FIGHT BETWEEN ENGLISH AND RUSSIAN MEN-OF-WAR SAILORS.

Kumara Times, Issue 939, 3 October 1879, Page 4

FIGHT BETWEEN ENGLISH AND RUSSIAN MEN-OF-WAR SAILORS.

(devonport independent.) The Daily Telegraph gives the following account of a remarkable encounter between English sailors belonging to an ironclad, and some sailors belonging to a Russian ship of war : " Whatever may be the attitude which the Government of England now assumes towards Russia, it is certain that our Bailors still regard the Muscovite as a natural foe. His flag may salute ours, and our officers may visit his, but when the British mariner comes across his Tartar rival a causus belliia not unlikely to ensue. A fair illustration of this is given in a story which is sent from the Pirceus. At that entry to the ancient capital of Greece, wine shops abound, wherein is vended a heavy concoction in which sailors delight. Three men from the English squadron were enjoying this liquor, when some 20 Russians entering took their bottles away and emptied the contents on the table! To fight against such odds would have been folly, but a boatswain's male who chanced to be one of the trio was equal to the emergency. Stepping to the door he piped, " Liberty men to muster," whereupon shipmates swarmed about him, and he had soon more that enough wherewith to engage the foe. Scorning to take advantage of numbers, he selected a few among his brother tars, and with these he began an attack upon the enemy A sharp fight ensued, the tables and chairs being requisitioned as "big guns," and it is satisfactory to know that victory speedily inclined to the side of the Union Jack. One petty officer belonging to the British ironclad "performed," we are told, "prodigies of valor," flooring antagonist after antagonist with unimpaired cheerfulness and a disdain for help which was highly instructive. His powers were moreover, bedecked with warlike oratory in the old classic style, for in a terse sentence, delivered between the blows, he informed the Russians that he and' his mates had been "waiting for them" for two years. So the fight continued until the discomfited Russians retreated, and our English tars were no doubt preparing to celebrate their victory when a number of French sailors, coming up in the vjsry nick of time, claimed the right to act the part of cavalry, and turned the Muscovite retreat into a sorry rout. The Russian captain, immediately he saw his defeated crew ordered that in future his men should not go ashore when the English blue-jackets were landed, and this proposal was agreed upon by the commander of our men, who no doubt felt that enough had been doDe for the honor of the flag to which his gallant fellows belong."