THE LENNIE TRAGEDY.

Evening Star, Issue 4119, 10 May 1876, Page 3

THE LENNIE TRAGEDY.

The following is a narrative of the terrible crime for which a number of men are now in custody :—The Lennie sailed from Antwerp on the 22nd of October last, and was bound for Nova Scotia. The crew consisted of Captain Hatfield, Joseph Wortley (the first mate), and Robert Macdonald (second mate), all of whom were murdered, the eleven alleged murderers in custody, and the other two survivors. Van Hoydek (the steward), and a boy named Henry Trusillo, to whose praiseworthy conduct, especially that of the steward, the credit of saving the ship and the arrest of the murderers is due. When the vessel had got into the Bay of Biscay, and after she had been five days at sea, the crew manifested signs of insubordination, which eventually broke out into the most terrible mutiny. As early as four o’clock on the morning of the 31st of October, the steward, who was sleeping in his berth, heard on the deck above a frightful commotion. Dressing himself as speedily as he could, he ran to get on deck, but found he was prevented by the hatchway being fastened down. As he stood listening to the horrible violence and uproar going on above he heard terrible groans and gurgling sounds as of the captain’s voice, and as if the captain was speaking with his throat cut, and almost in the last throes of death was saying* “Oh, you are not sailors; you are slaughterers you are slaughterers ! ” Directly after that he heard another rush, and footsteps of a man running away, and from what he could hear it seemed as though a rush was then being made after the second mate, who was probably trying to escape to the rigging. Immediately upon this he heard five shots fired, and then a heavy thud on the deck as though a man had been fetched down. After this murderous work had proceeded for about an hour and a half, at half-past five someone came down to the steward. One of the mutineers then addressing him, said: —“Well, we are finished now.” The steward, affecting surprise, said, “Oh, what have you finished?” “The captain and the mates,” replied the mutineer, and, “Now, can you take charge of the ship V The steward replied, “ Yes ; where do you want to go ?” “To Greece,’’’ replied the mutineer. “You take us to Gibraltar, aud we’ll find Greece,” The steward replied that it was all right; he would take the ship safe. When he got on deck he saw that the deck was covered with blood, and that five of the men were engaged in washing it off. Three others were over the front, and three besides them were over the stem engaged in cutting away the name of the boat. When working order Was restored, the steward went to the boy Harry Trusillo, he being the only one he thought he could trust, and said to him “Now, look here, Harry, if we take these fellows to where they want to go, there is no knowing what they may do. When they know where they are they will be very likely to murder us and throw us over too. Let us try to save the ship and our own lives as well. Now, can I trust you?” “Yes, all right,” replied the boy. “Well, then,” said the steward, “now you go down into the cabin, and I will lock you in. Then you write twenty-four notes in French and English, stating that the captain and officers on board of the Lennie are all murdered, and that the crew have seized Hie ship, and we two are waiting assistance. Then while you are doing that I will go and

get twenty-four empty bottles to put them in, and then we’ll throw them overboard and see what they’ll send us. The boy did so, and when everything was all ready the steward again altered the course of the vessel towards the Irench coast, and arriving there on the Bth November they threw the bottles over hoping they would drift towards the coast or that they might attract the attention of the French authorities. The weather became very rough, and the steward then said to the men that it would be no use for them to go to sea to lose their sails, and if they chose to go on shore he would put them near to land at a small place he knew where there were no police. The six Greeks, approving of this suggestion, took one of the ship s boats, and lowering went on shore on the French coast, and landed at Les Sables dOlonne. The steward by this strategy

having got nd of six of the mutineers, lay for two days near the coast. In the meantime some of the bottles bad been picked up, and within two days afterwards a pilot-boat came along side, followed by tbe Travailleur, a French man of-war. The assistance bad promptly been sent by the French Government, who in the first place demanded to know the reasonof the Lonnie’s name being obliterated, and of the ship being without the captain and mate. Mr Van Hoydek, the steward, and the boy Hairy Trusillo now came forward, and, claiming the immediate protection of the French authorities, at once told the whole story of the murders and the mutiny. The remaining five of the mutineers who had remained on board were charged with complicity in the murder, arrested and placed in irons, and taken on shore by the Travailleur. In the meantime the news of the dreadful occurrence was privately communicated to the French gendarmes. By this time the news of the murder had spread through the French provinces, and they being suspected as the six Greeks wanted were soon arrested. The prisoners have all been examined before the magistrate and remanded.' telegram, dated Nantes, 15th March, is published Two human heads and a headless body were found washed ashore last Saturday, near that part of the coast wnere the sailora of the crew of the Lonnie, now charged with mutiny and (murder, was seized. The British Govern-

ment having received information of this, sent a police-officer from London, accompanied by Dr Bond and the cook of the Lennie. They arrived here to-day, and will proceed to Sables d’Olonnes.”