The Terrible Story of the Mary Russell

The Mary Russell was a trading boat that set sail from the harbor of Cobh in County Cork on February 8, 1828, carrying a cargo of mules bound for Barbados. When it returned to Cobh on June 25, 1828, the horrified people of Cork found a cabin awash with blood and the bound and battered corpses of the ship’s crew. Two mutilated survivors and a group of young boys who were unharmed were able to testify to the bizarre events of the voyage, during which the ship’s captain, William Stewart, had become increasingly paranoid about an imagined mutiny on board and felt himself compelled to murder his shipmates.