Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1909-06-01
Miseellansolls 2sading.
QUELLED MUTlNY.
Cornell, Old Mate, Tolls Of Convict
... CrAw

| Crow.
In the old days Of whaling it tool
stern disciplinarians as officers Of the
ships to prevent crews from overrld
ing those In charge, and while II
many cases the officers were seem
mgly harsh 1t sometimes turned ou
that this was the only method oi
keeping the men in subsection.
A weak captain, weak mate, ha.
no doubt been the direct cause o.
many poor voyage and even the
loss Of ships with many thousand dol.
lars Of property invested.
An example of an officer who would
not let any crew who sailed under him
run away with the ship was found In
Squire H. Cornell, native Of Fall
River, who sailed many voyages oui
Of New Bedford. Mr.. Cornell is now
II years old and is spending the last
years of his life at Sailors Snug Har-
Dor.
The old whaleman was on a visit
here the other day and called on
many of his whalemen friends to
have "gam," and these "gams
awakened "reminiscences that had not
been thought Of for years, and the wri-
ter secured from the old gentleman
some stories that have never been re-
corded and possibly never told before
Tall and erect, Mr.. Cornell does not
show his 7O-odd years, and his eyes
twinkled merrily as of old in recall
ing some Of his conquests Of the oily
monsters. Not only did the whale
men have conquests Of whales to
make. but at least twice during his
career as mate of whaleships did he
have to conquer whalemen.
Mate Cornell's calling took him to
every ocean. He went voyage after
voyage in the Atlantic ocean, several
to the Pacific, he whaled it in the In
dian ocean and went to the far north
chasing the monster bow-heads which
live in the Arctic. On the Kodiak, Ber.
ing Sea, Kamschatka, Bristo Bay, ia.
pan and Okhotsk sea grounds he
planted the harpoon and lance ir
many a right whale.
LIP the SOS Mr.. Cornell had been ir
the English whalers out of Australia
Fora year prior to 1868, he had beer
OUT ffsperm whaling from Tasmania
and had cruised to Bass Straits. Hap.
penjhg to be in Sydney when the New
Bedford whaling bark John and Win
throp, Captain Poole, arrived there
Mr.. Cornell was approached to see II
he would go right whaling for voy-
age, the mate having left her at sgd.
ney. The John and Winthrop was
bound to Bering Sea and to the Japan
and Okhotsk seas.
'The day before Joined the whal.
err" said Mr.. Cornell, "some twenty
men had been shipped to go in the
John and Winthrop, and I looked
them over. I found that every one OF
the men was a discharged convict
and some had not been free many
hours. I wasn't afraid Of the men
but I thought something out Of the
ordinary might happen, and so wher
I shipped 1 had it put down In the
articles that I was to be discharged
at any port where the ship might
touch excepting America.
"I had had enough experience with
San Francisco lawyers to know they
were bad ones, and a sailor could
trump up a charge and the lawyer:
would almost make the court believe
that all officers were cut-throats and
villains. I was complimented after.
ward for my thoughtfulness by the
American consul at Yokohama, who
had been a seaport lawyer himself.
"Well, to tell you about the crew
We made off from Sydney and went
up on the New Zealand grounds, and
picked up 200 barrels Of sperm oil
and one right whale. We ran In to
land one day to get a rating for oul
chronometer. We stood into Eas,
Cape, New Zealand, and it was about
2 or 3 o'clock in the afternoon, as
remember it. We got our rating anc
stood offshore again.
THAT night when I turned in lit.
tie thought that there would be
strange doings in the early morning
It seemed to me as If had just got
to sleep when I heard some one ir
my room. The person didn't make g
noise as If he were trying to awaken
me, but it was a stealthy noise.
reused suddenly and found the third
made standing by my bunk. He had
knife in his hand and a piece OF
spun yarn in the other, and I think
to this day that he wanted to kill me
but didn't dare do the job. CAM
get this idea out Of my head.
"'What do you want Mr.. Riley?
I asked him, and he replied that the
men forward were going to steal
boat I said, Get out Of this quick
Why didn't you stay on deck and
send one of the boat steerers down
to call me?'
11C SFAoi'S ~ -
ply and I jumped out Of my room to
go on deck. The after door was lock-
ed and 1 hurried to the door near the
steerage, but this was also fastened
and 1 could see that it was held by
ropes and two ringbolts. Then I went
back to the companionway door and
partly lying on my back, braced
against the walls of the passage way
from the cabin to the deck, I hove
my feet at the door twice. There
was no budging of the timbers the
first time, but I knocked that door
all to pieces the second try, and we
hurried on deck.
The man at the wheel was the first
person I encountered. He was arm
ed with an axe such as we chopped
the whalebone away from the bow
heads mouths What are you doing
with that axe?' asked the sailor. He
replied that he had been given the
weapon with orders to kill me when
came on deck If I got out Of the
cabin. The men who had placed him
on guard said they did not care sc