The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-05-11
PATROL FIGHTS WITH PIRATES
FIREBOAT TO THE RESCUE AND
PHOTOGRAPHER ON HAND.

Moving Pictures Taken Down the Bay for
tho City's Birthday stereopticon Show
ALI Realistic. Especially the wetness.
A battle between the cops who man the
police boat and squad Of policemen dis
guised as river pirates was fought OF the
shore of Tompkinsville, Staten Island. at
about o'clock yesterday morning. There
was no bloodshed, but the battle looked real
enough, and a number Of Staten Island
residents and persons living on the Bay
Ridge shore were convinced last night
that the police had made an important cap
ture o: river thieves.
The police boat Patrol fired number
Of shots from Its two fve-pounders at the
pirates. The contending forces cashed,
brandishng clubs, strips Of rubber hose and
revolvers, and the freboat New Yorker,
with steam up, stood short distance away,
apparently ready to give the police help
should 1t be needed.
As matter Of fact the fight was got up
for moving pictures to be shown In the
public parks during the celebration Of the
25Oth anniversary Of the founding OF New
York. Sunday was selected because the
passing river and ocean craft. AS the
morning was bright and clear it Is expected
that the pictures will be good ones.
The Patrol, two launches and several
Dean Of the harbor squad and all his men
went down the bay In the Patrol. The
launches followed. towing the rowboats.
About a dozen patrolmen were equipped
with old coats, torn sweaters and dilapi-
dated hats.
When they reached the point which the
picture taker said would be a good plae
For the fight, the men who were to repre-
sent the pirates went down to the engine
room to make up. They got a lot Of waste
over their faces. Some of them were sorry
afterward that they did, because they had
to use a scrubbng brush and lots of soap
to ,Eet back their every day faces.
occasion they came up on deck and Capt.
Dean handed out the weapons they we're
TO use. Then the pirates got into four
rowboats and rowed of.
made bee line for the Comprehensive shore,
the picture man got his machine going, ar d
the Patrol, fanked by the launches, gave
chase. The Patrol gained on the pirates
and began to Are blank cartridges.
The Patrol didn't return the fire imme-
diately, but waited until she had got almost
on top Of the pirates. and then half dozen
harmless shots were fired from one Of the
ilNe-SV0iuO'e' IL q sS'o'iN VI eNo' "iieH
the Patrol was almost cutting. down the
pirates, several shots were fired from the
other fve-pounder. Then Staten Island
woke up.
The police tried to make it look like
real fight. Two Of the pirates pretended
to be 10. and fell to the bottom OF their
boat. A hand-to-hand conflict wound up
the proceedings. The fighters seemed
to enjoy this better than any other part
OF the scrap. They playfully swiped each
other with their clubs and hose lengths,
pretending that it was all a mistake. One
fat cop was almost knocked out by a mis-
directed swing OF hose length. He was
listed as one Of the injured, and the police
said it was real casualty
When there had been couple OF minutes
Of fighting at close quarters the pirates
were captured and hauled aboard the Patrol,
some OF them handcuffed. Then the vic
tors made an ostentatious search OF tho pi-
rates boats for "swag."
The New Yorker steamed close to the
fighters and threw out twelve streams
Of water to make the picture complete.
The police were cooling OF after the fight.
The picture man turned OF his machine and
the New Yorker accidentally foated down
too close to the police boats Some one on
the New Yorker forgot to give an order
(of course it was not by design and the
streams we're not turned of. The Ian
guage from the cops when they got that
ducking was not calculated for the latitude
on Sunday morning. For asfew minutes
they were for having real fight with he
6remen.