EXHIBIT H.
I, Thomas Scullun, of Chelsea, county of Suffolk and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, on oath depose and say: My name is Thomas Scullun; I am 39 years of age; by occupation a master mariner. I was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and am a native-born citizen of the United States, and my domicile is in Chelsea, Massachusetts. I first went to sea when I was 14 years of age as steerage boy, and have been at sea ever since, going through all the grades to master.
I sailed on my first voyage as master in the fall of 1888 from San Francisco in the bark Cape Horn Pigeon for a whaling voyage. I made that voyage, returning to San Francisco in the fall of 1889, refitted, and again sailed. I sailed each fall, returning in the following fall, until the fall of 1891. On the 7th of December, 1891, I again sailed as master of the Cape Horn Pigeon from San Francisco on a whaling voyage to the Yellow Sea, Japan Sea, and the Okhotsk Sea. I had a full crew, consisting of thirty-four all told, four officers, four boat steerers, cooper, steward, and two boys. These are all correctly stated upon the crew list, and their lays are set forth correctly. The ship’s papers which I had were the articles, register, health certificate, and the manifests. I brought back all these papers to San Francisco when I returned there this fall, 1892, and delivered them to the custom-house officer. They are now in the custom-house at San Francisco. The vessel was fitted for a whaling voyage, with the usual fittings for that purpose. She was in no way fitted for a sealing voyage. She had no salt, no rifles, no sealing boats, and no gunners. There was no intention, in fitting for the voyage or at the time of sailing, of doing any business in sealing. The log book is on board the ship, and before sailing I will give it to Mr. Wing to be brought to New Bedford.
After leaving San Francisco we first went to Ascension, one of the Caroline Islands, and then to Guam, one of the Ladrone Islands. From there we went to the Yellow Sea, and cruised until about the 1st of April. From there we went right to Vladivostok, arriving there about the 26th of April, to repair a slight leak. While I was there I tried to get a permit to go to the Russian bays off the Okhotsk Sea whaling. We telegraphed to St. Petersburg for a permit, for which I offered to make compensation, but could not get a permit to go into the bays for whaling. For the last five seasons I had whaled in the Okhotsk Sea. I understood that we were not permitted to whale in the bays off the sea, but the sea itself was open to us, and it was for the purpose of getting permission to whale in the bays that I sought this permit. After we left Vladivostok we cruised in the Japan Sea until the 26th of June, when we returned to Vladivostok. We went there to recruit ship with fresh provisions. We left Vladivostok the 6th of July and went to the Okhotsk Sea, where I had [Page 45] prosecuted the whaling until I was taken, on the 10th of September. During this time I had taken two whales, which yielded 2,600 lbs. of bone and 200 barrels of oil. One of these whales was caught about 120 miles from Sagalien Island and about 40 miles off Yetaup Island, and the other 150 miles from Sagalien and 80 miles from Yetaup Island. The night of the 9th, about 7 o’clock, we took in all sail and luffed to on the port tack, with the foreyard back, and about a quarter of 3 a.m. the officer came down and called me, and said there was a schooner coming down off the weather quarter, and he thought it was the Mary H. Thomas. It was then dark and foggy. The Mary H. Thomas was a whaling schooner, which had been upon the ground with us and which the log book will show we had spoken previously. I went on deck and saw her coming down, and I saw that if she kept coming as she was she would draw aft so that we would not see the red light; so I told the officer of the deck to set a white light so that he would see us, because I wanted to speak him at daylight to find out the whaling news. What I mean by that is, whether he had taken any whales or seen any whales. About a quarter of 4 the officer came down again and said, “That is not the Mary H. Thomas. It is some other schooner, and he wants to speak us.” So I went on deck, and as I got on deck they lowered a boat down from the schooner, and I saw that the officer was some naval officer by the uniform. This boat came alongside, and a young officer came on board and demanded my ship’s papers. I asked him what right he had or what he wanted my ship’s papers for. Said I, “I am no sealer, and we are not off Robin Island.” He said, “What are you doing here?” and I said, “I am whaling here.” He said, “Well, you have no right to whale here, and my captain wants you to come aboard.” I saw he could not talk good English, and I said, “Can your captain talk good English?” and he said, “Yes.” So I said, “All right,” and took up my papers, and he picked up my charts in the cabin, and we went aboard the schooner, and I saw then that she was a sealer, one of the confiscated schooners. So I asked the captain of the schooner what this all meant, and he said, “What are you doing here?” Said I, “I am whaling; it is a whale ship.” He said, “Well, you have no right to whale here in the Okhotsk Sea.” I said, “Why not?” And he says, “The Okhotsk Sea is a closed sea.” Said I, “How long since?” “Why,” he says, “it has always been a closed sea.” “Well,” said I, “that is funny. I have been coming here the last five years whaling, and have been in Vladivostok every year.” He says, “Well, we have always overlooked the whalers before, but this year we have got orders to take all the whalers and all the sealers we can find. I have orders from my admiral to take all the whalers and all the sealers I can find.” And he said, “What did you set that bright light for? “I said, “I saw you coming down and I thought you were the Mary H. Thomas, and I wanted to speak the Mary H. Thomas, so I set the bright light so they could see me.” He says, “Well, I am going to take you to Vladivostok.” I said, “All right, but I think you have no right to take me.” “Well,” he says, “I am not sure myself whether I have a right to take you, but I am going to take you to Vladivostok.” I said, “Well, my whaling has just commenced here, and if you take me down to Vladivostok you make me lose my season’s work, and if you do your Government will have to pay for it.” “Well, if I am in the wrong my Government will pay for it.”
