A PACIFIC TRAGEDY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 142, 10 March 1908, Page 7

A PACIFIC TRAGEDY.

bloodthirsty' cook.

KILLS THE CAPTAIN AND MATE. • VESSEL Ryx ASHORE. • BY TELEGRAPH—rRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT (Rcc. Mar. 10, 1.13 a.m.) Sydney, March 9. A sensational sejjuol to the' recently reported mysterious. Wreck of a schooner, with a man and.a c?yin boy aboard, ,qt Apamama Lagoon in tho Gilbert 1 Group, comes to hand Jjythe Island' stcamei; Gerniajiia. t Hayes, an. employee of Burns, Philp, and C 0.,. visited tho' wrccked. schooner and. obtained a statement from the cahin boy, Jack.son. ■ Tho schooner was named tho Neuvro Tigro, and sailed under the Italian flag, being owned by the master and mate. . Sho left Callao early in; November, with a cargo of.'fifty tons of coko. - The crow consisted qf tho captain, the mate, 'tho cook! "(who was a Belgian named Mortimei;),land Jackson. The first day out tho I ,cook attacked the mate with a 'tomahawk, wounding him on tho head, but tho mato escaped' into the rigging. Tho captain, on hearing the scuffle, ; came out of the caljin, and tho cook felled htm with tiio tomahawk; and then, securing a gun, compelled, under threats of shooting them, tho' captain and' mate to jump overboard. Tlio. CQbk scared Jackson, into assisting him to jettison tho cargo and, to, do other. work. 1 The cook told Jackson ,that ho intended to call at Taliiti, and thon go' to Australia, where lie hoped to sell tho schooner, the name of which Ho took the . precaution to paint out.' Ther.o:were plenty of provisions" aboard. '■ ■ • ■ ■■• ''. '' • ■ ' " After they had drifted about for weeks, they finally drove aslioro at Apamama. This statement is similar to tho confession' Jackson made to "tho Island authorities at tho time of his arrest. * '