§ MR. CARBUTTasked the Secretary to the Admiralty, Whether his attention has been called to a letter in the "South Wales Daily Telegram," purporting to 180 be a copy of a letter received from one of the crew of H.M. ill-fated ship "Atalanta," dated from Barbadoes; and, if so, whether the statement that part of the crew mutinied, that six of them had been put in irons, and that one man received twenty-four lashes with the cat-o'nine-tails, is correct; and if he can state the cause of the mutiny?
§ MR. SHAW LEFEVRESir, the statement contained in the letter referred to by the hon. Member appears to have been only partially true. From the quarterly punishment Returns of the Atalanta, it appears that on the 26th of December last a young seaman was awarded corporal punishment for endeavouring to incite mutiny on the lower deck in calling on others to come aft and forcibly release a prisoner from irons. Only one man was in irons at the time, and no other men were punished for the same offence. There is no mention of the matter in Captain Stirling's letters from Bermuda, and his report at the close of the quarterly punishment Return, dated December 31, was, "The general conduct of the crew and training draft has been very good."