw he was not in the cab
| in, and I looked around to see If there
was any blood, but L did not see any.
Everything was badly torn up. Coallley
and Sawyer ran the ship during the
day.
After supper Sawyer said we will
take the water tank and put it in the
big boat and let it go adrift, and when
we are near land with the vessel, we
| VIII water-log her. Then we could say
that there were eight of us in the small
boat and she capsiZed and swamped
and We swan back to the vessel | op-
posed the plan and they all jumped
on me, knocked me down and tied me
| V ith chains. Adams and Sawyer went
forward and Co2kley was at the wheel.
After he had left me about half an
hour | got the chain off my arm. l
knew if Coakley saw me get it loose
| he would shoot me- Coakley saw me
| trying to get away and struck me with
a club and then shot at me- | then
pulled out the pistol 1 had found and
shot him. I shot Coakley one time.
When Adams and Sawyer found I had
| my hand free, they tied me again. Then
they hoisted the distress signal. That
night the schooner King took us off and
put us in chains in the laZarette.'
The testimony of Captain Taylor of
| the King, and the members of the crew
of that vessel who first boarded the
BerE-ind, as to the state of things on
board the vessel when they picked her
up, agree with the story as Scott left
| it. The four white men of the crew
were missing. and the body Of one ne
gro (Coakley) was on the deck, while
Scott was bound with chains. But the
story of Adams and Sawyer leaves
things in the same shape and give an
other explanation of why Scott was
| bound.
Adams comes from the British West In
| dies. He is a bright mulatto. and his face
| is not that suggestive of criminal ten
denotes. There was nothing of the brag
Gadocio about him on the stand. His story
was told in a straightforward manner
| and was not shaken on cross-examina-
ton. Sawyer is a native of Providence,
West Indies. He is a typical negro. His
story in all important points corroborated
that of Adams.
According to Adams story there was
little trouble on board, except a dispute
between Scott and the captain carly in
the voyage. until the fateful day of the
| murders His story OF the occurrences
on that day is as follows:
Il, Sawyer and the captain were in the
starbOard watch. and were an duty from
Y to A. NJ. When eight bells sounded
] looked at my watch and it was Az
O'Clock. j would have made eight bells
sooner, but the captain generally called
them out, but did not do so this time.
Scott relieved Sawyer at the whee! ard
COaklcy relieved me. When Sawyer got
to the fcrecastle | said | had not seen
the captain. and he said he saw him and
that he was in the engine room with the
engineer put my head against the par
ing with the engineer BY this time We
had gone to bed.
1T was about 5 o'clock. I think. when
Coakley came to the foracaStle and woke
us up and said: Get up There is shoot
ing aft. | don't know whether it is Scott
or the captain We started to dress, and
about this time Scott came to the fore
castle and said: You fellows stay ir
there or [ will kill everybody aboard
We stayed there awhile. and then Saw
yer went out and l heard him sing out ::
. Lord. Don't shoot me.' and he came
running back into the forecastle, Scott
came and ordered us to hoist several
sails. He said he did not want us to have
anything to do with the affair: that he
was going to kill all the white men
aboard and he would take the boat and
go ashore. After We had fixed the sails
Scott ordered us forward.
After Il while we heard talking and
4 saw the engineer on the weather side
OF the quarter. opposite the spanker rig
ShS. ne was washed in blood his shirt
nelnS bloody. He was bending over. and
looked IKE his arm was paining him.
now ana then he would look up like he
was looking up for God to help him, They