BATTLE WITH PIRATES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 927, 21 March 1930, Page 16

BATTLE WITH PIRATES

BRITISH CREW DRIVES OFF CHINESE MID-NIGHT ATTACK While the British steamer Haiching owned by the Douglas Co., was on a voyage from Swatow to Hong-Kong, a desperate battle was waged on deck between a handful of men holding the bridge and a number of bloodthirsty Chinese pirates. The fight lasted for several hours in. pitch darkness, and resulted in the third officer, Mr. K. A. Woodward, receiving fatal wounds, and an Indian guard being shot dead in his sleep.

Ten of the pirates were killed and many wounded. The remainder were taken prisoner by the destroyers Sterling and Sirdar, which raced to the Haiching’s rescue. The Haiching, with 300 passengers on hoard, including one Englishman and three American women, was to the north of Bias Bay, the notorious lair of corsairs, when the pirates first showed their hand.

Suddenly about 30 Chinamen, who had boarded the vessel at Swatow as passengers, sprang on deck firing revolvers and emitting blood-curdling yells. They made a rush for the bridge, which, in readiness for such an emergency, was strongly protected with barbed wire and locked grilles. Directed by the master, Captain O. H. Parrer, the officers and a few Indian guards returned the fire of the pirates.

The ruffiians were forced to retire, but not before one pirate had crept up the grill gate and shot Mr. Woodward. The first officer, Mr. R. Perry, immediately engaged this pirate. Both fired simultaneously, Mr. Perry receiving a wound in the chest that was not serious. The pirate fell dead, shot through the temple. There was a brief respite before the desperadoes again tried to storm the bridge. The officers, however, switched on electric*torches placed at a distance from themselves, with the light directed toward the pirates. The stratagem was effective, and the screams of the pirates proved that British bullets had found their billets. Thus the pirates were repulsed a second time.

Baffled in their attempts to capture the bridge, the pirates set fire to cabins below the bridge. The officers were forced to retire along the bridge deck, making a running fight of it and taking the body of Mr. Woodward with them. Terrible scenes ensued. The Chinese passengers, in a panic, swarmed on to the decks. Terrorstricken women, clasping their children, jumped overboard, and scores of desperate and howling Chinamen fought and clambered into the lifeboats. Three of the boats were turned over while the Chinamen were trying to lower them, and their occupants thrown into the sea.

Meanwhile the two destroyers were i lacing to the scene, and reached the j Haiching at five o'clock in the mornj ing, when the fire was at its height. A party of sailors went aboard the steamer. The fire was extinguished, and the pirates were captured. The Haiching, with her superstructure partly burnt away, and her decks slippery with blood, was escorted to HongKong. In his report to the Admiralty, ViceAdmiral A. K. Waistell, Commander-in-Chief, China Station, considered that j the failure of the piratical attack was j entirely due to the spirited resistance | of the captain and officers, and to the | excellent anti-pirate organisation of | the Haiching. It was also pointed out that the pirates obtained access to I the grille-protected area through a j coal bunker in the boiler room. After ! they had been beaten the pirates tried ] to escape in the ship’s boats, using i innocent passengers as a screen from fire, but the officers prevented the j lowering of the boats. Admiral Waistell estimated the death-roll as | 30. A message was sent from the Adj miralty to the commander-in-chief paying tribute to rhe gallantry of the j captain, officers and crew of the I Haiching.