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A Case of Piracy: Part 1-Appointment to Represent Pirates

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A Case of Piracy Historical Trial Series by Eric Fryar Part 1: Appointment to Represent Pirates Two sailors are charged with piracy and murder in 1812 Boston. The most talked-about trial of its day. A surprise ending. This is an excerpt from a forthcoming book by Eric Fryar Appointment to Defend Pirates  On Friday morning, October 16, 1812, twenty-eight-year-old lawyer James Austin was busy at work in his office at No. 5 Court Street in Boston where he served as the Suffolk County Attorney. He received an urgent message to come to the home of federal judge John Davis. James hurried over to 17 South Street to the Judge’s “chambers.” The United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts had no facilities of its own. The United States District Judge kept his chambers in his home. Waiting for James when he reached Judge Davis’s home was Peter Thacher, another well-known Boston lawyer, eight years older and more experienced in the law than James. Judge Davis got straight to...
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Mutiny on the Ulysses: Part 1-Voyage Around the World and the Trial of the Century

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Mutiny on the Ulysses Historical Trial Series by Eric Fryar Part 1: Voyage of the Ulysses In 1800, federal authorities tried five sailors for mutiny in one of the most famous trials of its day. In a virtual replay of the Mutiny on the Bounty, the sailors claimed that they had acted in self-defense against the abuse and murderous threats by the captain. On both sides of this high-profile case were the best lawyers in the county. Would the sailors hang?  This is an excerpt from a forthcoming book by Eric Fryar. United States v. John Salter, et al.   On Friday morning, October 24, 1800, thirty-year-old John Salter sat in a crowded Boston courtroom. He was on trial for his life. Next to him sat John Carnes, Stephen Bruce Jr., John Bullock, and Edward Smith. They were all charged with mutiny. John had been the first mate on the merchant ship Ulysses which had sailed from Boston on August 25, 1798, on a voyage all the way around the world. The voyage had been plagued by the incompe...
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The Wreck of the William Brown: A True Tale of Overcrowded Lifeboats and Murder at Sea, by Tom Koch (International Marine/McGraw-Hill 2004)

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The Wreck of the William Brown by Tom Koch Book Review by Eric Fryar On March 18, 1841, the William Brown under the command of Captain George Harris sailed from Liverpool, England for Philadelphia, with a crew of 17, a cargo primarily of salt, and 66 passengers, mostly poor Scottish and Irish emigrants in steerage. At about 10pm on April 19, the ship plowed into an iceberg in the North Atlantic, about 250 miles southeast of Newfoundland—the same waters where the Titanic would go down for the same reason 71 years later.  Captain Harris, who had ordered the ship to sail at full speed without a lookout posted, did not go down with the ship. He and eight sailors and one passenger got into the jolly boat. The first mate with eight sailors and 36 passengers got into the longboat. They left 29 passengers, many of them children, to die on the sinking vessel. None of the crew was lost. The next morning, Captain Harris abandoned the longboat and made for Newfoundland. The jolly boat was not...
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