A CHEAP CREW AND ITS WORK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 153, 10 May 1864, Page 4

A CHEAP CREW AND ITS WORK.

[l-'rom tho " Loiulou Examiner.'*] Eight- mi 11, fix ol' till in S'paniurds,one a Greek, anil one :i Turk, have been tried this week at tho t.'intral Olimba.l Court lor minder oil tho high seas, ami .1: v< :i of tin m ioumi guilty, have been co;idoinued to tlir;itK. These men were foreign seamen on board an English the ' ElowerV Lam!,' which lc.t London last summer with a cargo oi wine, bottled beer, ami bull! goods, for Singapore. Tin 1 ship was maimed with a cheap crew ot nineteen 11a.11, including 1 In! i.fliocrs. Tin: captain m-«s an Englisliluan, JoUn Smith, and his brother, George Smith, Mviit an passenger; the iirst and second mates. Xarswcll anil Tatar, wu English, but the earpentci was a Noiwcgian. the cook ami steward Chinamen, tin! seamen, Spanish, French, SelaYomun, anvthin;; but English : Spanish being in the majority, ane Spanish", 01 which the captain knew a little, bein.L: tin: common language use-it i>n beard. the' eapt-'in had not sailed lar before he found some ol' his crev. uneiiiial to tlieir duties, and like all had servau.s di.-saU-iied and iiisubi nbna'.e. Tluy complained o [heir i'ood, which probably was bad, and sometimfoi.siinatelv reiu-ul to do their work. The captaii w as a kimilv man, averse to severe punishment ; hae ill' and Hi,-mates been more hi utally hard listed 11 tho enloitvment of discipline tiicy might have kepi lae most rascally and cowaidly part ot their crew a! bay to tile end ol' tin! voyage. As it v.as, at about three o'clock 011 the morning o the loth of September last, Tallir, the second mate hearing a noise on deck, jumped out of bis berth am went to the companion ladder, where his way v.a; stopped by the beoy of a man whom some of tin eu-w weie healing about the head with handspikes oj capstan-bars. ile received a blow luuisclt wliicl hurled him back into the cabin. He went into tin main cabin and found the captain lying in a pool o liiooil, with his night-dress lull of cuts 011 the lei side. 'The captain's brother was not ill his berth 11 was he who then lay dead 011 the companion-lad-der. Expecting that lie also was to he murdered Tallir retreated into his berth and locked the door When hi" at out half an hour all had been quiet, hi was calh d lor. Sevcial'of the mutineers then car.a down to him, and stood ill a circle round his bertu and one of them called iiim out. ol it. lie askei whether he was going to be killed, and was answered \o : they had killeu tlio captain and the mate, bu wanted him, because there was nobody else on boari able to navigate the vessel, lie was to take them ti tho River l'ute or : Buenos Ayres, where " there wort no English authorities; it was a good country, am there were plenty of Spanish people there." Tallir who was crying, said he would take the ship anywhere to save his life, lie obtained leave deeenth to sew up the captain's body ill canvas before it w;i: thrown overboard. The iirst mate had, before tin murder of the captain, been beaten about the head anil face with handspikes and thrown, yet alive am shrieking, into tiie sea. There was 110 piracy here in the old buccaneering sense. Tho la/.y and ruHhiiih part of the crew, that 110 ship ought to have been senl to sea witii—one ot' the Icllows bragged that ho bar killed sixt.en men with his knife—had cased itselfii a horrible way of irksome supervision and forcei duties, and if the murderers became possessors of tin ship, they iiad 110 other use lor it than that it shoult carry them beyond the arm's length of the law They spent the next morning in dividing plunder o the captain's property, and opening the champagiu cases that iornied part of the cargo, drank and riotci. as they were being carried nearer to their ehosci port. j ju! ships papers were thrown overboard Toe stewaul, wiio it was meant to kill, had a knit'i thrust w.intonlv through tho. Ilesli of lii.s arm. Whoi on tin- -nil of October the desired land, about tei miles distant, was sighted, the second male was turned out of his ollice, the clew put the ship about and as soon as ii, was dark got. the boats overboard Tic ship was then scuttled. A poor little C'iiinest im.v m-< ins to have been murdered in her before silt , mi. ; "11- cook was lo.t to go down with her, anc: the sic .rd, struggling in the sen, was pelted ti ile iiii v. iih bottles of champagne. At four in tin afternoon next day the men landed lrom the boats, proles.-.;ng to be part 01 tho etew ol ail Anier.eall sinj lrom l'ei'ii laden with guano tor bo;deaux, whict bail foundered a hundred miles on!, at sea. The captain and others had got, in a heavy, breeze, intc another boat, and had not since been seen. They themselves had been live days and nights in tlu bo as. Sueh was their tale. A farmer gave them shelter for the night, and next day drove to a place whore ( lie second"mate learnt that there was, twenty miles off, a man who could speak English. Escaping .bom the murderers with a French seaiutm named

Frank f'anderean, who va" one of the witnesses at 1, h<ir trial, the second male found Ihi<* and by j 1; ,h help the iniomiation wim-h na.s brought j Im-.-m; vile criminals to ju-ta.e. 1 Jt will ho obMived that thero is not a t of | onianco in thir, htorv of. v* v i'i is c:oleu " !be • ; l-'iowery Land' I 1;! 1 ..! y, 1 i-"l -i tra* '• •'! thi- wdu ; spirit '1!' adventure that wn..-. '.tleno d eve- with the i IVOiSt criltl' S of tilt; »;M I' 1C "• IU ,Ol r. 0110 ot tll'J ! h»'ir>r<» ;« lit.\.a« again com- j plained of the iiad vk-tn'jlmjj of tho ship ns a ran.™ I uf inntiay, and it is nut unrea.soi.able to ?npp<»-e that 1 Liu; eeonoiriy which manned the vessel with a rifi-raft' I i-i-t-w in the ii'iTiii* of •'able-bodied seamen" extended ; it:clt' ;'I.-o to their rations. However that may be, I lii'; eriinc oi" tln-.-e " i-i'.iiiifli," —brutal, stupid, a-; ill in in the low«-t de-n-e r is "nly the r'-alis;ithm of: what mi::.v ao 71 <.;r ni'itu uf u trading Vu->"d has Ull for year* pa.-,t to be u iikely event, , when, through the cupidity oi owners, }.ie is h-eiit to :i with u cie\v of raijainuiiijis. harirains pielod lrom tin.* wail's and stray* of every land, because tliev will not pay price- of tho article for Kiip;li>h , faring, the well-trained English able-bodied hex- j man. |