ABSTRACT
In 1871, Lt. Frederick William Edward Kuper faced charges of drunkenness and indecent assault when aboard HMS Bristol. He was charged with getting drunk one night that summer and indecently assaulting an 18-year-old signalman named Joseph Harris. A two-day trial found Kuper guilty of drunkenness but cleared him of the charge of sexual misconduct. An extensive official record of the trial proceedings survives, as does detailed coverage in the press. 1 This report on the trial from Reynolds’s Newspaper was just one of many items published giving readers a thorough view of the proceedings.
