Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1901-03-29
Watch for The Yellow Man.
THE CAPTAINS WIFE,

!
! the Persian gull and back. She was an
old craft and poor sailer, and her crew
Of ~ men was made UP Of four or five
! nationalities. l 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 cap
| tain was TAKEN sick with fever. His
name was Aldrich, and his wife, who was
woman Of 30, always sailed with him.
She now took command in 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 dead
! reckoning, and 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 Mus
i; cat, in the bay of Ormuz. Then one fore
noon we got squall which did not last
10 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 squall 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 good
look at the stranger through the glass
and queried to the mate:
! "Can We depend on the crew to fght?''
Il hope so, ma am," he replied
! "Have them come aft
! All moved aft, and l can remember
through all the long years just how she
looked and every word she said. She
had worried. anxious look, and no Won
der, 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 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 last!'' shouted one,
and the cry was taken up by ALL
'"Thank God!" she fervently exclaimed.
"Give him brave fight, and no one can
be blamed if we are defeated. Sooner
than fall into his hands I 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 brought
up with the rest and found to be fused
and in good condition. They weighed
about two pounds apiece. and each was
inclosed in 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 out of his head, which
| was the better for him. as she had his
revolver for use.
| The dhow sneaked along until nearly
opposite us. All work had been sus-
pended aloft, and she must have known
by this time 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 he made out two guns
on her deck and a perfect swarm of men.
She was trying to do 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 north
west, SO she could 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.
Down came the dhow foot by foot, with
never cheer from the crowd of cut
threats 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. l got the first
4 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 so Arabs,
each one with creese, crowding against
the rail to be ready to board.
Snow heavew yelled one Of the sailors
with the bombs, and both lighted the
fuses and heayed 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 man. She sailed like a
witch and before she could be checked
was cables length ahead She had just
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 off, headed
for shore and was run on reef about a
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 it all, emp
tying the revolver into the crowd As the
dhoW passed u, and when all was over
she went down to her husband with face
only 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.
we.l. just like q woman.-Hartford Cou-
| rant. AZ 81 b @ -t5>z:: : - y