Then he ordered me to stay aboard the Cape Horn Pigeon and keep my steward and boy. He says, “Your officers and crew come aboard and take charge of the schooner and myself and crew will come aboard and take the Cape Horn Pigeon.”
I said, “Where are you going to take my ship?” He said, “Down to Vladivostok.” I said, “You have no right to put my officers and crew aboard that schooner and tell them to go to Vladivostok, or anywhere else. If you put my officers and crew aboard there they will go anywhere they have a mind to. They may go to San Francisco or they may go to Yokohama and sell her, and you can not stop them. The schooner has got no papers.” “Well,” he says, “I am going to put them aboard and lam going to order them to go to Vladivostok.” I said, “If you do you will have to pay them for taking the schooner down, whether I am in the right or in the wrong. You make them prisoners.” My first officer came to me and wanted to know what he should do, whether to go to San Francisco or to Vladivostok, and I told him to go to Vladivostok and they would pay him for bringing the schooner down. My officers and crew told me that after they went aboard they asked him what right he had to take the ship, and he said he took her for whaling in the Okhotsk Sea; that the Okhotsk Sea was a closed sea, and that we had no right to whale there.
I went back on the Pigeon with an officer and five armed men, and they boarded the schooner, and then the crew of the schooner, two officers and twelve men, came on board and took charge of the Cape Horn Pigeon. They navigated the Pigeon down, and I had nothing to do with the ship on the voyage down to Vladivostok; but I was not restrained of my personal liberty, and I occupied my own stateroom and [Page 46] had my meals with the officers. On the way down I said one day, “I believe you have made a bad mistake; I believe you had no right to take this ship.” He said, “If you hadn’t had two whales on board I wouldn’t have taken you. I should have simply told you that you had no right to whale in the Okhotsk Sea and ordered you out. But as it is I have got to take you, because I should be afraid my crew would blow on me when I arrived in port if I did not.” The schooner got to Vladivostok three days before us, and when we arrived the lieutenant told me to let my crew go aboard of their own ship and his crew would go aboard of the schooner. So I told my first officer to get the crew together and get them aboard and take charge. My crew were then on the schooner. After I went ashore orders came to the schooner for the crew to go ashore, and they were told that they were going to have quarters at the station house. They were landed on the wharf, bag and baggage, without food or shelter.
Nobody was there to receive them, and I found them about 8 o’clock in the evening. I went up to the captain of the port to find out about it, and he said that he gave orders to land the crew and take them up to the station house, and there they would find quarters. So I told him that they were landed there on the wharf and nobody there to receive them or show them where the station house was. He said he could not do anything that night, so I went and got them a place in a Chinaman’s storehouse.
The next day the first officer and the second officer went to the station house to find out about the quarters, and they were told they would let them know to-morrow. The next day they went there with an interpreter, and they were told that they had the names of the men, and that money had been sent in for the men, but that the chief of police would not do anything about the affair, and they said again they would let them know to-morrow. So they went there every day until the admiral arrived and the governor. When the admiral and the governor arrived the officers went to the governor, and he put them aboard of their own ship. They went to him about 11 o’clock in the forenoon, and about 5 o’clock in the afternoon they were put aboard the bark. The exact day will be shown by the log book.
While at Vladivostok I stayed at the hotel. I could get no information or directions as to whom I was to apply for release of my ship, and was informed that nothing could be done until the admiral and governor came. When the governor arrived I made a protest to him, demanded monthly wages from the time we were taken until we arrived in San Francisco, and demanded my passage from Vladivostok to San Francisco for myself and officers and crew. We supposed then that they would not restore the ship. He told me as soon as he read it that he would straighten this affair up as soon as they could.
