IMPOSTURE BY A SEA CAPTAIN.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXXI, Issue 5619, 30 August 1875, Page 2

IMPOSTURE BY A SEA CAPTAIN.

Aii extraordinary and very gross caso of iinpeisonation on tlio part of a matter of a vessel Iiasiecently been bi ought to light by tlio Pilot Hoard. It in one which showa how ready a man may be to persist in his false statements until ho is required to swear to their correctness, when lio shiinkB from confirming hi* hitherto unbluHhing assertion by the solemnity of an oath. It appears that on the 5M.it of May last a letter was received by tlio authorities here from the registrar-general of seamen in London, calling attention to the fnot that one Charles Win. Bartlett was sailing in the waters of Victoria under amastor's certificate No. 2,445, issued by the Hoard of Trade, to which he was not legally entitled. Wm. Bartlott, to whom it had been grtmtod, being in England, having applied for a renewal of the dooument, which heaHHerted had been lost in 1809. Chns. Win. Bartlett at that time commanded the Yarrow, which was wrecked in October of the same year at Port Phillip Heads. An investigation was held into the circumstances attending the casualty, and in his examination the master stated that he had lout his certificate and all his effects on the occasion of the loss of the Scotia, of which he wuh owner, 10 months previously. Mr. Dunn, the local registrar of shipping, having known Bartlett for a number of years, was satisfied with his assurance that he was the legal holder of this certificate, and did not demand its production. Since then Bartlett has entered this port several times, and no doubt had been raised us to his identity. He is a Prussian, of about titty years of age, well educated, and has always been regarded as an eminently i expectable man. The registrar-general of soamcu, London, in his communication, requested infoi mation from thin colony as to the date, place of issue, and description of the ceitificato of which Chut. Wm. Bartlott wm in possession, as none had ever been issued to a person of that name. 'flic schooner Senbird, which Uirtlott co nmanded, nrriveU from Lyttelton on .July 27, si ml the cup tain was consequently re ruited by the Boaid to attend before them and explain mattors. He did not obey the .summon, until the day after that on which lie was requested to bo present, but he then proved to the satisfaction of the board, by documentary evidence, that he wivh "William Bartlett, who had paused his examination in Plymouth in l<S.~>0. On boing asked why ho had added "Charles" to hit* name, he said thcic was another Captain William Bartlett, resident in Hobart Town, whose letters and his used to bo frequently interchanged by miltake, and when he married in 1850 he took tl|o name of Chailcs to avoid the annoyance in future. Ho gavo the most minute information :\h to his proceedings hoforo and after his in r;val in tho colony, and so thoroughly satisfied the board as tohis genuineness that they determined to commumc.ito their conviction to tho Board of Trade by the outgoing mail, but as a precaution and a in* him of obtainiuing a duplicate of the certificate from tlio Board they required Bartlott tc make a statutory declaration that his statements wore correct befoic a justice of the peace - This he promised to do, and subsequently u»ut in a written statement to this effect, but some days passing without his complying with the i equipments of the board, he was summoned ou Monday before tlioin to give an explanation of tho delay. He said that it was in consequence of his wife having been dangerously ill, and this had so disturbed him that lie requested two or three days to think tho matter over before he mado the declaration. Upon this tho secretary of tho board, Mr. Kees, immediately charged him with peisonating Win. Bartlett, and after a little hesitation heconfessud that ho had done so, alleging that poverty had caused him to commit the fraud, lie had never possessed any ceitificato whatever, and besought tho board to view tho matter leniently, and not pioxccuto him, which, of courso, they would not undertake to do. On leaving the office Bartlett met tho agent for tho Soabird, who had pieviously written a letter strongly in his favour, and admitting tlio imposture to him, was dismissed fiom command of tlio vcssol. The matter has been laid before tho Government, with a view to stops boing taken for the prosecution of the ofl'emfei'.