The mate collapsed on the steps. I found the light switch and turned
it on. There was no one in the cabin or in the chart-room. I ran to
Mr. Turner's room, going through Mr. Vail's and through the bathroom.
Mr. Turner was in bed, fully dressed. I could not rouse him. Like
the mate, he had been drinking.
The mate had roused the crew, and they gathered in the chart-room.
I told them what had happened, and that the murderer must be among
us. I suggested that they stay together, and that they submit to
being searched for weapons.
They went on deck in a body, and I roused the women and told them.
Mrs. Turner asked me to tell the two maids, who slept in a cabin off
the chartroom. I found their door unlocked, and, receiving no answer,
opened it. Karen Hansen, the lady's-maid, was on the floor, dead,
with her skull crushed in. The stewardess, Henrietta Sloane, was
fainting in her bunk. An axe had been hurled through the doorway as
the Hansen woman fell, and was found in the stewardess's bunk.
Dawn coming by that time, I suggested a guard at the two
companionways, and this was done. The men were searched and all
weapons taken from them. Mr. Singleton was under suspicion, it
being known that he had threatened the captain's life, and Oleson,
a lookout, claiming to have seen him forward where the axe was kept.
The crew insisted that Singleton be put in irons. He made no
objection, and we locked him in his own room in the forward house.
Owing to the loss of Schwartz, the second mate, already recorded in
this log-book (see entry for August ninth), the death of the captain,
and the imprisonment of the first mate, the ship was left without
officers. Until Mr. Turner could make an arrangement, the crew
nominated Burns, one of themselves, as mate, and asked me to assume
command. I protested that I knew nothing of navigation, but agreed
on its being represented that, as I was not one of them, there could
be ill feeling.
The ship was searched, on the possibility of finding a stowaway in
the hold. But nothing was found. I divided the men into two
watches, Burns taking one and I the other. We nailed up the after
companionway, and forbade any member of the crew to enter the after
house. The forecastle was also locked, the men bringing their
belongings on deck. The stewardess recovered and told her story,
which, in her own writing, will be added to this record.
The bodies of the dead were brought on deck and sewed into canvas,
and later, with appropriate services, placed in the jolly-boat, it
being the intention, later on, to tow the boat behind us. Mr. Turner
insisted that the bodies be buried at sea, and, on the crew opposing
this, retired to his cabin, announcing that he considered the
position of the men a mutiny.