The next day an officer came and took me on board the flagship, where I was informed by the officer who took the ship they were to have a hearing. I was not allowed in to the hearing, but was left on deck about an hour. Then an officer came up to me and said, “Come, Captain, we will go aboard of your bark.” I told him who I was, and he told me that he was captain of the flagship. He said, “We are going aboard of your bark to hold a declaration. I said, “I suppose you want my log book, don’t you?” He said, “Yes; where is your log book?” I said, “I have got it ashore.” He said that he wanted me to go and get it, and they manned a boat and took me ashore. I got the log book and came back on board of the flagship, and then the captain Of the flagship, five other captains, a judge, and a lieutenant, and myself got in a steam launch and went aboard of the Cape Horn Pigeon, and there they overlooked the log book, and could find nothing wrong in it. They went down in the hold and searched for sealskins or salt, bored into the casks to see if there were any skins or salt, but could find nothing to show that I had been sealing or aiding sealers, and they drew up a declaration in the Russian language to that effect.
I signed that document, and asked them for a copy of it in English, which they gave me the next day with my log book. Then the next day I was sent for again to come on board the flagship, and was told by the judge that I could have my ship and be allowed to go to sea if I would bring no claim against the Russian Government. And I said, “If I bring a claim against the Russian Government, I cannot have my ship?” and the judge said, “Well, yes, I guess so.” I said, “Well, lam going to bring a claim against the Russian Government for loss of my season’s work and my expenses here.” So the judge sent in word to the admiral that I was going to enter a claim against them. The admiral sent word back to know what my claim was going to be. I told them, and the admiral sent word for me to send my claim in, and after I sent my claim in that no claims from, me or my owners would be recognized afterwards. I asked for two days to make out my claim, and I made it out and sent it in.
The next day after that I had orders to go to sea from the admiral. The Government [Page 47] steam launch took the ship in tow and towed her down to the mouth of the harbor. I was not ready to go to sea. The next day I got a letter for the admiral wanting to know why I did not go to sea, and I told him that I was not ready; that I had got to get provisions aboard, and it was bad weather. He wanted to know if he could help me in any way; if I had money enough to get my provisions with, and I wrote back and told him that I had. I sailed on the 1st of October and arrived at San Francisco the 5th of November.
I did not go back to the whaling grounds, because the season was finished. The season for whaling in the Okhotsk closes from the 5th to the 10th of October. It would have taken me at that time about ten to fifteen days to have got back there, as the northerly winds had set in, so that I could not possibly have got therein time to do any whaling. The season in the Okhotsk closes when the heavy gales from the north commence, about the 10th of October, and then we have to leave. The season in the Okhotsk Sea is the months of August, September, and the first part of October. Some seasons are longer than others, depending upon the weather. At the time I left Vladivostok the stormy season had set in this fall. The basis upon which my claim was made up was an average of seven to eight whales. I took my log book and found that in the four seasons I had taken 28 whales, and the average of that would be 7 whales to a season, and this season I had already taken 2 whales when I was captured. The time I was taken was just when the great body of the whales had made their appearance. We saw whales the day we were taken and the next day. This was just the time when the whales came on this ground. My accounts with the owners will show my expenses.
At no time during the voyage in question was the Cape Horn Pigeon or myself, either directly or indirectly, engaged in sealing or aiding or assisting others engaged in sealing. Neither the Cape Horn Pigeon, myself, or my officers and crew took any seals. We never had any intention of taking any seals, either on the land or water. The ship was not provided with the tackle, furniture, and material necessary therefor, nor for the preservation of seal skins, and in no way was the ship or my officers and crew engaged in any sealing enterprise. Neither I nor, to my knowledge, have any of the officers or crew of the Cape Horn Pigeon received any indemnity whatever, in any form, for the loss and damage sustained by the seizure or any part thereof, with the following exception: The day we got the vessel back I was called down in the steerage by the cooper, and he showed me his chest, which had been broken open by the Russian crew. The lieutenant was called down and shown the chest, and he said he was sorry it was done, and for the cooper to make out his bill and bring it to him and he would pay him; that he did not want the admiral to know anything about it. The cooper made out his bill of 39 rubles, and the lieutenant paid him out of his own pocket.
I have left with Mr. Wing copy of a statement made by myself and officers at Vladivostok on the 21st of September, 1892; also declaration of the officers and crew of the Cape Horn Pigeon made at Vladivostok on the 23d day of September, 1892; also copy of my letter to the Russian admiral and my claim filed with him. I also refer to my communications to Commander Charles N. Gridley, United States Navy, commanding United States steamer Marion, which was at Vladivostok during this time, and which communications I understand have been forwarded to the Department by Commander Gridley. The amount of the claim when recovered will go into the proceeds of the voyage, to be distributed like other proceeds of the voyage, in which the officers and crew will each have his lay as if it had been the proceeds of oil and bone taken. No objection has ever been made during the five seasons that I have been in the Okhotsk Sea whaling until this time to whaling there, and I had received no, notice or information of any difference in the law from what it had been in the past seasons until it was stated by the officer. I leave December 14 for San Francisco, and shall probably sail from San Francisco as master of the Cape Horn Pigeon upon another whaling cruise on the 22d of December, and expect to return to San Francisco in November, 1893, going to the same places where I have been for the last five seasons.
Master Bark Cape Horn Pigeon.