A CAPTAIN'S CRIME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7567, 20 February 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

A CAPTAIN'S CRIME.

SCUTTLING HIS VESSEL FOR THE INSURANCE. Captain Gerrior, of the schooner Racer, which was wrecked off Portland, was brought to Boston lately under arrest from Gloucester. He was arraigned before United States Com, missio&er Hallet on a charge of scuttling his vessel, and was held in £400 for examination. It appears that the vessel had a successful trip, having taken 53,000 pounds of tish before she put into Sydney, N. 8., on her way home. At this point Captain Gerrior took on board two female passengers for Portland. The crew say the captain stopped at several ports on the way home, and all hands had a good time generally. At one of the ports, Cranberry, an isle near Grandsman, it is claimed by the crew, the entire cargo of fish was sold for cash by the captain. One of the female passengers, Ida Williams, makes affidavit that she saw the captain cut a hole in the vessel with a hatchet while the vessel while in Portland harbour, and to overhearing the captain refuse a permit to his wife to sail to Gloucester with him in the schooner, because of the probability of her sinking on the trip. One of the crew, namedGeorgeSherman, also overheard the captain's remarks about the schooner sinking, it is said, and went to the captain, telling him he must not run the vessel on the rocks. . It is also said Gerrior was heard to say the owner would rather have her sunk that not, as she was old and the insurance on her would be satisfactory to him. Shortly after the vessel sailed from Portland, and when 16 miles of Cape Elizabeth, it was discovered sthat she was rapidly filing, and she sank in forty fathoms, the crew taking to the boats and reaching land after suffering intensely from exposure, it is asserted that the captain has admitted in his affidavit that the claim that 35,000 pounds of fish went down with the vessel, together with money received for a portion of the cargo, is false, and her hold was clear when she sunk. The extreme penalty of the crime with which he is charged is death.