THE SCUTTLING OF THE SEVERN.

Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 1, Issue 22, 17 June 1867, Page 140

THE SCUTTLING OF THE SEVERN.

- [From the Saturday Review ] 'i ! /.MpjSHJ'the results pf modern civilisation, one of , ■ the piost remarkable is'the reduction to a sytematic • •business of wlmt may be termed the artifioiai wrecking pf ships to defraud underwriters. TJie risk ot - piracy become too great and too \vcll understood 'y-jßrlbat branch,of mayituno crime to have any at-' ■

has entirely lost the adventurous. character which iojica belonged to it; and it is less poetical in aspect; is more to the purpose—less prolitilale i.n" result- than it used to be. On sen, as on knd/violent crimes have become rare, but crimes ofirigeauity and invention have become common. 0n both elements alike, fraudulent respectability has* usurped the place which was once held by the audacious swaggering ruffian, and the recent records of criminal courts can prodaee many examples of

the mildest manner'd man That ever scuttl'd ship or out a throat.

A. long course of success in this business of defrauding underwriters had produced a confidence which has at last involved several experienced practitioners in disaster. The scuttling of the ship Severn, of which the history has lately been investigated at the Old Bailey, was such a reckless disregard of all precaution that if was impossible the actual perpetrators should escape conviction, and the only difficulty lay in proving the guilt of those who had arranged to mule rhe scuttling profitable. A strong featuK in the case was that the mate of the ship, wno is noui under sentence of penal servitude, being in Engw land last October awaiting the result of. inquiries' into the loss of the ship, seems to have thought his prospect of success in the line he had adopted so promising as to justify him in taking to himself a wile. There was a wedding at "Whitechapel and n trip fo Jersey ; and as soon as the married pair returned to every-day life, it appeared that the husband was particularly wanted by an officer of police, [t was known to several of the crew that the ship presented appearances inconsistent with the supposition that slue perished by stress of weather, ami the mate's only ground for hoping that they would not mention what they had been lay in the facts that they had been thoroughly well-treated while on board, and given the mate three cheers when they parted from him at Southampton. Unfortunately, however, the bountiful rations and unlimited grog which had been served out on board the Severn had been consumed, while the memory of the two holes which had been discovered in her stern, and the faculty of speaking about them, remained. A wcii-conevived plan of the mate for go 1 ling rid of the inconvenient testimony of the boatswain by leaving him behind at Pernambuco had been frustrated by the faithlessness of the carpenter, who applied the money given to him to make the boatswain drunk by getting drunk lnmself. The ship sailed from Newport, with a cargo of coals for Shanghai, on the lyth May. She was a good sound ship, of American builu, and about Illyears old. Soon after getting* to sea "steps began to be taken towards accomplishing the real object of the voyage. The boats were overhauled and ma de ready for service. On the 28th May tiie xh ’p encountered a breeze of wind, which tiie mate, in a jog-book kept for the deception of the underwriters, magnified into a gale. During this breeze .ir gale she began to leak, and for the next fortnight tiie pumps were used at- regular intervals. Oa the 14th Jane the ship, amid delightful wea•h.er, had approached tin: Cape Verde Islands, and tiie managers of the expedition deemed tiie time tin I place favorable for more decisive operations. h would appear that, arraugemeu’s lmd been made rs> tnsure a regulated water-supply to the vessel, bet, unfortunately, the apparatus contrived lbrtbis purpose got disordered and could not be effectually controlled. Holes had been bored through the hull end plugs inserted in them, and by taking out and putting in these plugs the influx of water could he aeeel-wated or retarded so as to keep the apparent leakage just ahead of the utmost power which r.l'.e crew could exert in pumping. As fills power was ■‘mite, while the quantity of water in the sea is prac:ie:.iiy infinite, it is evident that the leak would ultimately beat the crew, and the ship must lie abandoned. TVnether the Cape Verdes are or are not really the d: riles insula: of the "Roman poets, they were very near earning their title in a manner which antiquity had not conceived. But the manipulation of the machinery we lmve described failed through carelessness or accident. A ping was broken in the inner.skin of the ship. It n.is impossible to draw this broken plug without attracting inconvenient observation, and whilst it was in the hole the outer skin remained unplugged, and the water pouring in between the two skins .-oakod among the intervening timbers, and penetrated into the hold. The operators, having Indus misfortune lest control ol" the rate at which tiie ship’s destruction should proceed, seemed to have determined to bring matters to a crisis by palling out other plugs, and thus .admitting the water in a quantity which the utmost efforts of the crew coaid not discharge. Accordingly, after a hard night’s work at the pumps, the crew became alarmed, and dmimnded of the captain what inmeant to do. Tiie captain professed an intention either to haul up for the Cape Verdes, which were then 200 miles to windward, or to endeavor, with the wiud fair, as it then was, lo reach IVninmbucco, distant about 1000. But on repres&ntat’on of the imminent peril of the situation, the captain allowed himself to be persuaded to- order the boats to be lowered, and preparations to be made for abandoning tiie ship. As these orders were executed with some precipitation, the boats were unfortunately allowed to tow astern of the ship, anil thus the sailors had an opportunity of observing what caused them to explain, to use their own emphatic words, “That it was no wonder the ship was sinking, lor there were two big holes in her stern.” As the ship rose and fell witii the motion of .the waves, two holes were in fact discovered beneath the water-line, just above the copper, which appeared to have been bored with an auger from inside the snip, Small splinters sticking out of the holes showed them to have been newly bored. The boats quitted the ship on the evening of the loth June, and soon after she must have gone down. The boats parted company in the night, and two of them, with the captain and first mate, fell in with a vessel which carried them to I’ernambuco; while the third, under tire command of the second mate, was carried by another to ltio Jaeniro. At the cilice of the British Consul at Pernambuco a solemn document, called a protest, was prepared from the log-book kept by the mate, which set forth how the wind raged and the sea beat upon the ship, and Low she laboured and struggled, and at last her crew abandoned her to save their lives.. The Story of the loss of the Severn from stress of weather was a highly creditable piece of literary composition, and it concluded in the usual form, by protesting against, winds and waves, and all whom it might concern, for damages and expenses. TJio captain and mate, with several of the crew, swore to the truth of this story, in pursuance of the scheme of fraud, and the protest duly made was transmitted to England with tiie log-book. A claim was made upon the underwriters who had insured the ship and freight; but some rumours set pfioat- by the returned crew reached their ears. Inquiries were instituted, and strong suspicion arose that this case, like several previous cases, was one of contrived destruction of a vessel in order to realise the immediate and certain profit upon insurance, instead" of waiting for (lie delayed and contingent profit of a long voyage. But in order to convert suspicion into such a de-gree'mi-certainty as might produce a conviction in a criminal court, it was necessary-to admit either thc captaip or mate to give evidence against his Bcadorg e£ th§ reports pf

