The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1842-09-13 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

COMMITTAL OF A LIVERPOOL CAPTAIN FOR WILFUL MURDER.—At the Thames Police•ofice, on Wednesday, Captain Partridge, late master of the ship Jarrow, of this port, was brought before Ballantine for final examination, charged with the wilful murder of three Spanish seamen on the high seas. We have already given the previous hearings of the case. Mr. J. Fisher said he shipped at Liverpool, as chief mate of the Jarrow, on the 9th of March, 1841, on a voyage to Benin, on the coast of Africa. The ship remained at Benin for five months, and some Kroo boys were shipped to assist in the navigation of the vessel. From Benin the ship proceeded to Prince's Island, where she remained for a few days, and shipped four Spaniards, three of whom afterwards died from ill usage. Witness was disrated as mate between Benin and Prince's Island. The log was kept by him until the latter part of June, 1841, and during the remainder of the voyage by the captain himself. Two of the Spaniards died between Prince's Island and Teneriffe, and the third at Teneriffe. The first one who died was called Jose, and was very well and hearty when he came on board. The captain repeatedly beat Jose in a very brutal manner. The first time he beat'him was a fortnight after he came on board. The Spaniard did not work to please the captain, but he most undoubtedly did his best, and was a very willing man. Jose was beaten over the neck and shoulders and  other parts of his body with a rope. The vessel we. short of provisions, and for the first three weeks Jose re, ceived the same allowance as the other men, but afterwards only received half that quantity, and he became gradually weaker and weaker till he died. The captain beat the deceased generally with a rope's end, or the bight of a rope, and on one occasion with a billet of wood. Jose was pressed to work hard unnecessarily, when he was unfit to do so. He was very unfairly treated, and great cruelty was exercised towards him. The name of the second mate was Mariana, and he was one of the stoutest and best seamen of the four, and in good health when shipped. Mariana was first beaten on the supposition of having stolen some canvas. The captain ordered a Kroo boy to flog him with the bight of a rope, and he was most unmercifully flogged, and had nothing on his back at the time but an old cotton shirt and a worn-out Guernsey frock. He saw Mariana beaten by the captain on several other occasions. The man was not steering as the captain wished, and was flogged with the end of the mainboom sheet. The captain after that struck him a violent blow with his fist. The man was very often struck at the wheel, and I recollect his being struck there with the logslate the day before his death. The log-slate was a heavy double backed one, and the captain struck Mariana two heavy blows with it, one on the face and temples with the flat part of it, and another on the top of the head with the edge of the slate. The man bled very much, and his eyes were swollen. There was a cut an inch long across his temple, and on his crown there was an indentation so big that witness could put his thumb into it. Blood and water were oozing from the wounds down the man's face. He died the following night in the forecastle. After the captain had beaten Mariana he send him up to the rigging. The Spaniard attempted to come down, but the captain flogged him up again. The night was very cold and blowing hard, and when Mariana was taken down he was to all appearances dead. His limbs were stiff and cold. He was thrown overboard three or four hours after he died. The man was not in a fit state, from hard usage and weakness, to be sent either to the pumps or the rigging. He got worse, and appeared to be quite silly after he was beaten. The witness said the third Spaniard who died was also repeatedly flogged by the captain and knocked down. He died at Teneriffe after the ship arrived there. The quarantine doctor came alongside, but the captain did not report the condition of the Spaniard, or obtain any medical aid for him. The prisoner was then formally committed to take his trial at the next Old Bailey sessions.