The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1897-12-21
A HOT FIGHT.
BY CHARLES B. LEWIS.

China and Java seas after pirates. Dur
ing this time over 100 piratical craft
were captured, dozen or 10 strong
holds broken up and at least 1900
''black flags" were killed offhand on
sent ashore to be hung. The cruisers
thought they had finished their work,
but in 1859 several traders which had
been fitted out at Bantam, Batavia and
Singapore were overhauled by pirates
and their crews butchered. When we
arrived at Singapore in 1870 in the
British gun brig Vixen, nest of pi-
rates had been located on one Of the is
lands off the west coast Of Java, and we
had orders to proceed to the spot and
clean them out. We overhauled our
armament, took in lot of ammunition
and strengthened our crew by ID men
before sailing. These men were drafted
out of crew belonging to a man-of-
war which had been wrecked on the
Malay coast, and all were old hands.
The captain got his bearings from some
source unknown to us, and when we
left Singapore the brig was headed to
the east. We logged along down the
coast of Sumatra for week without
any unusual incident, and though we
spoke score of craft none of them had
any information about the pirate. The
crew had begun to ridicule the idea
when something occurred to open our
eyes very wide.
One morning, about an hour after
daylight, we came up with Dutch
trader, which was taking care Of her.
self. All her sails had been cut away,
ropes were flying in every direction,
and she was SO low in the water that
we wondered why she didn't go down.
When a boat pulled off to her, it was to
find the captain mortally wounded and
his wife and two sailors, stiff and dead
and horribly mutilated, on the deck be-
side him. We got him off, but had no
time to give the bodies burial before
the little craft went down. The captain
was man about 40 years of age, and,
though hardly alive when we found
him, he rallied enough to tell his story.
The trader had been trafficking along
the Java coast and had finally completed
his cargo and headed for Singapore.
Just at sunset on the previous evening
he had been overhauled by a native
craft, carrying about 40 men. He was
then about ten miles off the coast and
about five miles south of an island
known as Queens Bower He had no
suspicion whatever of the natives, and
the first thing he knew they boarded his
craft and began to cut and slash. When
they had finished the crew, they began
to plumber and strip the vessel and were
with her until midnight. Before leaving
they bored her full of holes, and we had
reached her just in time to rescue the
captain. The first craft was Joined by
two others later on, and the three car
ried at least 100 desperate fellows. The
captain heard and understood enough to
satisfy him that they were an organized
gang of pirates and that they were also
well equipped for their bloody business.
The island mentioned was not over
20 miles away, and as the Java sea was
and is great highway it did not seem
possible that men would take such
risk as those pirates had. The trader
said that no less than three friendly
sails were in sight when he was at
tackled, but all too far away to signal,
even if he had been warned in time to
do something. Owing to the shoals sur
rounding the island our craft could not
approach near enough to use her guns
and shell the fellows out, and we were
not strong enough to land from our
boats and deal with them. The sight of
an armed vessel nosing around would
put the pirates on their guard, and so
it was resolved to play them Yankee
trick. We ran into bay on the coast
and set to work.
You are probably aware Of the fact
that an English man-of-war, no matter
how large or how small, is pattern of
neatness and regulation, and the cut Of
her sails will alone establish her identi-
ty while her hull is yet below the wa
ter line. We had therefore to undo and
overhaul a great deal We put every
thing in seeming confusion aloft, dis
guised her hull as much as possible, and
when we left the bay the Shark had the
look of merchantmen which had been
through a typhoon and was too short
handed to mike repairs. The Dutch cap
tain died on the day after we found
him, and his last words were a prayer
that we might fall in with and punish
the pirates.
1t was just at daylight that we ap-
off khfa ,,Ox.fh % -
and anchored on a bank about three
miles from the beach Men were sent
aloft as if engaged in repairs, boat
was got down as if to work on the hull,
and the bulk of the crew remained in
hiding below. No doubt the fellows
ashore had lookout in some trees, and
provided with good glass he could see
everything going on aboard 1t was
hardly sunrise when a small native
craft with four men in her, came out to
make an investigation. Our captain
hailed them, and they replied with
gestures to signify that they would re-
turn to the shore for help. They evil
IDENTIFY took us for what we pretended
to be, and we were piped to breakfast
feeling that our ruse would succeed.
About O'Clock, with the wind
up lively, three native sail
craft put out for us. A man aloft with
q glass reported that each craft was
crowded with natives, and it was now
our plan to weigh anchor and make a
little sail and pretend to be standing
away from them as if alarmed. The OBJ
ject was to draw them as far away
from shore as possible, and we had
added a mile or more to the distance
when the foremost boat came within
hail. She hadn't a gun of any sort in
sight, but she had 48 desperate looking
villains in plain view and every one of
them had cutlass and pistol While
her captain was hailing us in a Ian
guage no one could understand she was
slowly edging along down our starboard
quarter. At the same time a second
craft was drawing ahead on the port
side, and the third kept in our wake.
Only seven or eight men were in sight
on our decks, and the natives seemed to
have no suspicion of trick. The breeze
was little bit too strong for their
maneuvering at first, but after we were
about six miles off shore the two sud-
denly closed in to board us. Our cap
tain had been closely Watching them
and waiting for this move, and Of
sudden the drum beat to quarters and
our decks were alive with men.
I was captain Of No. gun crew and
had the honor Of firing the first shot.
1t was solid ball. and it struck the
craft ON her port bow and went clean
through her and dropped into the sea
beyond. This oDeued the fight. The na-