July 2017 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 25. HISTORY FROM THE PAST - Hancock Gazette - 1827


QUÉBECK TRADE, bound from Rhode Island to Liverpool off the South Islands of Arran, on the 7th


of February last. A boat


being sent aboard, Thomas Wilson, who was fi rst on board was instantly devoured by a most horrible animal, which was afterwards seen, as the wreck drifted to about a cable length of the stern, to be of the serpent kind. It was “lying partly coiled upon the deck, its head erected about four feet, and its hind part in the hatches.” A six pounder being fi red, struck the hull, when “the animal raised its head, body and tail, in six or seven folds to the height of a man each extending itself from the tiller to the bows; its eyes were large, of a red color, and much distorted; its throat and neck larger than any other part, of a bright green hue, as were its body and sides, and the back black and scaly. It had ears or fi ns suspended near the head, similar to an eel, and on the nostrils a horny excresence, blunt and about eighteen inches long: its chops were broad and fl at.” Before a second salute could be given “it glided majestically into the sea and disappeared.” A substance of a tar-like nature, but so cor- rosive as to blister the hands upon taking it up, was found upon deck, some of which has been preserved and is supposed to be excrement of the animal.


DIED In Nantucket, Capt. George Bunker. He


commanded the fi rst American whale ship that ever doubled Cape Horn.


27 June PIRACY AND MURDER Baltimore, June 15. – The brigantine


CRAWFORD, Captain Henry Brightman, belonging to Troy, Mass. sailed from Matan- zas on the 28th


ult. with a cargo for New


York, and eight passengers, four of whom (a Frenchman and three Spanish sailors) on the 1st


of June, about midnight rose upon the


captain and crew, and remaining passengers, and slaughtered all except three, viz. the mate, Mr. Edmund Dobson, of Somerset, Mass. the cook, and a French gentleman, passenger. They also stabbed the mate, but he having ran aloft, where he remained during the night, they spared his life in con- sideration of the assistance he might render them as a navigator. After completing their bloody and revolting task, the Frenchman took the command of the vessel, destroyed her papers and colors, and substituted a complete set of Spanish papers, which they had brought on board with them, purporting that the vessel was Spanish, and that she had cleared at Matanzas for Hamburg. Aware that it would be necessary to increase their stock of provisions for a European voyage, they tried to get into St. Mary’s, to obtain supplies, but the wind setting them off , they were unable to fetch into a port until they made the Capes of Virginia, which they did on Tuesday morning, when they were boarded by a pilot, who understanding their object to be to obtain provisions with the least possible delay, advise them to put in at Old Point Comfort as the most convenient place, and they accordingly anchored there about 6 o’clock on Tuesday evening. Mr. Dobson, the mate, from whom the


foregoing particulars are obtained, states that on anchoring, the pirate captain ordered him to have the boat lowered and brought alongside, as he intended to go ashore at the Point. He accordingly got into the boat, and as soon as she was lowered to the water, he cast off the teacles, seized an oar and sculled away for the shore, the pirate called after him and asking if he was going to betray him? On landing, the mate related the above particulars to several of the offi cers of the Fortress, who were some time doubtful as


to the probability of the story; but on his mentioning that the name of the vessel on the stern had been obliterated, Captain Dana ordered a boat and rowed off to the vessel to ascertain if such was the fact. Before he had reached the vessel, however, he was hailed from her by the pilot, and informed that the pirate captain had cut his throat. The three Spaniards had a little before, by some fi - nesse, got possession of a boat from a neigh- boring vessel, and made their escape to the Elizabeth City shore, where due diligence has been used to eff ect their apprehension. Captain Dana and his boat’s crew boarded the vessel and kept possession of her until she was delivered over to the custody of Mr. Westwood, the custom house offi cer at Hampton, to whom Colonel Gratiot had in the fi rst instance sent information, and she has been sent up to Norfork. An inquest was held on the body of the pirate captain, (whose name was believed from his papers, to have been Alexander Tardy,) which was the next morning interred on the beach. Of the victims of the blood-thirsty mon-


sters who wrought this horrible catastrophe, the following particulars are obtained from Mr. Dobson, the mate of the CRAWFORD: Captain Henry Brightman, of Troy, (Mass.) stabbed and thrown overboard. Asa Bicknell, seaman, of Connecticut, shot and thrown overboard. Joseph Dolliver, seaman of Salem, (Mass.) throat cut and thrown overboard. Oliver Porter, seaman, of Westport,


