The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-06-13
YACHTSMEN IN TROUBLE.
Arab Pirates Attacked the Ailsa and Came
Near Capturing Her.
New York Times. }

(New York Times.)
Some weeks ago the cable dispatches
announced that the well known English
racing yacht Allsa had been attacked by
Riffian Arabs while cruising in the Med
iterranean. The boat has now arrived at
Southampton, and the sailing master
has given to one of the local papers the
following account of this strange adj
ven ture:
"The story may almost seem incred-
| ible, yet what am about to tell you is
true to the very letter. The affair hap
pened three weeks ago. The Ailsa was
then about fourteen miles south-southeast
of Columbrets Islands-or between Co
| lumbrets and Baleric. II was half past
eight The shades of evening were fad
| ing, obscuring our view of the object S
| around us, when suddenly the mate, who
was ON watch. heard the firing of gun.
The shot was repeated, and even then
neither the mate nor any other member
| Of the crew fully grasped the situation.
We were enlightened, however. few
minutes later. A volley Of shots rent
the air, and at once we know we were
being pursued by pirates.
| The situation, you know, was not al
| together pleasant. Certainly thers was a
veritable army of men on our ship, the
| crew numbering nearly forty. but we
were almost helpless, inasmuoh as we
I. o. 1+Li ,,I- ~
repulsing the onooming pirates was ont
of the question; SO, substituting disere-
ton for valor, we put on full canvass
and sought speedily to put the rovers
out Of sight. But. as fortune-or misfor-
tune-would have it, there came a dead
ly calm, and the Ailsa. with scarcely a
breath of wind filing her lofty Sails was
only able to cover about two knots an
hour. 9a
"What WAS to be done? We could not
yield-they would have had very nice
prize if we had. We must triumph over
our pursuers But the question was
"Howr Shot after shot passed over the
deck of our yacht, and the life Of each
one nf us was in imminent danger. Our
escape was little short of miraculous.
"How did we escape injury? Why, as
we saw the flash Mt the discharge of eve
ry shot we fell fiat on the deck, and thus
the bullets passed by without doing us
any hurt. This wentTon for some time.
the pirates still keeping within shot
| range of us. So we endeavored to fright
en- the daring robbers.
"The crew of the Aisa set up most
ungodly howl, at the same time burning
blue light on deck, the idea being, you
know, to impress the pirates with our
numerical strength. Nothing daunted,
however, the firing continued, and it was
clear that we should have to resort to
other tactics if we were to save our craft,
which we certainly meant to do. Oul
next device was the firing of rockets,
and you may guess that we all expert
enced feeling of relief when We saw
that at last we had produced the desired
effect The pirates were not proof
against the rockets. They were doubtless
terribly frightened as they saw them
skimming along the surface of the water,
and, fearing that we were a very large
body, well armed ard equipped for war
fare, they soon halted in their pursuit
By singular piece of good luck, the
Ailss, which in the absence OF much
wind was almost unguidable, altered
it's course and headed for the pirates
felucca. This fairly startled them, ant
believing we were turning the tables,
they retreated with all possible haste.
! "During the latter part of the bonn
bardment at the Ailsa, the firing,
should mention, went rather wide of the
mark. We had extinsuished every lighi
on board, SO that the pirates could mo-
discern our exact location. Even if thu
| pirates had reached our yacht, we should
not meekIy have submitted. Our Grew
were armed with hatchets bottles anG
other formidable weapon upon whicl
they colld lay their hands, and doubtless
a very free use would have been made o.
these weapons had the 70 bbers sought tt
| set foot on the Ailsa.
"When they began the chase they were
presumably under the impression tina
our yacht was very small, carrying foul
or FIVE men, for they naturally woult
not expect to find such large crew OF
so small craft. When they discovered
the real state of affairs, however, they
were not quite so daring. though doubt
less they would very much have liked t,
plumber the ship, and probably scuttle i
afterward. But they found them selves
beaten, and were compelled to give W
the chase, though Tot until it had lasted
wind 1850 during the night. and thu
Ailsa was able to proceed on her voyage
to Southampton without having sus
tanned the slightest damage"