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SEIZURE OF THE SLOOP SPEED WELL By CONVICTS at NEWCASTLE.
SYDNEY, April 23, 1814.
Information is received from Newcastle of the piratical capture of the Speedwell, a schooner of about 21 tons burthen, Patten master, on the night of the 7th instant, by four desperadoes, whose names are Jos. Burridge, Herbert Styles, Edward Scarr, and John Pearce.
The report states that the night was a continued heavy rain; and that about midnight the master was awakened by one of the ruffians, who requested in the name of the Commandant the loan of a grapnel, for the purpose of mooring a boat off; which the master went down the hold to procure, and was there secured after a struggle, in the course of which he received blows on the head and was severely beaten.
The wife of the master being on board, and a seaman, who was asleep in the forecastle, they were both secured, and the wind favouring the audacious attack, the vessel was taken out of the harbour without the slightest alarm reaching the shore, nor was she discerned till at the very mouth of the river; when the people on board the Governor Hunter, which had been that day launched from the beach she had some time before grounded on, saw her beating about, and concluded she had got adrift, and was endeavouring to work in; so that as it continued to rain very hard, no further notice was taken of her.
The Governor Hunter's boat had been missed the same night from alongside, and it proved afterwards that she had been stolen by these depredators, and was employed in the capture, but given up to the three persons whom they made prisoner, to return with into the settlement.
On board the vessel was a month's provisions, and about sixty gallons of water; which may enable them for a short time to subsist, but they have no boat with them, and consequently can procure no supply of necessaries without the utmost risque to the vessel and their own lives; and this, as has been the case with every former attempt of the kind, may be counted on as the certain destruction of those who have been rash enough to engage in it.
The men who have committed this Act of Piracy are of very desperate characters, and in order to their being apprehended, and sent hither again, the following list of their names with their places and times of trials, sentences, &c, is appended.
LIST OF FOUR CONVICTS WHO PIRATICALLY SEIZED AND RAN AWAY WITH THE SLOOP SPEED WELL FROM NEWCASTLE ON THE 7TH APRIL, 1814
JOSEPH BURRIDGE; Tried at Kent, March, 1813; Sentence, 14 Years; Arrived by the ship General Hewitt, 1814.
HERBERT STYLES; Tried at Calcutta, on 4th December, 1809, for Piracy; Sentenced to Transportation for Life; Arrived by the brig Eagle, Mackay master, 17th February, 1811.
EDWARD SCARR; Tried at Cambridge Assizes, 28th March, 1810; Sentence, life; Arrived by the Admiral Gambier (2), 1811.
JOHN PEARCE; Tried at the Surry Assizes, 28th March, 1810; Sentence, life; Arrived by the Indian Barclay, 1810.
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