The ‘Industry’ had scarcely dropped her anchor before the Additional Resident boarded her.  The pilot spoke to him and in a few words informed him that Blogg, the master, had been pitched into the sea, and explained in what manner he proposed to arrest the four seamen.  McDonnell understood, and agreed to the plan at once.  He called to the mate in a loud voice, and said:  “I am sorry to hear that you have lost the master of this vessel.  I live at that house you see on the rising ground, and I keep a list in a book of all vessels that come into the river, and the names of the crews.  It is a mere formality, and won’t take more than five minutes.  So you will oblige me, mate, by coming ashore with your men at once, as I am in a hurry, and have other business to attend to.”  He then went ashore in his boat.  The mate and seamen followed in the ship’s boat, and waited in front of the Additional Resident’s house.  He had a visitor that morning, the Pakeha Maori, Laming.

The men had not to wait long, as it was not advisable to give them much time to think and grow suspicious.  McDonnell came to the front door and called the mate, who went inside, signed his name, re-appeared directly, called Secker, and entered the house with him.  The Additional Resident was sitting at a table with the signature book before him.  He rose from the chair, told Secker to sit down, gave him a pen, and pointed out the place where his name was to be signed.  Laming was sitting near the table.  While Secker was signing his name McDonnell suddenly put a twisted handkerchief under his chin and tightened it round his neck.  Laming presented a horse-pistol and said he would blow his brains out if he uttered a word, and the mate slipped a pair of handcuffs on his wrists.  He was then bundled out at the back door and put into a bullet-proof building at the rear.  The other three seamen were then called in one after the other, garrotted, handcuffed, and imprisoned in the same way.  The little formality of signing names was finished in a few minutes, according to promise.

If such things could be done in New Zealand, where there was neither law nor government, what might happen in Van Diemen’s Land, where one man was both law and government, and that man was Colonel Arthur?  The prisoners had plenty of time to make a forecast of their fate, while the mate engaged a fresh crew and took in a cargo of flax and timber.  When he was ready to sail, he reshipped his old crew in irons, returned with them to the Tamar, and delivered them to the police to be dealt with according to law.  For a long time the law was in a state of chaos.  Major Abbott was sent from England in 1814 as the first judge.  The proceedings in his court were conducted in the style of a drum-head court martial, the accusation, sentences, and execution following one another with military precision and rapidity.