PIRATES NOT EXTINCT

Hokitika Guardian, 27 October 1931, Page 8

PIRATES NOT EXTINCT

BRITISH HONDURAS INCIDKNT, CAPTURE OF A LUGGIvR. That piracy is by no means extinct to-day in remote parts of the Spanish (>!ain is proved by an 'incident related iby Surgeon-Captain ( H. J. Brennard, of the Royal Australian Naval Reserve, in an article in the “Sydney Morning Heri aid” regarding Belize, in British Honduras, which was recently swept by a devastating hurricane. This ill-iated [ town was visited several times in 1915 and 1916 by the Australian cruisers MHbpnrne arid Sydney. Surgeon-Cap-i tain Brennard says;— I “A lugger, manned, by three coloured men of sorts, from the coast of Nioaragun,’ was sailing northward toward- Bewhen a sailboat issued from one of the many creeks on this coast, manned by filibusters. This craft overhauled the lugger easily, captured it. and threw the -three male members of the crew overboard to the sharks which abound in these seas. Out of chivalrous feelings, however, they spared two women passengers, putting them ashore with some provisions to shift for themselves. This piove-d their undoing. “The women managed to reach a tidegraph line in British Honduras, and following this, reached a remote telegraph star-ion, where they told their tale of woe. The filibusters meanwhile had made their way to Belize, sold the lugger, and had taken passage on a coaster hound for New Orleans, where Nemesis overtook them. ■‘The pirates were apprehended and tried for piracy, and condemned by the British Court at 'Belize, but then the question of their execution cropped tip. The Governor considered that all pirates

should be hanged at the yardarm of a man-o’-war, following the old precedent, although Gallows Point at Port Royal in Jamaica -saw the end of many an oldtime pirate. The captain-of the Mel-1 bourne was not anxious to carry out the i sentence, and after some cabling to and from the Colonial Office in London, the pirates were executed at Belize with all legal formalities. “Dealing with the strange mixture of races -at Belize was indeed a problem for the officers of the Br : tish Admin-stvation. One coloured prisoner in the Oalahooze, or gaol, at Belize, while we were there, resenting the action of the doct >v in giving him a very potent pill, stabbed i the unfortunate medico next day, while 1 he was writing at h':s desk. Tries man aiso' paid the penalty of his crime.”