page_title: Greenock stowaways
section_title: Trial of Watt and Kerr
hierarchical_section_title: Greenock stowaways / Return and legal proceedings / Trial of Watt and Kerr
caption_attribution_description: High Court of Justiciary, Edinburgh, Scotland
context_page_description: The Greenock stowaways, or Arran stowaways, were six boys and one young man, Bernard Reilly, 22, who, in April 1868, stowed away at Victoria Dock in Greenock, Scotland, on a cargo ship, the Arran, bound for Quebec, Canada. They were dressed in thin and ragged clothing totally unsuitable for the bitterly cold North Atlantic weather encountered on the voyage; two of the boys lacked any shoes. On board ship they were lashed, beaten, starved, sometimes stripped naked or near-naked, had ice-cold sea water thrown over them, were generally ill-treated and, on occasion, handcuffed. All the stowaways were regularly beaten except Peter Currie, whose father was a friend of first mate James Kerr. James Bryson was subjected to torture.
  When, after a little over one month at sea, their vessel became trapped in sea-ice off the west coast of Newfoundland, the captain ordered that six of them should be put overboard and told to make their way to shore across the ice. The seventh stowaway, Peter Currie, was allowed to remain on board.
context_section_description: Captain Watt and first mate Kerr were tried at the High Court of Justiciary. They appeared before Lord Justice Clerk George Patton in Edinburgh on 23 November. The trial was to last three days; they had already spent four months in custody.
  The charge of forcing the boys to leave the ship to their own endangerment was objected to by the defence on the grounds of being innominate in law, but after much debate and deliberation the Judge allowed it to stand and the trial proceeded. Members of the Arran's crew testified for both the defence and the prosecution. For the former, the steward and boatswain appeared, while for the latter, six seamen and the cook took the stand.
caption: The High Court of Justiciary in Parliament House, Edinburgh, where Watt and Kerr were tried in November 1868
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot A510", "Image Orientation": "0", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2005:09:20 16:27:57", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "185", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1997", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6099", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/1000", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2005:09:20 16:27:57", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2005:09:20 16:27:57", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "16129/8192", "EXIF ApertureValue": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "11/4", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "93/16", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "600", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "800", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "600", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "800", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1849", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "32000/7", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "32000/7", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}