The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1853-05-03 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

WILFUL MURDER ON THE HIGH SEAS.  At the Police-court, yesterday, a seaman named Daniel Miller was charged with the wilful murder of Peter Marr, the carpenter on board the packet-ship Lady Mary, of London, during her passage from Demerara to this port. The charge was preferred against the prisoner by the , captain of the vessel, on her arrival at this port, on Friday. Detective officer Murphy said that, from instructions which he received on Friday evening, he went on board the Lady Mary, lying in the Brunswick Dock. He found the prisoner in the cabin, and told him he was an officer, and that he (prisoner) was charged with killing a sailor named Marr, by striking him on the head with a stick. Prisoner said, "he said he was going to strike me with it, and I took it from him. He then drew his knife, and I struck him on the head with a stick." Witness asked prisoner if they had been quarrelling before, and he said " No, I don't recollect ever having had a wrong word with him." Witness then took him into custody. The captain then came into the cabin and pointed out a stick, and said that was the stick. Witness examined it, and found marks of blood upon it. [Stick produced.] Alexander Young said—l am master of the English brig Lady Mary. The prisoner was one of my crew. He was an able seaman. About the hour of seven on the morning of the 28th of February, we were on the homeward voyage, a little to leeward of Demerara lightship, at sea, when the prisoner came to me on the quarter-deck, and said, " Captain, I have come aft to give myself up to you." I asked him what he had been up to, and he told me he had struck the carpenter with a stick. I asked him if he had killed him, and he said, " I believe so, or nearly." I went forward, and found the carpenter lying on his bed, on the deck of the forecastle. He was insensible, but alive. I called all hands, and secured the prisoner. I examined the wounded man, and found it was Marr, the carpenter. I found two wounds upon his head, from which blood was flowing. There was one wound upon the forehead, above the eye, and another higher up nearer the top of the head. One of his hands was smashed as if with guarding off the blow. The deceased never spoke after we saw him, and died in about two hours. I inquired from the mate and crew if they had seen or heard anything of it, and they said they had not. I saw the mate find the piece of wood now produced. It was lying in the cabin, about twelve or fourteen feet from the deceased. I examined the wood, and found blood and hair upon it. I had seen that piece of wood in possession of the prisoner when he came alongside in the pilot boat. We had only been 12 or fourteen hours at sea when it occurred. Immediately after I found the deceased insensible, I asked the prisoner if that was the stick he struck him with, and he said it was. I asked him what he struck the deceased with it for, and he told me that the carpenter had a knife, and said he was going to stick him or kill him with it. I then said to hitn, Was it in self-defence that you struck him ?" He said it was. The prisoner appeared to be under the influence of liquor when he came on board the ship. I examined the place about where the carpenter was lying, but did not see any knife. The body was thrown overboard.  A seaman, who assisted the mate in sewing the deceased up in a sheet, before throwing him overboard, stated that, on examining his clothes, they did not find any knife.  Mr. Francis Ayrton, a surgeon at the north dispensary, said he had examined the prisoner, and from that examination he believed him to be sane, but from his own account of this transaction he believed him to have been labouring under delirium tremens at the time of the occurrence.  On the prisoner being asked what he had to say, after receiving the usual caution, he said—" It was not my intention to kill the man. I should never have struck him, if I had not thought that he was going to kill me." He was then fully committed to take his trial at the assizes on a charge of wilful murder.