(Mass.) stabbed desperately, but escaping from his butchers, ran up to the masthead, where he remained, until exhausted by the loss of blood, he fell to the deck and expired. Nathan Dittee, seaman jumped over-


board and was sometime afterwards heard calling for a plank or barrel to be thrown to him, but the demons regarded him not. Mr. Norman Robinson, of Connecti-


cut, passenger and part owner of the cargo, jumped out of the cabin window and was drowned. An Irishman, (name not recollected) murdered while lying in his berth. An American, a carpenter by trade,


from Providence, (RI) who had been follow- ing his business for some time at Matanzas, was killed and thrown overboard. * * * * *


The Norfolk Beacon states that the


brigantine CRAWFORD, was brought up to that port on Wednesday, and that the survivors of the awful butchery, had been examined before the Mayor. No facts were elicited in the examination, diff ering from the statement above. Three persons were saved, viz. the mate,


Mr. Edmund Dobson, a French gentleman, named Ferdinand Ginoullhiac, a native of St. Hypolite, Department du Gard, and who has been for some time a merchant at Matanzas, and a colored man, named Stephen Gibbs, of Providence, RI who acted as cook. From the following postscript to the


Norfork account, it appears that the wretches have been taken. P. S. - We have this moment learned that


the three desperados have been taken and lodged in jail at Hampton. They had crossed James River, near Newport’s Noose, landed and Isle of Wight county, and had proceeded to Sleepy Hole Ferry, having paid a man four dollars for their ferriage over James River. They were taken yesterday near sunset


in the neighborhood of Sleepy Hole Ferry, by Col. Wilson W. Jones, Dr. French, and Messrs. Samuel Servant, and Thomas Skin- ner, all of Hampton, who had fallen on their track in the morning and continued their pursuit, until they arrested them. On coming up with them, a pistol was presented at them, by one of the above named gentleman, when


two of them immediately fell on their knees, the other took to his heels and was with diffi culty overtaken by Col. Jones. Great credit is due to the people of


Elizabeth City county, and particularly to the above named gentlemen, for their prompt in public spirited exertions in pursuing and bringing these wretches to the bar of justice. They have shown themselves worthy the character of good citizens, and will receive the thanks of every friend to humanity.


From the Philadelphia Gazette TARDY – THE PIRATE


This man, it appears, has at last been


his own executioner, after having been many years on our coast, and in our cities, planning and executing his black and hellish deeds with all the coolness of a demon, and after having been suff ered by the mildness of outlaws to escape the gallows, and repeat his murders, when in many other Christian countries he would long since have hung in gibbets, and not only have been a solemn warning to others, but, for anything we know, his early execution would have saved hundreds of lives, and certainly the eight lives on board the brig CRAWFORD. There is very little doubt that this same


Tardy was on board a schooner commanded by Captain Latham, bound from New York to Charleston, about the year 1815, and after poisoning the passengers, had the hardihood and address to have the deed charged to the cook, who had always before borne an excellent character, but who was arrested in Charleston on the schooner’s arrival, was tried, and circumstances made to appear so against him, that he was condemned and ac- tually executed, persisting until the last that he was an innocent man, and knew nothing of the crime for which he was to suff er. This poor fellow was a black man – and left a family at the eastward, and all those who knew him where he belonged, believe in his innocence; yet he was swung into eternity by the management of the guilty Tardy, who had the advantage of a white face to sacrifi ce the black cook. We next hear of Tardy on board the Bos-


