The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1921-08-04
SHANGHAIER SOLDIER
ACQUITTED BY ARMY
Earl Clark Proves to Court
Martial that He Was Not a
Qeserter

OeSertcr
New York. Aug. "A court mar
tial at Governors Island unanimously
accepted as true a story that read
like the old fiction stories of sailing
ships and their methods of "shang-
haing" men from their crews, and
cleared OF desertion charges a soldier
who said he had been kidnapped at
the Canal Zone and carried across the
Atlantic against his will. He was alb
solved of all anne and ordered re-
stored to duty.
The soldier was Earl Clark, who
enlisted in the army in the West Vir-
ginia mountain section, and was sent
to the contingent at the Panama
Canal Zone. where he was assigned to
Co a Of the military police. One night
while off duty he ran across sailors
from Kronprinsessen Margareta. a
Swedish steamship who asked him II
he couldn't show them the bright
lights" of Colon. This was in Novem.
Der, 1920
It was a great night for Private
Clark and for the Swedish sailors but
endurance OF the Stockholm lads wa
greater than that Of Clark who fna
ly passed into complete Oblivion. Far
be it from strong Swedish sailors Ia
desert comrade whose engines had
stopped. and they loaded him on their
shoulders and carried him to their
ship, which was to sail from Colon
for Stockholm at dawn.
When Clark awoke he was in one
OF the hunks Of the Swedish ship
which was already out OF sight oil
land and rolling in heavy seas with
out regard for the state OF health oil
any "doughboy" who had been out the
night before. One of the party told
Clark that he was on his way &c
Stockholm, where the lights were just
as bright as any in the Canal Zone,
Indignant Clark demanded that he
be taken before the captain, who as
sured him that II was impossible &c
turn the steamer back, and that hC
would receive pay for any work done
on the voyage. He demanded that he
be permitted to communicate with the
army authorities If the boat touched
England after he had learned thai
the ship might go through Fin and
canal to Manchester,
Before the ship started inland t
Manchester the Swedish sailors put
Clark under guard to prevent his es
cape. but he managed to elude this
watch and get ashore He told his
story to a policeman, he said, ant
was taken to police station where
he asked for assistance in notifying
his officers at the Canal Zone that HI
had been "Shanghaied
Clark told the officers of the court
martial that he was held for severa
weeks in prison at Manchester in
communicate, pending receipt OF wore
from the American government. HI
said that the food was insufficient ant
that jailors were abusive,
After he had failed to get word L
, the American Consul and his deter
ton was lengthening into weeks, h
said a Presbyterian clergyman /
Manchester communicated with tn
, American Embassy in London and
. few days later guard put the so
=. der aboard the Celtic on alien d.
, portation orders He was arreste
, when the ship reached this port an
I taken to the military prison at Fol-
Jay on charges of desertion.
! Telling OF this unusual case, O
3, ficers at Governors Island recalled
similar case during the war, A so
| dier was kidnapped at St Nazaire b
, Spanish soldiers and landed in Spail
3. where he was kept in prison for abou
two years before his status was tinall
} established. He also was tried for d.
\ sortionand acquitted. "