 One of the original Confederate crewmen, midshipman John Thomson Mason, stated that they just happened to find the stowaways, of various nationalities, and enlisted them outside of Australian waters.He further said one of the stowaways was the captain of an English steamer that was at Melbourne at the time; the Englishman became the captain's clerk.The news of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln on 14 April 1865 caused demonstrations of sorrow in Sydney.