The tri-weekly news. [volume] (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1865-1876, 1866-09-08
A Thrilling Adventure at Sea.

A Thrilling Adventure at Sea.
In April, 1929, when I was boy of
fifteen years, apprenticed on board the
the GLASGOW ship q large vessel for
those days, (eight hundred and fifty
tons) [ experienced the first horror Of
very eyentful life, and its memory
has never left me.
viii describe it briefly, but truly,
for every word is'a fact.
We we're chartered by the British
Government to carry stores, etc., ito
her penal colony in New Zealand and
besides cur cafgo, had thirteen con-
demnedt tNalaypirate, who had been
sentenced to- ,&ansportion for life.
They>weEa in tckerge of an English
naval officer naned. McFeeS They
were alFironed hand and foot ,Sbesides
chained to ringbolds in the deck ! and
so securely fastened'that NO one deem
it possible for them to get loose with
out outside help.
Our crew, officers and all numbered
twenty-eight souls, and was none, too
=, large to manage such heavy craft.
We had fine weather when we left the
Clyde, and it stayed with us until we
were a good ways south of Gibralter.
One afternoon. when looking at the pri-
soners under his charge, lieutenant
McFee th'ght he saw something wrong
about the irons of one of them. and he
reported it to Captain Wilson of our
ship, and thought there had better be
close inspection of them. But Cap
tain Wilson was very easy-going
man at all times; and supper being
ready just then, he remarked that he
guessed all was right, but, he would
have look at them in the morning,
for the satisfaction of McFee. Alas /
for him there was no morning to
come.
1t was clear, calm night, the
moon at full not enough wind to-
fill the. canvass, or give the ship steer
; age way. Another boy, of about my
own age, and myself were paloft, sit
ting in the slings of the foreyard, talk
ing about home, when all at once we
heard rush of feet below us, and
looking down on deck, we saw to our
terror, the whole gang of Malays rush
ing up from below, free from their
irons. They seized .oapstan-bars, the
cooks axe, iron Delaying pins, every
thing which came handy, and rushed
at the men Of the watch on deck,
striking them down without any mer-
cy, but making no outcry. Mr..
Bruce, the first victim, and in o few
minutes--less, time than it takes me
to tell it--every man, except the man
at the wheel, lay dead upon the deck,
with their brains dashed out, or stabb-
ed to death with their own sheath
knives. fl,
Wetwo boys olambered up into the
top, whero we lay. on our faces, as still
as death, looking onthe horrible scene
going on below. Another of the
crew, named White, was asleep there,
yebut we did not dare to wake him, for
fear we should be discovered or over
heard by the incarnate fends below.
Captain Wilson, atsthis time, came
out of the cabin, hearing an unusul
noise, but was killed in an instant.
i The wrecthes now rushed down into
the forecastle, where the labored.watch
was sleeping, and soon finished them.
A BY this time Lieut.. McFee and the
second mate, also the Sarpenter, who
were in the cabin, found out what was
going on ard closing and basricading
the oabin.door, they got pistols from
the arm-chest and commenced firing
lon every pirate they could See, thro'
the cabin sky-ligbts. At the first fire,
three of the pirates, being CLOSE to
Them fell dead /: md in q minute OF
two, several more we're badly wound-
led.
tyr The pirates had now killed. every