LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
683 
a sum of money to Capt. Ross, for the payment of their wages, 
and they were accordingly ordered to attend at the office of Mr. 
Copeland, Navy Agent, Surrey Street, Strand. We believe 
Abernethy was the first man, who was paid, and, on his coming 
out of the pay-room, he declared that he was paid £150 short; 
the engineer was next paid, and he said that he was above £200 
short; in fact, there was not a single man of the crew, who was 
not paid minus £50 of the sum actually due to him. This was 
considered by Thom as a great hardship 5 when it ought to have 
been taken into the account, that they had been nearly three 
vears on short allowance, for which no remuneration was to be 
given to them. Independently of this subtraction from their just 
demand, there was scarcely a man, into whose hands a bill for 
slops and tobacco was not pnt, in some instances, amount¬ 
ing from £15 to £20, at the same time, that they had to leave 
behind them all their clothes and bedding. The £2 advanced to 
each man at Hull w ere also deducted. The whole amount, which 
Capt. Ross deducted from the sum advanced to him by the Lords 
of the Admiralty, for the payment of his men, was £240, but they 
maintained that that sum had no right to find its way into his own 
pockets, for Capt. Ross was not empowered by those, who ad¬ 
vanced the money, to stop from the men any demand, which he 
might have upon them, for slops, &c., and which, under their 
peculiar circumstances, should not have been made at all. 
It is, perhaps, not a difficult task, to point out the quarter from 
which the information was issued to the public, that the whole of 
the crew of the Victory had had their wages paid to the full 
amount, and that every individual had been provided with a 
situation, by which a competency was insured him for the 
remainder of his life. The crew, however, felt so indignant at 
the false representations, which were continually inserted in the 
papers, every statement of which led the public to believe, that 
Capt. Ross on his return, had behaved to his men in the most 
liberal and honorable manner, that thev determined to lay a 
statement of their case before the public, but for some reason, 
which has not been properly explained, the papers refused to 
insert them. The following letter, which was sent to the Editor 
29. 4 t 
