The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1906-12-12
vARNUM NARRATE Is
MUT|NY STORY
Tells How He Discovered
Conspiracy to Scuttle the
Ship and Kill Officers
CRUELTY IS DENIED

Captain Walter S. varnum of the
whaler Herman took the stand in Unit
ed States Commissioners Heacock's court
yesterday and fatty denied the stories
of cruelty told against him by four
members of the crew. He stated that
he punished the men for having con-
spired to scuttle the ship and murder
him and the officers.
Captain Varnum told how he had
been informed by Gus Anderson and
Fernando Paul. members Of his crew.
OF the conspiracy; OF his finding rifles
and ammunition concealed under the
mattresses of George r. Castleman,
Harry Reynolds. William PRESLEY and
William J. Noble, alias William Pres
ley. and of his having obtained from
them confession of guilt.
Captain Varnum denied that he triced
up the men in such way as to torture
them. He said that he took each of
the men separately into his cabin.
handcuffed their hands behind their
backs, and passed small rope through
the handouts and through a ring in
lne Celllng OF the cabin.
he denounced as untrue the story
OF his accusers that they were triced
up so that the tips of their toes barely
touched the floor, and swore that dur
ing the twenty minutes of their being
handcuffed the men stood firmly, heel,
sole and toe" upon the floor. 1t was
explained by the captain that his
reason for putting the accused men in
that position was because he wished
TO scare them into telling the truth
about the plot to murder, scuttle the
ship and desert
IN IRONS FIFTY-EIGHT DAYS
After having thus obtained confess
sions from each separately, he ordered
the mate to place them in irons in the
main hatch for fifty-eight days on the
customary prison fare in such cases
provided, which was three cakes of
hard bread per day and unlimited
water for five days. They received a
full ration on the fifth day and every
fifth day thereafter. During all of this
term of Imprisonment the men were
taken on deck daily for exercise and
allowed to battle once week, but the
men were too lazy to avail themselves
of the privilege of washing.
The first trouble he had on the voy-
age, continued the captain, was the dis
twelve boxes of rife cartridges. thirty
yards of drill and three tins of toma-
toes out of the cabin. The boy con-
fessed that he had stolen the cart
ridges at the solicitation of Cast1eman,
PRESLEY, Riley and Reynolds. who had
rifles concealed in their hunks. At
Port Clarence, Castleman, Hewitt and
Anderson stole boat and attempted to
desert. They were captured after they
had gone about mile from the ship.
For this they were punished by being
ironed four days on bread and water.
MURDER WAS PLANNED
The first hint that the captain re-
ceived of the murder conspiracy was
from Fernando Paul and Gus Anderson.
The latter told him of q plot which had
been entered into among the four
ringleaders. According to his story the
miscreants planned that Castleman was
to go into the engine room and disable
the machinery, two were to go into the
room of the chief engineer and take
care of him. and the fourth was to
place some Toanide bombs under the
captains stateroom and blow him to
hell"
Acting upon the information thus
conveyed to him. the captain secured
the rifles and threw them overheard.
Then he scared the conspirators into
confessing by putting them in irons and
threatening to hang them at the fore
yard When he first spoke to Castle
man about the matter Castleman
laughed in his face and said: Damn
you; I'll fix you yet
Captain Robert ]. Cumiskey of the
Beluga testified that he was present
when the men were triced up, but
that their feet were firmly on the
floor, and he heard no complaint of
pain.
The case will be argued on Thurs
day.