CHARGE OF SCUTTLING A SHIP.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 619, 6 January 1870, Page 3

CHARGE OF SCUTTLING A SHIP.

On the 16th October, at the Mansion House, London, Thomas Bulman, master mariner, was charged with scuttling the ship Old England, with intent to defraud the underwriters at Lloyd's. Prisoner was the captain of the Old England, which left Cardiff for Point deJGalle, 15th June.

The ship was rather leaky, and the pumps were kept going every four hours for about a week. ' After that they were worked every hour. On the 24th July they met with a Portugese brig, and the prisoner had some conversation with the captain of that vessel. Prisoner, it was alleged, ordered that there should be no more pumping. The Old England followed the. course of the brig through the ni<jfht. On the following morning, according to the case for the prosecution, the captain and the carpenter went down into the after hold, the captain having two j augers, and about two hours afterwards I the water was heard rushing into the vessel. Mr Lewis stated that the carpenter would afterwards be included in the charge. The cook and steward of the vessel were examined, and the case was then adjourned, the magistrate declining to admit the prisoner to bail. A subsequent investigation was held at Greenwich, 25 th October, by the Board of Trade, at the conclusion of which the court were of opinion that the abandonment wa3 owing to the default of Mr Thomas Bulman, the master, and adjudged his certificate of service, No. 35,737 to be cancelled. On the Ist Nov., both the master and carpenter were excimined at the Mansion House. At the close of the case for the prosecution, the prisoners counsel a3ked the magistrate to discharge them. He said that the captain had been expressly exonerated from any such allegations as the present by the police magistrate at Woolwich, who had stated that there was no trustworthy evidence to substantiate the insinuations that had been thrown out against him. The decision of the nautical assessors deprived the captain of his certificate, but that matter was about to be brought before the Board of Trade in the shape of an appeal. He urged especially that there was no adequate object for such a crime, that the vessel was not over-insured, and that she would have ultimately gone down without any such acts on their part. Sir Robert Carden, however, committed them for trial, and declined to accept bail.