A NAVAL TYRANT.

Dunstan Times, Issue 596, 19 September 1873, Page 3

A NAVAL TYRANT.

Commander A. Semmes, late of the United States sloop of war Portsmouth, has been tried by a Naval Court-martial, on charges of inflicting cruel and unlawful punishment on his sailors, abuse of his official power, as an officer and a gentleman. Semmes used to chain the sailors, for very trivial offiences, in gangs of ten, close together, and place them on the quarter-deck to pass the night in Unspeakable discomfort. While the Portsmouth lay in the port of Rio Janeiro,- a man named King was persecuted till he attempted to desert, and was then fastened by his arms and feet in an immovable position, in a boat alongside of the vessel, and exposed to the fierce tropical heat of the sun until his life was nearly sacrificed. Another case of outrageous cruelty was that of a seaman named Matthews, concerning which we quote the language of the Secretary of the Navy himself : “By order of Captain Semmes he (Matthews) was seized and crammed into a box three feet long, eighteen inches wide, and eighteen inches deep. Planks cut for the purpose wore then placed over the top of the box, and force was used to crush down the protruding knees and head. The planks were at length by main force brought down to bear on the sides and ends of the box. Nails were driven into the planks, and the lining man was boxed up under Captain Serames’s supervision. By this officer’s order he was kept for five days. During these one hundred and twenty hours the miserable man was never allowed to leave his oofin. With a refined cruelty that would not let him die and escape his torment, he was regularly fed through a hole six inches square. These are hut a few of the brutal acts of Commander Sonnies* who, by the way, is a nephew of Captain Raphael Semmes, of the pirate Alabama. Commander Semmes was found guilty of all charges against him, and was not only suspended from duty and rank fur three years, but to he reprimanded iu general orders by the Secretary of the Navy.” The Secretary, in his repimaud, says: “ The department would have approved of a severer sentence.” We should think so. The penitentiary is the only fitting doom for such a monster as Commander Semmes has been proved to be.