THE MIGNONETTE TRAGEDY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1414, 26 December 1884, Page 2

THE MIGNONETTE TRAGEDY.

The trial of Thomas Dudley and Edwin Stephens, the captain jand mate of the yacht Mignonette, for the wilful murder of the lad Richard Parker on the high seas, on July 25, took place at Exeter on November 6.h (writes the Argus' London correspondent), before Mr Baron Huddleston. The Court was densely crowded, even ladies being present. The prisoner Dudley seemed iu good spirits, but Stephens was anxious and depressed. The counsel for the defence insisted that the

action of the prisoners. was justified by the necessity of their case. The jury returned the following special verdict, adding thereto a strong ezpressiou of sympathy and compass : on for the sufferings the prisoners had undergone ; —“ That on July sth, 1884, the prisoners, with one Brooks, all able-bodied English seamen, and the deceased, an English boy between 17 and 18, the crew of an English yacht, were cast away in a storm on the high seas, 1,600 miles from the Oape of Good Hope, and were compelled to put into an open boat; that in this boat they had no supply of water and no supply of food, except two lib tins of turnips, and for three days they had nothing else to subsist on.

. . . That the boat was drifting on the oceau, and was probably more than 1,000 miles from land ; that on the 18th day, when they had been seven days without food and five without water, the prisoners spoke to Brooks as to what should be done if no succour came, and suggested someone should be sacrificed to save the rest, but Brooks dissented, and the boy, to whom they were understood to refer, was not consulted ; that on the -day be* fore the act in question Dudley proposed to Stephens and Brooks that lots should be cast who should be put to death to save the rest, but Brooks refused to con* sent, and it was not put to the boy, and in point of fait there*was no drawing ol lots; that on that day the prisoners spoke of their having families, and suggested it would be belter to kill the boy, that their

lives should be saved, and Dudley proposed if no vessel was in sight by the next morning the boy should be killed;

that next day, no vessel appearing, Dudley told Brooks that he had better go and have a sleep, and made signs to Stephens and Brooks that the boy had better be killed. Stephens agreed to the act, but Brooks dissented from it ; that the boy was then lying at the bottom of. the boat quite helpless, and extremely weakened by famine and by drinking sea water, and unable t > make any resistance, nor did be ever assent to being killed ; that Dudley, with the assent of Stephens, went to the boy, and telling him his time was ooma, put a knife into his throat and killed him; that the three men fed upon the boy for four days; that on the fourth day after the act the boat was picked up by a passing vessel, and the prisoners were rescued, still alive, bat in the lowest state of prostration ; that they were carried to the port of Falmouth, and committed for trial at Exeter ; that if the men had not fed upon the body of the boy they would probably not have survived to be so picked up and rescued, but would within the four days have died of famine; that the boy, being in a much weaker condition, was likely to have died before them ; that at the time of the act there was no aail in sight; nor any reasonable prospect of relief ; that under these circumstances there appeared to the prisoners every probability that unless they then or very soon fed upon the boy or one of themselves, they would die of starvation ; that there was no appreciable chance of saving life, except by killing someone fit the others to eat; that, assuming any necessity to kill anyone, there was no greater necessity for killing the boy than any of the other three men ; but whether, upon the whole matter, the prisoners were and are guilty of murder, the jury are ignorant, and refer to the Court.