The Sun. — 1844-11-29 (London, England)

DREADFUL CASE OF STABBING A LIVERPOOL CAPTAIN ON THE HIGH SEAS.  On Wednesday considerable sensation was created here (Liverpool) by a rumour that Captain Launcelot Reed, the commander of the Sir Charles Napier, of St. Stephen's, had been maliciously and dangerously stabbed by one of his crew on the high seas. We regret to state that the rumour turned out to be correct. It appears that the Sir Charles Napier, a fine ship of 714 tons, new measurement, left St. Stephen's for Liverpool on the 25th of last month, with a cargo of deals consigned to the firm of David Cannon, Son, and Co., of South Castlestreet, in this town. Upon the morning of the 16th instant she was overtaken by a squall in lon. 26 W. The captain immediately ordered the men to take in sail, but perceiving that one of the crew, Samuel Brown, was much more tardy in his movements than the urgency of the case demanded, he gave the fellow a push, with a view of making him execute his work with greater rapidity. Brown instantly made a plunge at the captain with something he held in his hand, which could not be distinguished in the grey of the morning, but which afterwards turned out to be a sheath-knife, one of those dangerous instruments in such common use among seafaring men. The captain save him a blow in return, which threw him back against the long-boat, and then seized hold of him for the purpose of taking him aft and putting him in confinement. Whilst he was in the act of removing him, Brown several times endeavoured to stab him with the knife, but, fortunately, none of the stabs took effect. When, however, the captain had succeeded in getting him as far as the mainmast, the fellow gave him a dreadful stab in the abdomen. The captain seems at this moment, and not before, to have been conscious of the deadly instrument with which he was assailed, and of the imminent danger he was running by putting himself within arm's length of such a scoundrel, for he called out to the mate that he was murdered. The mate and several of the hands ran to his assistance; and, about this period, Mr. Porter, jun., the supercargo, and son of the owner of the vessel, Mr. William Porter, of St. Stephen's, ran on deck and saw them removing the captain into the cabin. Mr. Porter had the captain's clothes immediately taken off, and then discovered that a great portion of his bowels were protruding through the wound in the abdomen. The wound was then incised, the bowels were put back, and the wound was sewed up and dressed. It was then found that the captain had received two other stabs a little below the left shoulder-blade, and that there were no fewer than eleven cuts made with the knife in the pea jacket he was wearing at the time the murderous assault was committed. Those cut; had evidently been given whilst he was conveying Brown aft, and when so many ineffectual attempts were made by the fellow to plunge the knife in some part of his body. Since then, the captain lay in such a state as to be incapable of being removed from the cabin floor, and has been suffering the most excruciating torture. Brown was placed in irons on the tinstant, and kept closely confined in the store-room. The ship arrived in the Mersey about half-past eleven o'clock yesterday, and upon casting anchor in the river off the Clarence Dock, the captain was conveyed ashore in a steam-boat, and has been placed under medical care. Brown was taken into custody .by constable Greaves, and lodged in Bridewell. He will, in all probability, be brought before Mr. Rushton to-day, and ordered to be remanded until such time as the captain may be able to appear against him, if that period shall ever arrive, which, under the dangerous circumstances of his case, is extremely doubtful. The captain is a married man, only twenty-nine years of age, and belongs to Liverpool. His sister formerly kept. a publichouse here, known by the name of the Lighthouse. Brown is twenty-four years of age, and shipped from St. John's, New Brunswick. It was reported he was an American, but we understand that this is not the case, and that he is a British subject.—Gore's Advertiser of yesterday.  :lAYLE