The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-05-24


CECIL GABBETT
Vice President and General Manager.
Of the fog. 1t was not until later IN the
day. when chatting with our skipper IN ms
cabin after tiffin, that l had an opporJum-
tn of discussing the matter ana OF asking
.'There is no doubt" said he "that the
white man of whom you caught sight was
the survivor Of the crew Of some American
or English ship plundered and sunk by pl-
rates and who. for reasons Wnicn we can
not eel, has been spared from the general
massacre which these bOOd-thirsty de-
wills carry out on such occasions. 1t IS not
the first time that ! have known them 70
hold white men, white women and niue
children passengers OF some lll-tated snip,
caDtiVeS in their possession, and may Coz
help the poor creatures! But l. am equally
sure that those JunkS through winch we
sailed were pirate junkS, and any attempt
that we might have made to rescue their
prisoner would have been attended by risks
of the gravest character. / have on board
here. as you know, nearly 800 Chinese pas
sengers and only a small number of white
sailors, the majority of my crew Deins
For ali 1 know more than half of my Chi
nese passengers may be cOnfederateS or the
pirates we just fell in with and would
have taken advantage of any attempt we
might have made TO rescue the man IN OF
der to rise against US and to assist their
friends on the junk. We are not prepared
for any such emergency, and 1t is only by
dint of the sternest discipline on board
that we manage to keep our Chinese pas
sengers under control and IN proper sun
lection. Before we could have got that
man out of the hands of those devils, even
if everything had been in our favor, lhey
would have cut his throat to prevent him
from disclosing any of their secrets, ana
there was quite a sufficient force or men
on board that fleet of junks to have got
the best of us in any conflict, even without
their having the advantage Of the CO.
operation of those Cinnamon we nave
tween decks Remembering the large
of I
and mind yOu the character of my freight
is well known at the port from which we
sailed-reme too, that l am re-
sponsibe for the lives of my white passen-
gers who include a number of women and
children, / did not hesitate when the sec
ond officer came to tell me this morning OF
what had taken place to order him to 90
ahead at full speed, without paying any at
tention to the fog, and indifferent as to
whether or not we might run down ana
sink any Of the pestilental junks."
The captain was a veteran of these Chi
ma seas a man of tried courage, who
bore on his breast two medals, which he
had received for jumping from his quar-
terdeck into shark-infested waters to save
sailors from drowning | could, there
fore, only bow to his superior wisdom and
experience, and CONFESS that what nau at
first seemed to me to be piece of heart
lessness, was, after all, the wisest thing
that could have been done.
When we reached our destination
couple of days later, without further adj
venture, our skipper as soon as he had
cast anchor. caused a boat to be lowered
and pulled off toward an English cruiser
that was lying in port. He communicated
to the captain the fact of our passage
through the pirate feet, and the latitude
and longitude in which he had found 1t,
intimatng at the same time that there
were one or more white captiVeS on board.
Three hours later the cruiser steamed out
of the harbOr on an errand of rescue and
of punishment that being the kind of
work for which American and English
men-Of-war and gunboats are mainly en-
ployed in Chinese waters, namely the po-
lice duty. But when she reached the spot
to which our skipper had directed her the
birds of ill-omen had flown. That IS just
the difficulty with these pirate Junks OF
the Chnese-they are so difficult to catch,
even when found. For, when hard press
ed by a cruiser they Will deliberately
run ashore, no matter what kind OF a
coast there may be in 'front.' OF them, ana
i'm the space of ten minutes no trace re-
mains of the junk. The latter is built
somewhat after the manner of these Chi
nese puzzles that are made for the enter
tafnment of children. Not a nail IS used
in the whole concern; nothing but leather
thongs, which the water serves to tighten.
All that the pirate has to do when ne runs
his Junk ashore is just to cut half a dozen
thongs with his creese knife and the en-
tire fabric tumbles to pieces, while the
sails he either buries in the sand or drags
up in the brushwood of some neighboring
hill.
The only really successful campaign
that has ever been waged against these
American man-Of-war, the name of which
l forget She was little better than tug
-one of those old-fashioned wooden ships
with a large number of guns but with
no speed whatsoever. The captain, know
ing that he could never succeed in CATCH
ing up with the junks before they reached
land was wont to use ruse. He would
have the sides of his ship covered with
tarpaulin painted in such a manner as 10
make them resemble those of some mer-
chairman. Then he would slacken all
the ropes, halyardS and rigging, so as TO
give the ship very slovenly aspect, ana
would then drift along with no one on
deck so as to convey the impression that
no watch was being kept. The pirates, of
course, would think that they had easy
prey within their grasp; and scores of
junks, each more frightful looking than
the others. would be seen gliding stealth
they were within about a hundred yards
of the cruiser, but not before, the words
would be given by the captain. The tar
pauIins would go up like the curtain Of
a theater, and before the pirates had
time to recover from their surprise or to
port their helms they would be raked bv
an entire broadside of guns, which would
send three-quarters of their number to
the bottom and disable the remainder
In conclusion, let me add that, accord
ing to the government reports which have
Just been brought before the Chamber 4
Deputies at Paris, there are at present N
the hands of TOnking pirates no fewer
than dozen prominent French colonial
officials, with their wives and children
who were captured at the mouth of the
River Meinam by fieetO of these corsafrs
who found no difficulty in mastering the
little steamer on which the officials in
question were proceeding to their desti-
nation. From this it will be seen thar
pirates are far from being an extinct
race and that the world has by no means
seen the last of the black flag adorned
with skull and crOsS-bOnas