The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-19 00:00:00

PLUNDER OF A WRECKED ENGLISII

VESSEL BY ARABS.

--r---

Messrs. Brain and Son, of Bristol, have received
from the captain the following report of the loss of
their ship Liverpool :
"I herewith beg to hand you particulars of the
loss of the Liverpool, which took place on the morn-
ing of the 17th December, about twenty mileS to
the northward of Azimor, at 2 a.m. When nearing
the coast, with light winds from the N.E., the
wind shifted suddenly to westward, accompanied
with a heavy squall ; and after taking in sail we
tacked ship to the northward, when the wind
died away, and the vessel became unmanage-
able. At this time there Was a heavy swell
setting towards the shore ; and finding the
vessel was driving, we let gu the starboard
anchor. The vessel still driving, we let go
the port anchor, which held on for a short time.
The sea at this time was making a clean breach
over the ship, and both anchors came home. The
vessel drove on a reef of rocks, and struck heavily
abaft. I then gave orders to slack away the cables,
in order that the vessel might go up as far on
the beach as possible, with the hope of saving the
crew, stores, and ship ; andlearing the ship would
not last till daylight we got one of the boats ready,
in order to abandon the vessel. At this time the
water was up to the beams, and the sea breaking
completely over us. Myself and Crew were all aft,
anxiously waiting for daylight, which brought
with it horrors worse than shipwreck, for
with the first gleam of daylight hun-
dreds of armed Arabs made their appear-
ance on the beach, some on horseback and some
on foot, and as soon as they came near the ship
they dismounted, stripped and swam off with their
swords, and in a short time there were from
eighty to one hundred men on board. Seeing so
many, we knew that resistance would be useless,
and therefore took to the rigging, and then the
work of destruction began. Some part of them took
to the cabin, some to the forecastle, while large
numbers of them were cutting away everything
about the galley, decks, and boats, and all the
plunder they threw overboard to their companions,
who carried it on shore. After this they forced us
to come down out of the rigging, and upon reach-
ing the decks we were stripped of everything but
our trousers and shirt ; two of them stripped
me, while two of their companions held their
drawn swords over my head; they next began
with the sails, not giving themselves the
trouble either to haul them up or lower them
down, but cut them to pieces with their swords just
as they could reach them. After this we were
driven over the side into the sea, marched up the
beach and made to go down upon our knees, where
I suppose a consultation was held over us to decide
our fate. After a short time we were allowed to
stand up, but were ill-treated by them and knocked
and pushed about, but two of them who appeared
to be chiefs protected us as much as possible from
the people. After being on the beach for about
two hours, I went on board, and in the cabin, or
the place where the cabin was, I found 15 or 20
Arabs cutting away, and scarcely a vestige of any-
thing to denote that ever there was a cabin, doors
and everything being torn to pieces ; at the same
time numbers of them were cutting away the star-
board quarter, taffrail, stern-post and lower rig-
ging, and all the running gear. I then went
on shore again, where we were continually
annoyed with inquiries for ' Rice,' which we have
since been told was the name they gave the captain
—being all stripped so near alike, they could not
tell, or the chances are I should not have been here
to-day. The plunder they had was in a heap:viir°dne
the beach, and when the signal was givelont'°of wild
it they made a rush and a yell like a
beasts, and everything disappeared in a short time.
Some time after this we were driven from the wreck
and lured towards the theto zimor. Weu
were
insulted by the Arabs, upon
o musketsArroad,s om
,e
arunnothersing
after us with swords, knives,
after great difficult
spat upon us, and y we reached
ust at dark. We were th
the town of Azimor
j
taken before the governor of that town, and fortu en
-
nately there was one man there who spoke Eng-
lish ; and after stating the way in which we had
been robbed and ill-treated by the Arabs, he ordered
as to be taken care of, ha ii
--—es Patched a messenger
to the consul at Mazagan. We were then taken to
a Jew's house, named Simon, who treated us with
the greatest kindness,,which will not be forgotten
by myself and crew, The next morning the
British Consul came from Mazagan, procured some
soldiers to go to the wrecks and arriving there we
found the copper stripped off the starboard side, the
rigging cut away and the vessel cut to pieces, and
everything moveable gone ; in fact, they were just
driving off several camels loaded with parts of the
vessel. There were more than 100 armed
Arabs there, all of whom' I could recognise