Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1890-02-20
GRAVE MRS. ALpRlch.
An Old Salt Tells OF nm Encounter with
Arab Pirates,

"u1A duu DdCh, WrlCcS III Olu
seaman in tho Boston Commercial Bull
letin.. She was an old craft and poor
sailer, and her crow of twelve men was
made up of four or five nationalities. 1
remember there were two Kanakas, or
Sandwich Islanders, one Lascar, a negro
or two, and the others were American,
English and Dutch. We had scarcely
left Bombay when the captain was taken
sick with fever. His name was Aldrich,
and his wife, who was q woman of thir-
~, always sailed with him. She now
took command in a general way, and
this to the satisfaction of the mates,
though both were thorough sailors. 1
heard one of them say that she could
take an observation or work a dead
reckoning, and 1 saw from orders she
gave that She knew all about ship.
We had good weather and made good
progress until after we were above Mus
cat, in tho Bay of Ormuz. Then, ono
forenoon we got a squall which did not
last ten minutes, but which brought
down our fore and main to'gailant masts
and carried away q sail or two. There
was only "A light breeze after the squan
had passed, and we were lying to and
hard at work when an Arabian dhow of
about two hundred tons burden came
Bteaming down the coast. We were
within four miles of the rocky and
mountainous shore, but she was two
miles inside of us. She was no sooner
made out than the first mate became
anxious, and Mrs. Aldrich was sent for
TO como on deck. She took good look
at the stranger through the glass, and
as She turned away she qucried of tho
mate:
"Can we depend on the crew to f1ght?"
81 hope so, ma'am," he replied.
Have them come aft
All moved aft, and can remember
through all the long years just how shc
looked and every word she said. She had
a worried, anxious look, and no wonder,
and there was trembling in her voice
as she said:
"Mcn, you know that your captain Is
sick. Yondor comes q pirate if there ever
was one. If he captures us, those who
live through tho fight will 90 into the
interior as slaves and worse. If we arc
all agreed we can beat him off. What
do you say%' <.'.'
"Well fight to the last" shouted ono,
and the cry was taken up by all.
"Thank. Godp' she ferventlv ex-
claimed. "Give them brave fight and
no one can be blamed if we are defeated
Sooner than fall into their hands 1 will
blow the old ship sky high and all of us
with her-"
Down came the dhow, foot by foot,
with never cheer from tho crowd of
icut-throats on her decks. There was a
:; menace in their. silence, but it had no
effect upon US. We were determined to
fight, and to fight to the last. gothic
first shot and knocked over a man in
her forccastlo, and then all began to
blaze away. She did not fire in return,
but forged upon our quarter, and could
see fifty Arabs, each one armed with o
crease, crowding against tho rail to be
ready to board,
Now, hcave," yelled ono of tho sail
ors with tho bombs, and both lighted sho
fuses and hoavcd away,
Before VIC could tell what damage had
been dohe the dhow was alongside. She
;, threw her grapncls, but they did not
catch, and she rubbed our whole length
and went ahead. AS wo saw her failure
we blazed away again with tho muskets,
and every ball found q man. She sailed
like witch, and before she could be
checked was cable length ahead. Sho
had just put hor helm over when there
was an explosion, followed by a great
sheet OF lamo, and we saw that she was
hard hit, Confusion reigned from stom
to stern in moment, and wo added to
1T by pepporing away at fair range. All
Rblaze within Rvo minutes, sho fell of,
headed for shore, and was run on reef
about milo away. Wo saw some save
themselves by boats and RATS, being
swept upon tho shore by tho tide, but it
was afterwards learned that upward of
forty-hve mon were killed or drowned,
and that tho loss Of tho dhow broke up O
bad gang of pirates.
Mrs. Aldrich was on deck through it
all, emptying the revolver into tho
crowd rs tho dhow passed us, and when
all was over sho won't down to her hus-
band with faco only little whitor