The After House

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.