The mate had roused the crew, and they gathered in the chart-room.  I told them what had happened, and that the murderer must be among us.  I suggested that they stay together, and that they submit to being searched for weapons.

They went on deck in a body, and I roused the women and told them.  Mrs. Turner asked me to tell the two maids, who slept in a cabin off the chartroom.  I found their door unlocked, and, receiving no answer, opened it.  Karen Hansen, the lady’s-maid, was on the floor, dead, with her skull crushed in.  The stewardess, Henrietta Sloane, was fainting in her bunk.  An axe had been hurled through the doorway as the Hansen woman fell, and was found in the stewardess’s bunk.

Dawn coming by that time, I suggested a guard at the two companionways, and this was done.  The men were searched and all weapons taken from them.  Mr. Singleton was under suspicion, it being known that he had threatened the captain’s life, and Oleson, a lookout, claiming to have seen him forward where the axe was kept.

The crew insisted that Singleton be put in irons.  He made no objection, and we locked him in his own room in the forward house.  Owing to the loss of Schwartz, the second mate, already recorded in this log-book (see entry for August ninth), the death of the captain, and the imprisonment of the first mate, the ship was left without officers.  Until Mr. Turner could make an arrangement, the crew nominated Burns, one of themselves, as mate, and asked me to assume command.  I protested that I knew nothing of navigation, but agreed on its being represented that, as I was not one of them, there could be ill feeling.

The ship was searched, on the possibility of finding a stowaway in the hold.  But nothing was found.  I divided the men into two watches, Burns taking one and I the other.  We nailed up the after companionway, and forbade any member of the crew to enter the after house.  The forecastle was also locked, the men bringing their belongings on deck.  The stewardess recovered and told her story, which, in her own writing, will be added to this record.

The bodies of the dead were brought on deck and sewed into canvas, and later, with appropriate services, placed in the jolly-boat, it being the intention, later on, to tow the boat behind us.  Mr. Turner insisted that the bodies be buried at sea, and, on the crew opposing this, retired to his cabin, announcing that he considered the position of the men a mutiny.

Some feeling having arisen among the women of the party that I might know more of the crimes than was generally supposed, having been in the after house at the time they were committed, and having no references, I this afternoon voluntarily surrendered myself to Burns, acting first mate.  The men, however, refused to accept this surrender, only two, Adams and McNamara, favoring it.  I expect to give myself up to the police at the nearest port, until the matter is thoroughly probed.