ton packet schooner REGULATER, then commanded by Captain Presbury Norton. Tardy took passage at Boston for Philadel- phia, under the title of Doctor Tardy, and, on the passage, poison was again resorted to. One evening, after supper, all the cabin was taken violently sick, excepting Tardy, who had always declined using sugar from his fi rst going on board, (that no doubt being part of his plan.) Tardy, acting as physician on the occasion, declared from the symptoms that they were poisoned, and all considered his being on board a fortunate circumstance as he was able to assist them, and actually administered medicines which were taken freely. All began to recover excepting a German gentleman passenger, who died, and was committed to the deep. The morning after the captain and pas-


sengers were attacked, Tardy discovered ar- senic in the sugar bowl mixed with the sugar, and immediately suggested his suspicions of the steward, (another black man,) and after arrival in this city the consignees immediate- ly had an examination into circumstances; but from their own and the captain’s knowl- edge of the steward they doubted his guilt and after a strict and close examination they left him at liberty. Tardy, however, persisted in his pretended belief of the steward’s guilt; but said so much that he excited suspicions against himself, and afterwards increased them by a claim he made to have all the eff ects of the deceased German passenger, on the plea that the gentleman had verbally giving them to him just before his decease, in consequence of his attention to him. The


captain did not feel authorized to deliver them to Tardy, and applied to his consign- ees, who ascertained that he went with his baggage to the Mansion House Hotel in the Third street, where he remained that night and then removed to an obscure house in north Water Street above Vine Street. Here he did not continue long before he begged to lay another plan of piracy, to be executed on board one of the Richmond packets, but a man in whom he had confi ded turned against him, and he was betrayed before the vessel sailed; and was then arrested and charged with a crime on board the REGULATOR, for which he was tried and condemned to serve seven years in Walnut Street Prison at hard labor. There he was found to be very obstinate and refractory and constantly issuing threats of revenging himself when he should be released. He is said to have boasted among his comrades that he had sent more men into eternity than any con- vict who had ever been in our penitentiary. After his discharge he took passage in the brig FRANCIS, for Savannah, but as he was about to embark he was recognized and im- mediately notice given her owner, who very prudently had him and his baggage put on shore. We next hear of Tardy in Charleston, (SC) where he took forcible possession of a pilot boat lying in the harbor, and, with two blacks, was about to put to sea on a piratical expedition; but was discovered, pursued and brought back, and notwithstanding this act and information immediately sent to the Mayor of Charleston, of Tardy’s character and former crimes, we now again hear of his most horrid and infernal deed on board the brig CRAWFORD. How he obtained his liberty or escaped the death so often due to his crimes, let those who have charge of the public safety tell us. Tardy was a Frenchman by birth, a


man of small size, dark complexion, about 55 years of age at his death; wore while on board the schooner REGULATOR and at the time he took passage in the brig FRAN- CIS a blue frock coat and generally carried a small cane; had genteel appearance and good address; spoke several languages, and was capable of forging any paper he might fi nd necessary. He was a cold-blooded pirate, and has unquestionably been guilty of and accessory to as many murders as any villain on record. The extent of his crimes was only known to himself; but suffi cient is known by us to make us mourn over the depravity of human nature. When a man in cool blood murders deliberately, and that while professing to aid a fellow being in agonies caused by himself (as in the case of the German passenger in the REGULATOR,) or, after murdering, shift the punishment due to himself on an innocent Negro, as in the case of Captain Latham, he is guilty of crimes to black to be believed, were not the evidence too positive to admit of doubt. Let those who have in charge the re-


vision of our criminal system refl ect well how they will dispose of such characters, and those in authority be cautious how they extend their pardon to such infernal beings.


Commodore Brown has been presented


by the Buenos Aryean Government with 20,000 dollars; and all engaged in the battle of Uruguay have received two months pay.


The New York Committee expects to


dispatch another provision ship for Greece in July – $43,966 have been already contrib- uted in the State of New York.


The Irish vessel which spoke the sea


serpent upon a wreck, was said to have sailed from Rhode Island; she was called the QUÉ-


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