Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1891-03-13

any questions. The two boats contained
fully two dozen of them, and their loss
must have sadly crippled the bark and
changed her plans.
About three years later than the date
given at the opening of this sketch,
shipped aboard of British ship called the
Swallow to make a voyage from Bombay
up the Persian 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. I remember there
were two Kanakas or Sandwich islanders,
one Lascar, 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 a woman
of thirty, always sailed with him. She
now took command in general way, and
this to the satisfaction of both mates,
though both were thorough sailors. l
heard one of them say that she could take
an observation or work a dead reckoning,
and l saw from the orders she gave that
she knew all about 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 fifteen
minutes, but which brought down our
fore and man-to' gallant masts and carried
away Il sail or two. There was only light
breeze after the squall had passed, and we
were lying to and hard at work, when an
Arabian dhow of about two hundred tons
burden came stealing 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 very anxious
and Mrs. Aldrich was sent for to come on
deck. She took a good look at the stranger
through the glass and queried of the mate:
''Can we depend on the crew to fight?"
IT hope so, ma'am," he replied.
"Have them come aft"
All moved aft, and I can remember
through all the long years just how she
looked and every word she said. She had
worried, anxious look, aud no wonder,
and there was trembling in her voice as
she said:
"Men, you know that your captain is
very sick. Yonder comes a pirate, if there
ever was one. If he captures us those who
live through the fight will go into the in
terror as slaves or worse. If we are all
agreed to fight we can beat him off. What
do you say?"
"We'n fight to the lastt" shouted one,
and the cry was taken up by all.
''Thank Godp' she fervently exclaimed
'fGive him a brave fight and no one can be
blamed if we are defeated. Sooner than
fall into his hands will blow the old ship
skyhigh and all of us with herr
We had no cannon, but we had fifteen
muskets, a 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 dozen hand gre
nades or stink pots, such as are used by the
Chinese. These were brought up with the
rest and found to be fused and in good con-
dition. They weighed about two pounds
apiece and each was inclosed in net, SO
that it could be tossed quite distance. We
loaded our muskets, took our stations and
were as ready as we could be. The cap
tain's wife alternated between the deck
and the cabin. Hewas out of his head,
which was the better for him, IS she had
his revolver for use.
The dhow sneaked along until nearly op-
posite us. All work had been suspended
aloft, and she must have known by this
that we were ready for her; but she came
on just the same. And no wonder One
of the men went aloft with the glass, and
ne made out two guns on her deck and a
perfect swarm of men. She was doing
a bold thing-run us aboard in broad
daylight. She would not use her guns,
fearing that 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 grenades, and two of us with muskets
were between them. The others were
placed to fire over the stern.
Down came the dhow, foot by foot, with
never cheer from the crowd of cutthroats
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 l 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 quarters, and
1 could see fifty Arabs, each one with a
crease, crowding against the rail to be
ready to board.
t'Now, heavel' 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
UuItW ucI SE1pAot, puO tllu LOU CdUCll, anu
she rubbed her whole length and went
ahead. AS we saw her failure we blazed
away again with the muskets, and every
ball found man. She sailed like witch,
and before she could be checked was a
cables length ahead. She ha0 just put her
helm over when there was an explosion,
followed by great sheet Of flame, and we
saw that she was hard hit. Confusion
reigned from stem to stern in moment,
and we added to it by peppering away at
fair range. All ablaze within five min
utes she fell off, headed for shore, and was
run on reef about a mile away.
We saw some save themselves by boats
and RATS, being swept into the shore by
the tide, but it was afterward learned that
upward of forty-five men We're killed or
drowned, and that the loss of the dhow
broke up a bad gang OF pirates. Mrs. Aid
rich was on deck through it all, emptying
the revolver into the crowd as the dhow
passed us, and when all was over she went
down to her husband with face only q little
whittier and mouth more firmly set. She
did not betray her womanly Wea kness until
she came to thank us. Then she broke
down and cried like a-well, just like a
woman.-Remiliscep of an Old Mar
liner in Hartford Courant.
A Quick Retort.