State

I Mutiny and Murder On the High Seas board by the mutineers who were led by the big and brutal Scott. The legal battle for the lives of the three mutineers was fought in the U. S. District courtroom which was then located on the upper lioor of the old brownstone post- oflice building in Wilmington. This structure was razed some years ago and a more modern building erected. Judge Thomas R. Purnell, of Raleigh, central figure in the contempt proceedings against the late Josephus Daniels (which at¬ tracted wide attention at the time) presided over the trial. The prose¬ cution was conducted by Harry Skinner, of Greenville, then U. S. District Attorney. William J. Bel¬ lamy, a prominent lawyer of Wil¬ mington, who. was recognized as the possessor of one of the most brilliant legal minds at the bar, de¬ fended Scott. George I.. Peschau, another skilled criminal lawyer of Wilmington, served as counsel for Adams and Sawyer. Captain John William Taylor, master of the American schooner. Blanche H. King, which was owned by the same company that owned the Berwind, testified that his lookout reported at 9 o'clock on the night of October 10 that a nearby schooner was acting in an unusual manner, was flying dis¬ tress signals and was apparently ofT its course. Captain Taylor said that when his boarding party reached the Berwind , one of the Negroes aboard declared that a man had killed the captain, mate, steward, engineer, and a sailor. Captain Taylor said that the boarding party found Scott bound with ropes, and that the body of Coakley was lying prone on the deck. Scott at first denied the charges which other members of the crew made against him, but later con¬ fessed that he had committed the mur¬ ders single-handed with his revolver. One» of I ho most bruin I ocour- renoos ovor to have takon place on the high seas. It occurred off the coast of North Carolina, anil the final chapter was writ¬ ten in Wilmington. tty LOUIS T. .WOO ict: All Three Jailed Scott, Adams, and Sawyer were placed in jail in Wilming¬ ton. The trial took place and all three were found guilty of murder in the first degree and were THE STATE. February 14. 1048 IN the minds of two generations of North Carolinians, including those now nearly fifty years old, mention of the schooner, Berwind and the names of Henry Scott, Ar¬ thur Adams, and Robert Sawyer probably will bring no mental re¬ action whatsoever. Yet less than half a century ago this ship was the scene of the bloodiest mutiny and murders of modern times on the high seas. The crime resulted in the death of the captain, three other officers and a seaman. The slaughter of the quintet occurred off the coast of North Carolina. The death ship later was brought into Southport, with Scott. Adams, and Sawyer in chains. Later Scott confessed that he alone had committed the mur¬ ders. For his crime, he was hanged in New Hanover County jail in Wilmington after trial in the U. S. District Court. On the strength of the confession made by Scott im¬ mediately before his execution, Adams and Sawyer, whose sentence had been commuted to life imprisonment, were granted pardons by President William Howard Taft after having served only a short portion of their sentence. wrongs and who turned into a raging beast. Because of the na¬ tional horror that followed dis¬ closure of the crime, and also because part of the drama took place in North Carolina, those who never have heard of the episode may be interested in reading about it. The mute evidence of the trag¬ edy was found on the blood¬ stained decks when the Berwind was towed into the harbor at Southport in October, 1905. Three members of the crew — Scott, Adams, and Sawyer (all Negroes) were immediately • arrested by a U. S. Deputy Marshal and charged with the murder of the captain, the mate, the engineer, the stew¬ ard. and a Negro seaman named Coakley whose body still lay upon the deck. The bodies of Captain E. R. Rumill. Mate John T. Hall. Stew¬ ard John Faldc and Engineer C. L. Smith had been tossed over¬ Tragedy In Its Worst Form This story of mur¬ der aboard the Ber¬ wind reveals stark and grim tragedy in its most desperate form. It has to do with a man who went berserk be¬ cause of fancied The waterfront at Southport.