The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1842-08-26 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

CHARGE OF MURDER AGAINST A LIVERPOOL. CAPTAIN.—On Saturday last, at the Thames Police-office, London, Captain Partridge, master of the Jarrow, of Liverpool, was charged with the wilful murder of three Spanish sailors on the high seas, between the coast of Africa and Teneriffe. The prisoner was brought home in confinement in her Majesty's steamer Alban, which arrived, on Friday, at Woolwich from Teneriffe, where Captain Partridge had been for some time detained by the Spanish authorities for nonpayment of a fine of £4OO for cruelty towards the seamen. On being claimed by our government, the prisoner was given up. The first witness was Joseph Fisher, who said, he went out as boatswain in the Jarrow, and came home as mate. He gave his evidence very reluctantly, but the magistrate pressed and threatened him, saying, he was determined to get the whole of the facts out of him. He then said, the ship was bound from Africa to Liverpool, and soon after she sailed she became very leaky, which compelled them to put into Prince's Island, where they shipped four Spaniards as able seamen, but who proved to be quite the reverse. They had been taken out of a slaver by a man-of-war, and were all ill when they came on board, but two of them particularly so. The first, whom they called Humbry, was flogged because he could not do his duty properly ; he died six weeks after he was first beaten; he was flogged repeatedly; neither of the Spaniards had a hammock ; they had small mats and rugs to lie upon ; the day before he died witness found him in the scuppers and pulled him out ; he supposed he had been sitting on some of the spars, and by the rolling of the ship fell off. The second, called Marianna, was continually flogged by the captain ; he was beaten, thirty...six hours before he died, on the head a double folding log-slate, the frame of which broke into a dozen pieces ; the man's head was cut severely and bled profusely, but he was, nevertheless, kept on deck for two hours till his time was up, and then he went to the pump ; he either could not or would not pump, and the captain sent him into the rigging for four hours and a half; when he left the rigging he was insensible, and never moved afterwards. The third man was called Rosanne. He was beaten as often as the others ; he was flogged before he had been on board a dozen hours, because he could not pump hard enough. This man did not die until they reached Teneriffe. Witness had repeatedly seen the captain knock him down ; the man was dirty, and he died through that and weakness and hard work. When the ship performed quarantine, the man was mustered with the others at the gangway, but nothing was said to the doctor, who came alongside, about his being ill. All three of the men went to the pumps when they could scarcely stand. Witness had reported to the captain that one of the Spaniards was too ill to come on deck, and was ordered to rouse him, dead or alive.—The prisoner said he found the Spaniard asleep at the helm, and therefore he gave him a " slap " with the slate.—Richard Gerard, carpenter of the ship, detailed a number of gross cruelties, and added, that the Spaniards had less provisions than the other men. The man who died at Teneriffe had his arm in a sling, owing to a wound in the hand he received from the captain. They had shipped two Frenchmen at Liverpool : one ran away at Teneriffe, and the other disappeared from the ship one morning when on the coast of Africa. It was supposed he jumped overboard, and he was thought to be out of his mind.—Other witnesses deposed to the extreme cruelties practised towards the Spaniards, and ultimately the magistrates remanded the prisoner on the charge of murder, in order that he might consult with his friends, and obtain professional advice, previous to his being committed.  A