PIRACY, MURDER, AND BURNING OF A SHIP.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 10, 12 December 1862, Page 3

PIRACY, MURDER, AND BURNING OF A SHIP.

(From the Western Morning News.) We are enabled to place before our readers some details of the most atrocious case of piracy, murder, and burning of a ship that has occurred for many years past, at least in European waters. Captain Grove, of the English brig Susannah, who has arrived at Falmouth, fully narrated the appalling circumstances to our correspondent at that port. It appears that about eight a.m. on the 9th July last, when about sixteen miles S.E. of Malaga, Captain Grove observed the American barque Reindeer with her ensign down, and the sails flying about as if she was adrift. He was then some distance from her, but he immediately lowered his quarter gig and (with four of his crew) proceeded towards the Reindeer. On arriving alongside, Captain Grove observed a man with his head partly over the rail. Smoke was seen issuingfrom the poop of the barque. Before getting on board, Captain Grove spoke to the half-murdered man on deck, and endeavoured to obtain some particulars of the disaster : the poor fellow was only just strong enough to say that a part of the crew had been murdered by two Spaniards, who belonged to the Reindeer, and that after murdering or disabling the crew, they had set fire to the ship, stove one boat, and taken away the other, and had made their escape. The captain and crew of the Snsannah went on board, and were horror struck on seeing the state of the vessel. The appearance of the mutilated men on board, the quantity of blood On deck, the groanings of the captain and men, were horrible beyond description. The steward was on the deck half murdered and lying in his blood ; his face and head had been so cut and disfigured with a knife as to make it wonderful that he should have survived. He was very weak through loss of blood, but just able to move. The master of the Reindeer (Captain J. W Hewitt) was on the main hatch, covered with a blanket, groaning most piteously, insensible. It seems that he was attacked whilst asleep in his cabin ; his head was partly severed from his body, and it is supposed he was left for dead ; one-half of his left ear was entirely cut off and when he awoke and was a little sensible the cabin was full of smoke, but he has no recollection of any of the circumstances of the horrible outrage. The first mate had also been attacked, and wbs cut with a knife very severely in the neck, and seriously injured. The second mate, John H. Hansoy, of Liverpool, and a seaman named Henry Frost Jones, of Cardiff, were both murdered whilst asleep in their berths. Capt. Grove saw them lying thu-ie, and thinks that their deaths must have been instantaneous ; they were in the same 'position as if asleep, but the quantity of blood around them formed a large pool ; the hearts of both men were visible through the severe knife cut in their sides, and it would seem as if they had been struck on the head by some instrument, and then immediately stabbed in the left side, near the heart ; their features did not appear to have been altered ; the ship's boy on board was also attacked by the ruffians, and having received a cut from a knife, he jumped overboard and swam forward to the bobstay, where he quietly remained until the murderers left the vessel. The carpenter and cook were murdered whilst on deck, and thrown overboard ; the boy saw these two attacked and killed, and their bodies thrown out. The others of the crew who had up to this time escaped, seeing the frightful state in which matters were approaching, climbed to the fore-top and cut the top-gallant studding-sail halyard-block to protect themselves. TLe ruffians did not venture aloft, and it would seem that they were short of powder, as, although they had pistols, they did not fire. Amongst the crew of the Reindeer were two Spaniards. They were not in the same watch, and on the night of this horrible act one of them contrived to borrow a knife from each man of the watch, saying that he wanted to cut some meat to eat. At this time the other Spaniard was supposed to be asleep. After having obtained the kuives from the whole of the crew of that watch, and deprived them of their usual means of protection, these two coldblooded murderers set to their work in a busi-ness-like manner. They first provided themselves with two pistols each and a maul under one arm, and attached knives to their sides A pistol was presented to the first mate several times, but it snapped and did not discharge. Thus he was spared his life, but received several severe cuts ancl injuries from knives. Some little time after Captain Grove had been on board the Reindeer, the American ship Minstrel, Captain Clifford, came to her assistance, and every endeavour was made by these two shipmasters and their crews to save the barque from burning. She had been set on fire fore and aft ; they battened everything down to prevent any air reaching the fire, and cut holes in her dock, and for a time the fire appeared to be somewhat subdued; when, however, it reached the transom, the flames broke out with much force at the stern. The Reindeer was a ship of about 300 tons. Captain Grove and Captatn Cliffoid having consulted together, they thought it best to take the whole of the crew on board the Minstrel, and in doing so experiencp-ilsome difficulty in getting the wounded from the ship; they hnd to lower them down over the side of the vessel, Captain Hewitt at the sametime being senseless. They left the Reindeer at about 5 p.m.; Captain Grove remained close to her during the night, and saw her go down about 8 a.m. the next morning. When on board the R,eindeer, Captain Grove noticed a log book which had been kept by Jones, one of the murdered men, from which it appeared that he shipped on board the Mary Ann in Cardiff, in 1861, and ran from her. Three watches were carried off by the murderers, as well as 400 dois. Capt. Grove has in his possession three of the knives used on the occasion, with the blood of the poor murdered and mutilated crew of the Reindeer still about them. During the night after the murder, and whilst the Susannah was in a calm, and only a short distance from the burning ship, Captain Grove saw a boat with four hands and a litter pulling close to the Susannah. Suspecting that there was more misclref at work, he mustered the whole of his crew on the quarter deck, and armed them, in the belief that the boat consisted of pirates belonging to the same party. When the boat came near his vessel, Captain Grove fired a shot across tho boat's bow. On this they pulled away as quickly as possible, and he saw no more of them. A Spanish felucca was also in the immediate locality at the time, and it is the opinion of Captain Grove that the men he saw in the boat were the murderers, and that on his firing across their bow they went on board the Spanish felucca, as he never saw her afterwards, although she had for three days previously been in company with him.