than they were under his directions. After the examination of his officers and crew, Captain Hickey addressed the Court as follows:–
“Mr. President, and Gentlemen of this highly honorable Court,– From a careful revision of the evidence which has appeared in the course of the prosecution, not a doubt remains in my mind of every fact stated in my narrative being incontrovertibly established, and that it will appear in the clearest light, that no exertions of myself or others on board could have prevented H.M. late sloop from utter destruction after her first striking. It then remains only for me to establish the fact of the ship not having been lost through wilfulness, negligence, or other default on the part of myself, the officers, or crew; and this, I trust, without taking up much time of the Court, T shall be able to prove, if that has not already been done, equally to the full conviction and satisfaction of every member composing it. The reasons I shall first offer to the Court for incurring the slightest risk of H.M. late sloop are as follow:– the great importance of a ship short of provisions at this season of the year, together with her being furnished with no other than worn out cables, which had been condemned by survey as unfit to trust to, reaching a port in safety. These would, in my opinion, of themselves be sufficient reasons to advance in justification of an officer less experienced in the navigation of this coast than myself incurring some risk in attempting to make the harbour; but I beg, in addition to them, to point out for the information of this most honorable court, that I was charged with public; letters and despatches from Captain Oliver, the senior officer off New London, for the commander-in-chief, and which I took for granted were of considerable importance, believing they related to the movements of the enemy, who were reported, when I left New London, to be determined on putting to sea at all risks: those letters and despatches were all I was enabled to save from the wreck, and which I delivered in person to the commander-in-chief soon after I landed.
“It now becomes a pleasing task to me to state in the fullest manner that the conduct of my officers and ship’s company, under the most trying circumstances in which human beings could be placed, was orderly, obedient, and respectful, to the last extremity. I have only to add, that having been 26 years in the service, with the exception of the last short interval of peace, twelve years of which have been passed in the performance of the arduous duties of a first lieutenant, in ships of every class, from a first to a sixth rate, and the last six years and a half on a foreign station, commanding the sloop I have lately had the misfortune to lose, my character and reputation as an officer and a seaman have remained untarnished; and I feel a confidence, from the high veneration and respect I hold for the members composing the tribunal before which I am arraigned, that justice, in its fullest measure, will be done me, in whatever shape my sentence may appear.”
SENTENCE.
