FULL ACCOUNT OF THE
EXECUTION OF
FIVE UNFORTUNATE SAILORS,
VIZ.,—
MICHAEL COX, MARTIN EALEY, JOHN SULLIVAN, ROBERT M’LAURIN, and WILLIAM MORRIS.
AND HIS MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY’S ROYAL PARDON
OF
JOHN FLINT, GEORGE WYTHICK, JOHN LAWSON, and WILLIAM HANDY.
And the Sentence passed on Capt. Affleck, late of the Amethyst.
At Sheerness, on the eighth day of this month, at about nine o’clock in the morning, the signal for Execution was made on board of the Defiance man-of-war by firing a gun, and hoisting a yellow flag at the fore-top-gallant-mast head: a lieutenant, in a boat manned and armed, was sent from each ship to witness the awful scene: the crews of the respective ships were called on deck, and the articles of war read to them by their captains, who afterwards warned them to take examples from the fate of the unhappy men who were about to suffer. The Rev. Dr. Hatherall, chaplain of the Sandwich, administered the sacrament to all of them, except Michael Cox and Martin Ealey, who were Roman Catholics; after praying with them for some time, they were brought on deck, and the ropes fixed around their necks, when John Flint, George Wythick, John Lawson, and William Handy were made acquainted that His Majesty had been pleased to pardon them.