 Judge Samuel Sewell in his diary records that the judges, who did not wish to inflict this barbaric penalty, asked Corey's friend Captain Gardner of Nantucket to plead with him to stand his trial in the ordinary way.Captain Gardner used his best endeavours for two days, but Sewell records that it was "all in vain".Jeremiah N. Reynolds' 1828 report to the US House of Representatives describes Capt.