Ship of Blood – True crime tale with Bequia ties

by Christina Smith

In October 1905, the schooner Harry A. Berwind, a wooden commercial vessel bound for Philadelphia from Alabama, was turned into a slaughterhouse when a gun was turned on its crew. The bodies of four dead men would be thrown overboard; the blood of the fifth stained the deck of the vessel by the time it was discovered by another ship.

The event reads like something straight out of a Hollywood movie, except that it is a true story and what is worse- four of the five murdered men were white, and the three surviving crew members, who would be fingered as the perpetrators of the crime, were all black.

Caught in the melee of the murder accusations was a sailor from the Grenadine island of Bequia, Arthur Adams.

Adams would find himself locked in a years-long tussle with the American court system at a time when Jim Crow laws and white supremacists dominated the South.

The true crime tale of murder and mutiny is detailed by American author and attorney, Charles Oldham in his latest book ‘Ship of Blood: Mutiny and Slaughter Aboard the Harry A. Berwind, and the Quest for Justice’.

Charles Oldham

SEARCHLIGHT spoke with Oldham about his research and retelling of this fascinating story.

“There were some challenges to it, as you might imagine, because it was more than 100 years. I was fortunate … because it was a federal case, the federal government has been typically more careful about preserving documents, and I was very fortunate that I was able to find the original court file from the case, all the exhibits and all the original documents from the case.

They were charged with the murders and the original trials, actually were a very, very quick affair. There were two trials because two of them were put on trial together. And then the third guy was put on trial separately. And the reason for that was because they were telling two different stories. Two of the guys blamed the third and then the third blamed the other two.”

For 18 months, Oldham poured himself into researching the case which did not end at the Wilmington court after the men were found guilty, but eventually made it to the US Supreme Court on appeal. The case also landed before the then US President, Theodore Roosevelt as sympathizers worked to have Adams and Bahamian, Robert Sawyer freed from prison.

“But what was really surprising about this case was that in Wilmington, some of the newspapers and some of the people who were sitting in court and listening to the testimony, they started to think that two of those guys might actually have been telling truth, because they really impressed a lot of people with how sincere they were and how they kept their stories together. Whereas the third guy came across as sounding deceptive and just a little bit manipulative in the stories that he was telling.”

Oldham describes the men’s quest for justice as an “extraordinary turn of events”, considering the racially charged environment during that time.

He said from the court records he was able to uncover Adams’ family roots in Bequia.

“They had a mailing list of folks that they were writing letters to, and people who had written to them … I already knew that he came from St. Vincent, but I saw that he had family members who were still living on Bequia. And there was one on Union Island, I believe, as well, and I think he had an uncle who was living in Philadelphia. His father’s family was Adams, and his mother apparently was a member of the Hazel family. So that’s how I got the names.”

Oldham revealed that a recent trip to Bequia did not uncover anyone who was familiar with Adams’ ordeal. However, he believes the story of how two black men from the Caribbean survived being tried for murder in Wilmington just seven years after white supremacists killed blacks and overthrew the city’s government, is a story that can connect with all Vincentians.

“…By 1905 when these guys were put on trial for these murders, white supremacists were in control of that town. Everybody expected they would just be put on trial and they will be hanged within a matter of weeks. So just the fact that didn’t happen in this case, that there were so many people who were sympathetic to them and took their calls when they didn’t have to, it’s just really, really astounding. And I think it’s fascinating for anybody who has an interest in history and it’s also a very fascinating legal drama.”

Oldham said the book, published by Beach Glass Books, has been receiving much positive feedback since its publication and has received a stellar review from Pultizer prize winner and author of ‘Wilmington’s Lie’, David Zucchino who describes it as an “An engaging thriller with a surprise ending”.