HORRIBLE CRUELTY AT SEA.

Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 2, Issue 95, 26 October 1868, Page 257

HORRIBLE CRUELTY AT SEA.

From a, late, issue of the Glasgow Herald we extract,the following account of a most extraordinary ease of cruelty at sea

The ship Arran, of Greenock, upwards of 1,000 tons register, Captain Bobert Watt, and belonging to Messrs Hendry and Ferguson, of Greenock, sailed from the Tail of the Bank of Quebec with a cargo of coals on the 7th April last. Before the tug left the ship off the Cumbrae Heads, two stowaways were discovered on board, and they were sent back with the steamer. It was believed by the officers and crew that no other stowaways were on board, but to wards nightfall of the same day some of the crew heard a knocking beneath the fore hatch and, upon examination, several other lads were discovered. Next moruing, after careful searching the ship, seven stowaway boys in all were found oh board. As is customary, the officers of the ship gave them some work to do, and it would appear that on board the Arran for a number of days the lads were pretty well treated. It seems, however, that the hoys became sea-sick, and from that tima they were treated, it is alleged, in the most barbarous manner. From the statements of the crew it would appear that the chief mate, James Kerr, was more conspicuous iu uniform cruelty than Captain Watt, but the latter was not only often present, but < refused to interfere when severe punish- i ment was being inflicted upon them. The lads, it is stated, were subsequently only : supplied with about half a biscuit a day, and when it became known that the crew in compassion, for their emaciated appearance were supplying them with a portion of their own food, the officers ordered the steward to place the crew on a fixed allowance for each man, in order to prevent any addition Jbeing made to their scanty supply. The' stowaways had no beds given them, and they were compelled to sleep in the hold in all the weather, on top of the coals. By: day or night the boys were brought on .deck' and were compelled to march about carrying a handspike, and every time .they crossed the deck were made to cry.dsib “All’s well,” “Ice ahead,” &c., and if they failed to give the monotonous cry they were instantly flogged The cravings of hunger becoming so keen the boys eventually burst a flour barrel and appeased their appetite by swallowing a portion of the flour. For this, it is alleged, they were unmercifully flogged, and afterwards placed in irons. One of the lads, named J nines Bryson, was ordered to strip while .the snow was failing and lie down on deck, and one of the crew was compelled to draw a bucket of water, while another with a broom was forced to scrub the poor boy’s body till blood trickled from his back. He was then turned on : his back, and his stomach and breast were scrubbed in like manner. While the ship was laboring in a heavy sea the boys were put in irons, their hands b-.ing manacled behind their backs; they were then placed on the forecastle j the decks were slippery with ice, and the cold was intense; the sea was washing over the ship, and the sufferings of the lads are described as being horrible. Every time they slipped to the lee side of the side of the vessel they were lashed with a rope till they managed to crawl to windward. For the most trival offence they were lashed by the mate with the lead line. This kind of treatment, we are told, was continued for a length, of time till the ship got bound in the ice'off St. George’s Bay, on the coast of Newfoundland. The lads were badly clad, and two of them had neither shoes nor stock- ; iugs. The crew could not spare them any portion of their food, as their allowance was comparatively small. The mate is said to have kicked them upon every occasion, and exposed them to all kinds of dangers and hardships. While the ship was embedded in the ice the lads were ordered for several days to take exercise on it. On the 15th May, after the ship had been about a week iu the ice, some of the boys were ordered to make for the land, which was distaut, according to various statements, from five to fifteen miles. About 8 o’clock in the morning six of the boys left the vessel, a biscuit each being thrown after them. Two of the little fellows were barefooted, and, their cries are stated to have , been heatrending. Land could be seen from the masthead, but betweeu the ship and .the land it was ascertained by the aid of the glasss that the ice was detached, and that a broad sheet of water intervened. After the boys had left some time, the.capitain, it would appear, repented of the course he had adopted, and he went to the masthead in order to see if he could discover their whereabouts. One of the crew, named Magnus Tait, who was subsequently drowned in the St. Lawrence, was also atthe masthead, in order, if possible, to make them out, but the lads were never again seen. On the ships arrival at Quebec the' crew were informed by the crew of the ship Myrtle, of Greenock, which bad also been detained- in the ice;some distance.from the Arran, that only four of the boys Bad survived, and they were taken off the ice by aNewfoundland schooner.' One of the. lads was reported drowned, and another had died from; ■ exhaustion; another is stated to have . been severely frost-bitten. The seventh- boy, ' Peter .Currie, >was' kept-on board the ship when his companions were alleged; to have pub on the ice, and he has returned with, the ship to Greenock. Immediately inquiry will be made at New* I foundland. Meanwhile the master and mate of the. ship have been apprehended^

