Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-01-11
A WoMAN,s COURAGE.
An Old Salt Tells of an Encounter With
Pirates.

An Old Salt Tells of an Encounter With
Pirates.
From the Boston Commercial Bulletin.
One season back in the 40's | shipped
aboard of British ship, the Swallow, to
make voyage from Bombay up the Per-
sian Gulf and back She was an old
craft and a poor sailer, and her crew of
twelve men was made up of four or five
nationalities. l remember there were two
| Kanakas or Sandwich Islanders, one Las
car, 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 woman
of So 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. | heard one
of them say she could take an observation
or work dead-reckoning, and ! saw from
orders she gave that she knew all about Il
ship.
We had good weather and made good
| progress until after we were above Muscat,
in the Bay OF Ormuz. Then, one forenoon,
we got squall, which did not last ten
minutes, but which brought down our fore
and main to gallantmasts and carried away
a sail or two. There was only a light
breeze after the squall had passed, and we
were lying to and hard at work, when an
Arabian dhow of about 200 tons burden
came stealing down the coast We were
within four miles of the rocky and noun
famous shore, but she was two miles inside
of US. She was no sooner made out than
the first mate became very anxious, and
| Mrs. Aldrich was sent for to come on deck
She took good look at the stranger
through the glass, and as she turned away
she queried of the mate:
Can We depend on the crew to fight ~
II hope so, ma'am," he replied.
Have them come aft"
| All moved aft. and | can remember
through all the long years Just how she
looked and every word she said. She had
a worried, anxious look, and no wonder
and there was a trembling in her voice as
she said:
Men you know that your Captain is
very sick. Yonder comes a pirate, if ever
there was one. If he captures US, those
! who live through the fight will 90 into
the interior as slaves and worse. If We
are all agreed we can beat him oil. What
do you say ~
well fight him to the last !" shouted
one, and the cry was taken up by all.
Thank God p she fervently exclaimed
''Give them brave fight, and no one can
| be blamed if we are defeated. Sooner
than fail into their hands | will blow the
old ship sky high and all Of US with her"
! We had no cannon, but we had fifteen
muskets, lot of cavalry sabers, and the
| Captain had not lodged about those waters
with his eyes shut He had two or three
years before purchased a dozen hand
grenades or stinkpots, such as are used by
the Chinese. These were brought up
with the rest and found 10 be fused and in
good condition. They weighed about two
pounds apiece, and each was inclosed in
net, so that il could be tossed quite dis
lance. We loaded our muskets, took our
stations and were as ready as we could be.
The Captains wife alternated between the
deck and the cabin. He was out of his
head, which was the better for him, and
she had his revolver for use.
The dhow sneaked along until nearly
opposite Us. All work had been suspended
aloft, and she must have known by this
that we were ready for her; but she came
on lust the same. And no wonder. One
of the men went aloft with the glass, and
he made out two guns on her deck, and
perfect swarm Of men. She was going 10
do bold thing--run US aboard in broad
daylight. She would not use her guns,
fearing they would be heard and bring US
assistance; but if that mob ever gained
our decks we were gone. We lay with our
head to the northwest, so she would pass
our port quarter first. Here two of the
strongest men were placed with the gre
nades, and two of us with muskets were be-
tween them. The others were placed to
fire over the stern.
Down came the dhow, foot by foot, with
never cheer from the crowd of cut-throats
on her decks. There was a menace in their
silence, but it had no effect on Us. We
were determined to fight, and to fight to
the last. got the first shot, and knocked
over man on her forecastle, and then all
began to blaze away. She did not fire in
return, but forged up on our quarter, and |
could see fifty Arabs, each one armed with
| a crease, crowding against the rail to be
ready to board.
sNow, heave - yelled one Of the sailors
with the bombs, and both lighted the fuses
and heaved away.
Before we could tell what damage had
been done, the dhow was alongside. She
threw her grapnels, but they did not catch,
| and she rubbed our whole length and went
| ahead As we saw her failure We blazed
away again with the muskets, and every
ball found a man. She sailed like witch,
and before she could be checked was a
cables length ahead. She had just pat
her helm over when there was an explo
| SION, followed by a great sheet Of flame,
and we saw that she was hard hit, Con-
! fusion reigned from stem to stern in a mo-
ment, and we added to it by peppering
away at fair range. All ablaze within FIVE
minutes, she fell of, headed for shore, and
was run on a reef about a mile away. We
saw some save themselves by boats and
RATS, being swept upon the shore by the
| tide, but it was alterward learned that
| upward of forty-fve men were killed or
drowned, and that the loss of the dhow
broke up bad gang of pirates.
Mrs. Aldrich was On deck through it all,
emptying the revolver into the crowd
as the dhow passed US, and when ali was
over she went down to her husband with a
face only a little winter and mouth more
| firmly set. She did not betray her wo-
manly weakness until she came to thank
US. Then she broke down and cried like a
well, just like woman.
! DnTT