Folios 107-109: Case of John McClintock. Summary of moral evidence. Evidence taken...

ADM 101/82/2/4

1840-1842

Folios 107-109: Case of John McClintock. Summary of moral evidence. Evidence taken by Captain Henry Dundas Trotter RN and Commander Edmund Gardiner Fishbourne of Her Majesty's Ship Albert, at sea on Wednesday, 24 November 1841. The deceased had been on shore on Saturday, 19 November, where he had got drunk. He had been accompanied the whole time and had not fallen. On his return to the ship on Saturday evening, he told the drummer that the sappers were conspiring against him and on being told it was absurd, went over to their mess and struck Daniel Carlton, a Private. He then also hit Lance Sergeant Edmonds who called him a damned rascal and tried to close with him but both fell to the deck with the deceased underneath. Daniel Carlton came over but was taken away by Sergeant Hodges, Lance Sergeant Edmonds then went up to the Forecastle. Shortly afterwards there was another scuffle between the deceased and Daniel Carlton, resulting in both falling, again with the deceased beneath and with the sound of a man falling 'heavily on his back, his head coming in contact with the hull'. They were separated by Sergeant Hodge. Carlton's nose was bleeding and his face disfigured, the deceased having bitten him when down. The deceased became quiet and laid down at the foot of the lower deck ladder with his head resting on a hammock and was thought to have been 'quieted by drink and exhaustion'. When Sergeant Hodge attempted to move him 15 minutes later, he thought he heard a slight gurgling in the throat and shortly afterwards he was found to be dead. The surgeon concludes that McClintock was quiet and hard working when sober but quarrelsome and suspicious when drunk, which was seldom. On the evening of his death he had tried to pick a quarrel with everyone he met.

Folios 110-112: Henry Davie, aged 34, Carpenter's Mate; disease or hurt, febris remittens adynamica. Put on sick list, 25 September 1841, on passage from the confluence to Egga. Discharged to duty, 23 November 1841. His fever became a regular tertian intermittent wit attacks becoming milder.

Folios 112-115: George Syme, aged 40, Quarter Master; disease or hurt, febris remittens adynamica. Put on sick list, 25 September 1841, on passage from the confluence to Egga. Died, 2 October 1841. 'Stout make. Sanguinea bilious temperament. Has been some years on the coast of Africa and has suffered from fever'.

Folios 114 and 115 have descriptions of his internal organs examined the morning after his death and 'somewhat hurriedly, as we were approaching Egga', his head was not examined.

Folios 115-117: George Cole, aged 23, Private Marine; disease or hurt, febris remittens adynamica. Put on sick list, 25 September 1841, on passage from the confluence to Egga. Died, 16 October 1841. 'Countenance swarthy. Form slight but muscular. Temperament bilious'.

Folios 118-120: Albion Lodge, aged 36, 2nd Engineer; disease or hurt, febris remittens adynamica. Put on sick list, 1 October 1841, Egga. Drowned 20 miles above the confluence, 8 October 1841. 'Is of a stout corpulent make, has been for some years at sea but never before in warm climate. Has had small pox. Temperament bilioso phlegmatic'. He had been exhausted through being constantly in the engine room, the other two engineers being sick. On 2 October he was obliged to get out of his cot by a 'tornado' and heavy rain penetrating the awning above him. On 8 October he was restrained in his cot, having made several attempts to leave it during the night, but begged the surgeon to loosen the straps, promising to be quiet. Within two minutes he had slipped out of his cot, through an opening in the awning, and jumped overboard. A boat was launched but he sank just as it neared him.

Folios 120-122: Henry Dundas Trotter, aged 38, Captain and Commander of the expedition; disease or hurt, febris remittens adynamica. Put on sick list, 4 October 1841, at Egga, right bank of the Niger. Discharged to the Warree schooner, 23 November 1841. 'Tall rather slight form. Temperament sanguineous, somewhat bilious. Has been much in the West and East Indies and was nearly four years on the Coast of Africa in command of HMS Curlew'. Put on board the Warree for a passage to England and change of climate. The Warree was towed by the Albert as far as Rollas Island, where they parted company.

Folios 122-124: William C Willie, aged 23, Mate; disease or hurt, febris remittens adynamica. Put on sick list, 6 October 1841, at Egga, right bank of the Niger. Died at Fernando Po, 18 October 1841. 'Of a slight make. Temperament nervous. Has been a good deal in warm climates'.

Folios 124-125: James Horton, aged 28, Seaman; disease or hurt, febris remittens adynamica. Put on sick list, 7 October 1841, on passage from Egga to the confluence of the Niger and Tchadda [Benue River], right bank of the Niger. Invalided at Fernando Po, 22 November 1841. 'Short but well made. Temperament sanguineous. Has served in the East and West Indies and has been seven voyages to the River on the West Coast'. He was eventually free of fever except for several severe attacks of intermittent fever which kept him very weak but since he was unlikely to improve, he was invalided.

Folios 125-126: Alfred Carr, aged 30, Superintendent of the Model Farm; disease or hurt, febris remittens adynamica. Put on sick list, 10 October 1841, Stirling Hill, confluence. Discharged to duty, 6 November 1841. 'Is of African origin; slight but muscular, has been generally very healthy and has been chiefly in the West Indies. Temperament nervoso bilious'. On arrival of the Albert at the confluence, Carr, William Kingdon and Anstell Gardiner, were all found to be laid up with fever and taken aboard the Albert for removal from the river. Carr had been suffering for 10 or 12 days. He improved after leaving the river on 17 October. On 6 November he left Fernando Po, crossing over to the Bonny River and intending to return to the Model Farm by hired canoe.

Public Record(s)

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