SAD SEA STORY,

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2486, 9 March 1881, Page 4

SAD SEA STORY,

TERRIBLE TALE OE VIOLENCE, SUFFERING AND DEATH.

The case of the brig Agios Petros, a vessel sailing under British colors, with a Greek captain and crew, is exciting considerable attention at Constantinople, since its arrival in the Black Sea. The terrible tale of violence, suffering, and death as told by itscrew, aggravated by the conduct of the Russian authorities at Batoum, has seldom been equalled, and is another case out of many of the after-sufferings bequeathed by the Eusso-Turkish war to the inhabitants of the provinces in which it was waged. At the time of the capture of Souhoum Kale by the Turks, most of the Abkhasian inhabitants, whether Mussulmans or nominal Christians, looked upon the invaders as their deliverers, and made common cause with them.

Later on, when the Turkish troops were obliged to abandon the place, their fleet was employed for many weeks in carrying away to Turkish territory all the "Abkhasians, amounting to about 40,000, who had reason to fear Russian vengeance. The 12,000 passengers, who crowded every available hole on board the Agios Petros, were of these Abkhasian! Russian subjects, who dissatisfied with their lot in Turkey, were desirous to return to their native country. On board the Agios Petros there was barely accommodation for 400 to 500 passengers, and yet a crowd of 1,200 persons including women and children, took forcible possession of the ship. The men being all armed to the teeth, it was obviously impossible for the crew to offer any opposition. Abkhasians expected, moreover, that the vessel was to accommodate their cattle, their arabas, in fact all their belongings, and it was only when they saw the utter impossibility of further crowding that they consented to leave their cattle behind. Soon after the departure of the ship the horrors of overcrowding began to be felt. Men and women sickened and died. The Abkhasians, having some superstitious dread of death occurring on board ship, proposed to throw the dying as well as the dead overboard, and were with difficulty dissuaded from this act of cruelty by the crew of the Agios Petros. Their arrival in a Russian port brought no relief to either passengers or crew. Although the captain at once reported to the Russian authorities the horrible state of his passengers and the terrorism exercised by them since they had come on boftrd, no assistance was given him and nG attempt was made to establish ordelr is a mob composed of Russian subjects. The captain was forbidden to land his passengers, and, after some delay> his ship was towed into Turkish waters under escort of a Russian man-of-war, and, having landed his turbulent mob in ft spot of their own selecting he returned to Batoum, where he and his crew were made prisoners and their ship seized The Russian authorities subsequently brought back the Abkhasians to Batoum, but their their inhumanity in the first instance, and the insult to the British flag, have yet to be accounted for.