A shocking case of cruelty on a vessel sailing from Barbados to Liverpool led to the captain of the ship being hanged in public at Kirkdale.
The Martha and Jane was a
Sunderland registered vessel that sailed from Hartlepool to Calcutta in 1856,
then on to Demerara and Barbados, where she underwent repair and a change of
crew. On 29th April 1857 an able seaman named Andrew Rose joined the
crew but ran away after being beaten by the second mate, Charles Seymour, who
found fault with his work. Rose remained at large for a few days but was
captured by police and returned to the ship and put in irons.
On 11th May the
ship sailed for Liverpool and Rose was briefly freed, but he was suffering from
diarrhoea and frequently beaten with a rope and whip by Seymour, Rogers and the
chief mate William Miles for dirtying the decks. One Sunday morning, Rose was
on deck singing a hymn and Rogers forced an iron bolt into his mouth, then
Seymour and Miles secured it with a rope tied behind his head, leaving Rose
like that for an hour and a half.
As the days went on the
sadism increased with Rogers whipping Rose then setting a dog on him to bite
the wounds, which covered his whole body as his clothes had been thrown
overboard due to being soiled. Most of the time he remained in chains but on
one occasion asked to go to the bows to relieve himself, a request which was
refused. After doing what he had to do on deck, Rose was beaten by the two
mates and then held down, while Rogers got a wooden stick and shoved the
excrement up his nose and into his mouth shouting ‘isn’t it nice.’
A few days later Rose was
put in a water cask by Rogers and rolled up and down the deck, then cast over
the side of the ship for twelve hours. As the poor man begged for some food or
drink, Rogers told him he wished he would drown or hang himself. When Rose
replied that he wished Rogers would do it for him, the captain put a rope
around his neck and hoisted him above deck, leaving him dangling for two
minutes. As he was cut down his skin was black, his eyes were protruding and
foam was protruding from the mouth. Rogers mocked that another half a minute
and Rose would have been dead.
Two or three days later on the
morning of 5th June, Rose crawled along the deck until he could move
no more, then laid down and died. When fellow crew members found him an hour or
two later his wounds were maggot infested and they were loathe to touch him. At
the order of Rogers, his body was hauled by a rope along the deck and thrown
overboard. On 9th June the ship arrived in Liverpool, where Rogers,
Seymour and Miles were arrested, the three of them claiming that they had only
been reported as the crew wanted 10 shillings a day for attending court.
The trial took place on 20th
August, with witnesses telling the court that Rose had been beaten daily
voyage, including twelve times on one day. They had never seen him neglect his
duty or orders and he got on well with the rest of the crew. Even though his
contract stipulated he would receive meat and tea, his daily meals consisted of
just dry bread and water. Three doctors were called and stated that if the
witnesses were truthful, then Rose’s death would have been directly caused or
accelerated by his treatment. In defence, it was claimed that any sores on Rose’s
body were as a result of sleeping in fields in Barbados, while the defence
counsel tried to suggest that the Martha and Jane wasn’t a British ship,
therefore it wasn’t subject to British laws. Rogers defence was that any
punishment was to keep discipline and that it was illogical to disable an able
seaman when the ship was already short on crew. Miles and Seymour’s defence was
that they were simply following the captain’s orders.
The judge took two hours to
sum up, pointing out that the three defendants were of enough intelligence to
know that what they were doing could eventually have fatal consequences. After
an hours deliberation the jury found all three guilty of murder and there were
cheers from the public benches when a guilty verdict was returned, although there
was a recommendation for mercy. Passing sentence, the judge described Rose’s
treatment as barbarous and it was right that their lives should be ‘forfeited
to the laws of this country.’ No emotion was shown by any of the men and as
they were taken to the cells word reached those gathered outside what had
happened, leading to more cheering.
There were hopes all three
convicts may be reprieved but two days before the execution word came from the
Home Office that although Seymour’s and Miles’s sentences would be commuted to
life imprisonment, Rogers would still be hanged. The following day Rogers’s
wife and three of his five children visited him in the condemned cell, where he
visibly shook as he was bade goodbye. They were then taken in a cab to their
hotel in Lord Nelson Street, while Seymour and Miles remained with Rogers at
his request. He accepted his fate and was prepared for it, believing his
prayers of repentance would be acknowledged by the Redeemer. He did not
however, accept that his actions had been directly responsible for Rose’s
death. His main concern was for his children and the stigma such a horrible
fate as his would have on them. That Friday night prison philanthropist Mr
Wright arrived to see another prisoner, having been under the impression all
three were reprieved. On hearing he was mistaken, he agreed to stay overnight
to comfort Rogers, who then slept far better than previously.
Crowds began to gather at
6am on 12th September, the morning of the execution and the Liverpool Mercury reported that a black
man was seen on Walton Road asking for directions to the gaol. The paper said
that the crowd was much more of ‘sober appearance’ than previous, with many
passing the time before noon reading newspapers. On the periphery though,
‘shoeless and stockingless urchins’ spent their time rolling in mood and
fighting each other with caps, presenting an ‘incongruous scene’. It meant the
200 police on duty were not totally unoccupied especially as noon drew near,
the paper reporting that ‘a great portion of the scum of society were to be
seen in large masses’ travelling up Walton and Vauxhall Roads in he direction
of the gaol. There were also a number of seamen present of varying ranks,
expressing little sympathy for Rogers and showing only regret that his two
mates had been reprieved.
The 40,000 strong crowd was
swelled by spectators arriving on trains from Rochdale and Manchester, and
omnibuses from Liverpool were full to capacity. One 70 year old had come from
Bolton and told a reporter it was such a terrible case that he would gladly
have made the rope himself and he had seen his first hanging at Ipswich in
1804. Despite the early hour many were drunk, one man who was ‘in an advanced
stage of intoxication’ staggered and fell into a gutter, while another fell
asleep under a hedge and missed what he had gone there for.
Rogers refused a final
breakfast, preferring to just have some milk. He remained in the prison chapel
most of the morning and just after noon he was taken to the scaffold, accompanied
by the prison chaplain and Mr Wright. As the rope was placed around his neck he
said ‘Lord receive my spirit, Lord save me’ before the bolt was drawn. Calcraft
had calculated everything perfectly and there were convulsions for just a few
seconds. Sailors in the crowd were heard
to say ‘serves him right’ and as there was a surge towards the scaffold, one
man had his arm broken and was taken to the Northern Hospital. After an hour
Calcraft re-appeared and cut down the body, which was buried that evening in
the gaol grounds. The clothes were given to Mr Allsop of the Crystal Palace
waxworks in Lime Street, where a model
of Rogers was being put on display the following Tuesday.
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