PIRATES OLD AND NEW

Hokitika Guardian, 25 January 1921, Page 3

PIRATES OLD AND NEW

(H.v T. C. Briggs, Author of.'"Martin Crusoe” and other stories for boys.) Though the black brig that openly flaunted the “.folly Roger” no longer prowls the main yet. piracy has never died, and there are still wide tracts of ocean which the merchant skipper, unless well armed and manned, is careful to avoid. .The worst of these lies between the the Straits of Malacca and the Japan Sea. Botli Chinese and Malays are skilful sea robbers, while the A Chinese are even more hold and daring. The ways of the modern Chinese pirate are well illustrated by the raid on tho French steamre Robert Lebaudy in the summer of 1913. This ship, after leav ing Canton, landed 80 passengers at Yunk-ki and shipped 30 others. Tin others pirates in disguise, waited only uiltil the vessel was out of sight of land; then each produced a pistol and held up captain, pilot, and crew. They seized the key of the strong-room, from which they got 30,000 dollars, then searched the passengers. , One woman who objected was shot dead. Having secured everything of

value, the captain was forced, at pistol point, to run close in and put tho raiders ashore with their booty., : In 1906 the British steamer Sainam was seized in exactly similar fashion; Captain Joslin was wounded and Dr Macdonald, a missionary, was murdered. The ship herself was run into a creek and tho booty transferred to wait- , ing “snake boats.” #*•**» Piracy flourishes much nearer home than the Chinese Seas. In the san e year, 1906, the British sailing ship Coil- 1 suelo was seized Tjy El More Valiente i the Moorish brigand, off Castillejos. The Riff pirates, if not so bold as for- j merly, are always on the watch for | small craft, and no sailing or yacht \ master, who knows hss business will venture near that desolate and dangerous part of the North African cot st. The Black Sea piracy case recently mentioned in “The Daily Mail”, in which some men were alleged to have overpowered the crew of the si earner Souirah, plundred the passengrs, and got away in th ship’s boats with £2BO, 000 is not the first of its Kind, for in 1907 there was a similar case in the

same sea. In the middle of the night the captain of the steamer Sophia, was aroused by the cold muzzle of a revolver against his forehead. He found that eighteen of his passengers, pirates in disguise hfd seized his ship, and with it £-5,000 in cash and all other valuables aboard. The ruffians forced the crew to work the ship close into shore; then after disabling the engines took two heats and made off with their plunder.