Pboyinciati Institutions.—TheLyttelton Times says ** It is a remarkable' fact* 1 and one which the people of this province fc and colony will do well to consider earnestly, that while a section of onr colonial politicians are doing their very utmost to f destroy Provincial institutions, an entirely , opposite course is advocated in other quarters. In Queensland, where there is no : incentive from separate and distinct i ments, and where geographical peculiarities ; 1 can hardly enter into the calculation, therehas been for some time an agitation in fa* vor of Provincialism. Several months agowe were applied to by advocates of this policy for information as to the working of Provincial institutions in New Zealand* and were informed that this colony is looked to as a model on which to frama the proposed alteration in the Constitution. Whether this alteration has been effected, and to what extent, we are as yet uninformed ; and we cite tins case simply to show that the institutions against which an outcry has been raised here have been regarded favorably as applicable to the circumstances of a neighboring colony. But, even in England itself, a proposal has been made by one of the leading thinkers of the day—Mr Goldwin Smith—which clearly shows that the maligned Provincial institutions of New Zealand deserve, at least, to be treated with a little more respect and consideration than has hitherto been accorded to them by men who have not been successful in providing.o substitute.” Desxuctiye Fire on the Tyne.— A fire, the most destructive, that has been experienced upon the Tyne for several years, broke out in the Friar’s Goose Chemical Works, Gateshead, on Sunday afternoon, August 2, and destroyed a large portion of manufacturing plant and other property estimated at £70,000. The Friar’s Goose Works are the property of the Jarrow Chemical Company. ' They covered, an area of 20 acres. The articles manufactured were alkali, bicarbonate of soda, bleaching powder &c., and in the process a series of sulphuric acid chambers were used, numbering about 30. Tho chambers were constructed of sheet lead, and were divided into six series, which contained in the aggregate about 2,500,000 ft weight of sulphuric acid used in the process of manufacture. A good deal of wood was employed for the roofs and other parts of these chambers. On Sunday there only two, men employed • about the works, and a very short time before the outbreak of the fire the watchman had examined the chambers and-*, works generally and found them ;safe. The wood, work of the chambers had been newly tarred, and there is reason to think that the rays of the sun, which were very hot on Sunday, must have set fire to the roof. The fire was first discovered in No. 2 chamber, situated at the south-east end of the block. It commenced to blaze and . spread at once with fearful rapidity, and it was very shortly discovered that the conflagration was going to be an extensive one, Besides the local engines belonging to Newcastle, Gateshead, and the works about, brought to the fire, two steam fireengines, one belonging to Mr Merryweather, and the other belonging to Messrs Shand & Mason, which were down in the north on trial, with the floating engines, one belonging to the Elver Tyne Commissioners, and the North-Eastern Bailway were called into requisition. But so immense was the mass of flame and. the rapidity of the fire that they could do little else than circumscribe the area of its destructiveness. As the lead of the chambers melted, sulphuric acid flowed out and streamed down to the Tyne in rivulets, burning the boots and clothes and even the flesh of anyone who was unfortunate enough to slip into it. This, no doubt, greatly contributed to extend the fire, as it very much impeded the operations and imperilled the lives of men who were attempting to subdue the flames. . When the fire was at its height a sad accident happened to Sergeant Bryson and police-con-stable Thompson of the Gateshead police, and a young man named Kirton, belonging to Gateshead, who were knocked off a roof by a large lead pipe, falling on it. They were thrown among the wreck below j and, beside hurts received by the fall, they were, badly burnt by tumbling among the acid;, which had escaped from the chambers*.. Their injuries are dangerous. : Eventuallyr the fire was cut off by the firemen^gutting, or pulliug down the intervening buildings.. The greatest amount ol mischief was doneamong the elaborate series of ohambers,. and an immense range of buildings devoted tq manufacturing operations, is entirely destroyed—-the factory, in fact, to a; largeextent will have to a rebuilt. . Between 400 and 500 workmen will be thrown out of employment. The works, were insured with the Eoyal, the North. British, and the Yorkshire Elre-offices,bufc not to their full amount. By a singular fatality a handsome new mansion, belonging to Mr J. O. Stevenson, the principal partner in the chemical firm, and who ‘is also mayor of South Shields and one of the liberal .candidates for that borough, was gutted by an extensive 'fire a few months ago. About a quarter'past 9 o’clock dn Sunday night, as the Newcastle fire brigade were returning home from the fire, and‘while crossing the High Level bridge, a horse in a ance behind them tookfright and rah into their reel, 'smashing it. Inspector John Moffat, who had got " his foot strained at the! fire, was severely burned, and a young man named Thomas Brutnel had one ofhia : Mgs.fractured. s' 7 -""- A Whisthn& Musician is said to bo making a sensation in New Yorkt