MURDER AT SEA.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 441, 12 November 1875, Page 3

MURDER AT SEA.

KEKTENCE OF DEATH. At the Liverpool assizes on .Saturday, Aug. 7th, before Mr Justice Archibald, Edward Cooper, a sailor, aged 33, was indicted for having on the high seaa, on board the British ship Coldbeck, on the 24th April, wilfully murdered Edward Jones. Mr M'Council prosecuted, and the prisoner was defended by Mr Potter. The deceased was boatswain on board the Coldbeck, and the prisoner was an able seaman on the same ship. She sailed from Liverpool for Valparaiso on the •23rd January, and everything went on well until the 20th April, when it was evident that there was some ill-feeling between the prisoner and the deceased. On that day the prisoner was in possession of a six-chambered revolver, and on being told that they were loaded, he replied that he knew that. On the afternoon of the 24th April the deceased, who was acting for the second mate, ordered the prisoner to perform some duty,

but instead of doing so he laughed at him. Some angry words then took place, and the deceased said to the prisoner, " Come on deck and fight it out like a man." The prisoner was shortly afterwards seen to raise his hand towards the deceased, and the report of a pistol followed. The deceased fell, and expired shortly afterwards. He had been shot in the left breast. The prisoner, after firing the shot, went into the forecastle, and, on being asked if he knew what he ha I done, he replied that the deceased had cut him before ho drew the revolver. The prisoner was put in irons, and on the arrival of the ship at Valparaiso an investigation took place before the Consul. The prisoner and the witnesses were afterwards sent home. For the defence it was urged that the deceased cut the prisoner's thumb with a knife, and that he then unfortunately fired the pistol in self-defence. The jury, after an absence from court of an hour and a half, found the prisoner guilty of murder, and his lordship passed sentence of death in the usual form.