Lucinda - a general history

Northern Echo, Saturday 22^nd November, 1884:
ALLEGED EMBEZZLEMENT BY A SHIP-MANAGER. Ernst Berner, the registered managing-owner of the Lilydale, was charged, on adjournment, with feloniously and fraudulently embezzling and stealing the sum of £20, the property of the shareholders, the prosecution being undertaken by Bartholomew Wilford and others.
Mr. Barnley, Middlesbrough, prosecuted, Mr Skidmore, barrister-at-law (instructed by Mr. R. H Young), defending.
From Mr. Barnsley's opening statement, the Lilydale was in collision with the Lucindain January, and some money became due from the owners of the Lucinda to the owners of the Lilydale, which at that time was somewhat uncertain in amount. On the 29th of that month, an arrangement was made between the owners of the Lucinda, Messrs Herskind, Woods, & Co., and the firm of Huntley, Berner, & Co., that £20 should be paid by the former in satisfaction of all claims on the part of the owners of the Lilydale: and a cheque was drawn for that amount by Mr. Woods, and handed to a clerk of Huntley, Berner, & Co. That cheque was crossed, and therefore should have been paid through a banking account. But Mr. Berner about that time endorsed it "Received in cash, Huntley, Berner, & Co." That endorsement would enable the person presenting the cheque to receive cash for it. A clerk named Clarke cashed it, and the money was taken to Mr Berner.
The accounts of the Lilydale were kept in a book, and from time to time those accounts were audited. The last audit was on the 21st of February, twenty-two days or so after Mr. Berner's receipt of the money in question. There was no entry of it in the book, and the fact that Mr. Berner obtained possession of the money had been withheld from the knowledge of the shareholders. A statement of accounts was sent out, dated the 21st of February, signed "Huntley, Berner, & Co.," which represented a balance due to the firm of £15 4s Id to date, and had this £20 been brought into the accounts, that would have shown a balance on the other side. There was thus, as Mr Barnsley submitted, a concealment of this amount. Mr. Berner had subsequently become insolvent, and still no account was given of the sum in question.
The first witness called was Mr J. J. Woods, of the firm of Herskind, Woods & Co., and several of the parties to the transaction described by counsel were in attendance as witnesses for the prosecution besides Mr. Woods, some of whom were subpoenaed, were Mr Robinson Brough, cashier until March to Huntley, Berner & Co.; Mr John Oughtred, of the National Provincial Bank; Mr Geo. Wm. Clark, formerly with Huntley, Berner, & Co., who was said to have cashed the cheque and handed the money to Mr Berner, but as to which he gave no a positive evidence, more than one hypothetical question put by Mr Barnsley being overruled; Mr. Wm. Fortune, of Messrs. Monkhouse, Goddard, & Co., auditors, who were employed by the shareholders to examine the books for two years past, but who, it appeared, had not audited the accounts since last year; and from him it was elicited that he had enquired as to demurrage on learning of the collision, and so discovered the cheque transaction.
Mr. Thomas M. Purdy, Darlington, one of the firm of Messrs. Monkhouse, Goddard, and Co., whose evidence, however, was barred by the suggestion that Mr Berner's evidence in bankruptcy, as to which he was to speak, might be in writing, a certified copy of which, therefore, ought to be produced; Mr. Benjamin M. Parker, Northallerton, one of the owners of the Lilydale and Mr. Ralph Huntley, one of the firm of Huntley, Berner & Co., Mr. Huntley stated that there was still an open account between his firm and the shareholders, notwithstanding that the management of the Lilydale was taken over by Mr. Young, of Newcastle.
After Mr Berner's bankruptcy, on a voyage then running, £20 appeared in the books to the credit of the Lilydale in respect of is demurrage against certain expenses – On this evidence the Bench decided that the case could go no further, and it was accordingly dismissed. Mr. Barnsley observed that Mr Huntley's evidence did not agree with a former statement.

Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail, Monday, May 7^th, 1888:
WEST HARTLEPOOL STEAMER SUNK. TWO OF THE CREW DROWNED. A Lloyd's telegram says the Orient Line steamer Garonne arrived at Aden on Saturday with bows stove in, after collision with steamer Lucinda from Akyab, which sank almost immediately in latitude 18 N., longitude 40E. Two of the crew drowned. The Garonne was lightened by throwing coal overboard. Part of her cargo will have to discharged. Will be surveyed at once.
The Lucinda was an iron screw steamer of 1,753 gross tonnage, built at Hartlepool in 1880, and owned by Herskind and Woods, West Hartlepool. Messrs. Herskind and Woods have received a telegram today saying that the survivors of the crew of the Lucinda have arrived at Suez in the City of Agra.

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