Evening journal., 1901-03-25
THE CAPTAINS WIFE.

old craft and a poor sailer, and her crew
Of II men was made up Of four or five
nationalties. / remember there were
two Kanakas or Sandwich Islanders, one
lascar, a negro or two, and the others
were American, English and Dutch. We
had scarcely left Bombay when the cap
tain was taken sick with fever. His
name was Aldrich and his wife, who was
woman of 80, always sailed with him.
She now took command in a general
way, and this to the satisfaction of both
mates, though both were thorough sailors.
heard one OF them say that she could
take an observation or work a dead
reckoning, and / saw from the orders she
gave that she knew all about a ship.
We had good weather and made good
progress until after we were above Mus
cat, in the bay OF Ormuz. Then one fore
noon we got a squall which did not last
Is minutes, but which brought down our
fore and maintop gallant masts and car
ried away a sail or two. There was only
light breeze after the squal 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 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 to the mate:
"Can we depend on the crew 70 fightT
81 hope so, ma'am,' he replied.
Have them come aft"
All moved aft, and / can remember
NtWas t.aA ell A..
looked and every word she said. She
had worried, anxious look, and no won
der, 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
there ever was one. II he captures us,
those who live through the fight will
go into the interior as slaves or worse
If we all agree to fight, we can beat them
off. What do you say"
We'll fight TO the lastw shouted one,
and the cry was taken up by ALL
THANK Cod" she fervently exclaimed
"Give him a brave fight, and no one can
be blamed IL we are defeated. Sooner
than fall into his hands l will blow the
old ship sky high and all of us with her."
We had no cannon. but we had Is
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 stink pots, such as are
used by the Chinese. These were brol ght
up with the rest and found to be fused
and in good condition. They weis he'd
about two pounds apiece, and each was
inclosed in a net, so that it could be
tossed quite a distance. 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 ont Of his head, which
was the better for him, as she had his
revolver for use.
The dhow sneaked along until nearly
opposite us. An work had heen sins
lpendcd aloft, and she must have known
/ by this time that we were ready f0r her
but she came on just the same And no
wonder One Of the men went aloft
with the glass, and he made out two guns
on her deck and a perfect swarm of men.
She was trying to do 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 IL
that mob ever gained our decks. we wore
gone. We lay with our head to the north
west so she would pass our port 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.
I Down came the dhow foot by foot, with
never a cheer from the crowd of cut
throats on her decks. There was a men
ace in their silence, but it had no effect
upon us. We were determined to fight
and to fight to the last got the first
shot and knocked over man on her fore
castle, and then all began to blaze away.
She did not fire in return, but forged up
on our quarters, and could see 80 Arabs,
each one with creese, crowding against
the rail to be ready TO board.
"Now heaveW 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 grapnel, but did not catch, and
she rubbed her 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 d
witch and before she could be checked
was a cables length ahead She had lust
put her helm over when there was an ex-
plosion, followed by a 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 pep
pering away at fair range. All ablaze
within FIVE minutes, she fell of, headed
for shore and was run on a reef about q
mile away.
We saw some save themselves by boats
and RATS, being swept in to the shore by
the tide, but it was afterward learned
that upward of 45 men were killed or
drowned and that the loss OF the dhow
broke up a bad gang Of pirates. Mrs.
Aldrich was on deck through 1t ali, emp
tying the revolver into the crowd as the
dhow passed US, and when all was over
she went down TO her husband with face
only a little whittier and mouth more firm
" set. She did not betray her womanly
weakness until she came to thank us.
Then she broke down and cried like "a
well, just like a woman.-Hartford Cou-
rant.
No announcement.
JpnkS-T was Thinking of runninr IN