INHUMAN CRUELTY AT SEA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9190, 20 October 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

INHUMAN CRUELTY AT SEA.

At Queenstown, on August '20, was resumed the inquest on the body of the Swede, Peter Williams, seaman on board the Liverpool barque Thos. S. Stow, which had to be adjourned on the Bth of August in order to receive the depositions of the captain, othcers, and crew, which Merc made before the Mayor of Liverpool (at which port the vessel then was). The Thos. S. Stow sailed from Astoria on the 3rd of March for Queenstown. About, a fortnight afterwards Williams was disrated for incompetency, and some time later, on account of his alleged lilthy habits, he was put out of the forecastle and obliged to remain in a small compartment under the forecastle head, 7ft 4in long and 4ft sin high, which, when the door was closed, did not admit air or light. He was noticed to be somewhat foolish, and he became perfectly imbecile. On the arrival of the steamer at Queenstown on the nth inst., Williams was carried to the hospital in a dying state, and he died the following day. A post-mortem examination of the body was made, when it was discovered that the body, which was emaciated, was covered with the marks of wounds, both old and new, many of which appeared to be burns. There Mere also several abrasions, and a scalp wound about two and n-half inches long at the base of the skull laid bare the bone, and many other wounds on the head. Several witnesses, who boarded the ship on its arrival at Queenstown, deposed to deceased crawling along the decks anil falling over chains, cutting his head by the falls. He appeared to be a lunatic. The pilot who brought the ship into port stated that after boarding the ship outside the harbour he was invited by a seaman to " Come and see our pig." He went, with the man to the forecastlej and there was shown W illiatiis. The second oilicer deposed that the deceased complained of some of the crew burning him. He examined him. and found mat he was burned between the legs. Three days before the vessel arrived at Queenstown the captain gave Williams a pair of troiisCis, his own having rotted oft him. I rancis Hanz, seaman, said that a sailor named Gaunt told him he had burned the deceased with a poker, which went through his oilskin and nearly through his body. The witness some days afterwards noticed the holes made by the poker. In his evidence Gaunt admits having burned Williams to make him leave the forecastle, but ho dented it to the captain. The depositions of the other members of the crew showed that the deceased was often seen to fall and cut Li.-< head. He was taken out every third or fourth day, and his clothes washed over the side of the ship, and his body scrubbed with a brush. The captain s deposition was to the effect that he treated the deceased for scurvv. He often brought men before him when he heard complaints, but could not definitely learn anything. The jury found that the deceased died from the effects of two wounds on the head, which injured an already softened brain : and, the crew not being present, there was not sufficient- evidence to show how the larger wound was caused ; and, on account of the savage and inhuman treatment the deceased had "received, they advised a further and more searching investigation at the most ! suitable port.