have probably forme.] the opinion that the captain was a greater seanuilrol than the mate; but, on the other haul, lie Was able to be more useful to the prosecution, beeause lie not only knew what had passed on. board the ship, but had been in comimflhcation with the other parties to the fraud before she sailed. Accordingly, the captain was pat into the Witness-box, and the mate, with three other persons, into the dock. There was abundant evidence, besides that of the captain, that the supposed tempests were imaginary, and . that the ship had perished in the finest possible weather by qn artificial leak. The captain stated that the mate scuttled the ship, while he looked on and did not preent the scuttling; ’and this distribution of the parts appeared suitable to the characters of'.the performers, and, according to the captain, it had been so arranged beforehand. The guilt .of the mate,, therefore, was not doubtful. The other prisoners were [Berwick, who had been substantially, although not in name, owner of the vessel; Holdswortli, who had acted in the busitjess the usual part of ship and insurance broker ; and Dean, who had generally appeared as clerk to Holdsworth. In order to prove the complicity of these persons, Plfcfffc necessary to have recourse to the evidence ' captain, and that evidence was unworthy of belief; It was proved, indeed, that Berwick had found the money to buy the ship, and that she had been registered in another name because Berwick had lost a, ship not long before, and his name did . not stand well with underwriters. But,""setting . the captain’s evideuce aside, it was open to Berwick and Hbldswortli thick to protest his own in- , nocence and lay the blame upon the other. There was, however, another very euviSus transaction in which lioidsworth was inextricably entangled. He had an oiiice in Liverpool, although carrying on ; business principally in London. To that office were : brought, in April last, three casks, containing jars of salt packed, for exportation. The salt had been . sent to Holdswprth for sale in London, and, finding it unsaleable, lie had sent it. to Liverpool. A per- . son named JPryde, who bad access to Holdsworth’s , oiiice, caused these jars to be taken out of the casks and packed in twelve wooden cases. These cases were sent by railway from Liverpool to Newport, where they were shipped on board the Severn, lioidsworth, being at Ncwpoit, obtained the cap- . tain’s signature to a bill of lading, which represeni fod that these twelve cases contained revolvers, . carbines, and swords. A letter was then written to the broker who had effected the insurances on ' tiie ship and freight, requesting him to insure these i twelve cases of arms for £ISOO. This letter was 1 in the handwriting of Demi, who acted in all these l matters as Jloldsworth’s clerk, and it was signed ; “ Albop and C 0.,” under which name, at-that time [ or afterwards, Dean was trading, or pretending to . trade. When the news arrived of the loss of the ( ship, Holdsworfh had the boldness to make a . claim upon this policy, and in support of it he ; handed to the broker three documents. There was, . first, a contract, by which lVyde, of Liverpool, bn behalf of “A. Smith,” agreed, in consideration of wine and cash, to seii to Alison aud Co. arms to the value of £1500; there was, secondly, un in- . voice for the said anus, signed “A. Smith and, thirdly, there was the bill oi lading, signed hy the . captain, and endorsed Allsop and Co.” When Fryde was waited upon by a detective officer lie at , first pretended that “A. Smith” was a person who had deair largely in anus for the Confederate States, but a little get tie pressure prevailed upon him to admit that- “ A. Smith” was a creature of the imagination. This was a well-conceived and neatly-executed fraud. Dean, in order to facilitate it, took an oiiice about the lime that the claim was . made upon the policy, and caused the name of . “ Alison ana Co. ” lo be painted on the door. But . those two holes in the stern which the sailors saw . not only sank the good ship Severn, but also ruined a conspiracy which bad been formed with ingenuity and industry, and considerable prospect of success. ■ As this affair of the salt pots proved lluldsworth’s guii', the jury might reasonably believe that the captain, although fully capable of lying, had told a substnirinliy truthful story ; and thus the guilt of Berwick was also proved. As the principal ac- . tors in this fraud Lave been sentenced to long terms of penal servitude, the business of scuttling ships, if not discontinued, must pass iuto other , linucD. Ti’.is fraud was not like those which are . often attempted upon fire insurance companies, where an old or damaged stock of goods, if fit for ; nothing else, is made to yield a profit by being set ,on fire, Tiie scuttlers of the Severn did their work • handsomely, for the ship was proved to have been : worth, when she sailed- from Newport, £7OOO. - Such a vessel might, honestly have made some i profit on a, voyage to .China, with the prospect of . being sold on arrival out. Bat it was preferred . to seek fraudulently a larger profit by sending her, [ under her captain's auspices, and by her mate’s - ingenuity, to the bottom of the sea.