The daily morning Alaskan., 1903-11-12
MEASURE AF[OAT
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brie which had seemingly been aban. doned for a week or more. The fore castle and cabin were empty of bed ding. and not a single article of cloth ing could be found We searched In vain for the loebook and the ships papers nor could we ind a scrap of writing of any sort. The flag locker was empty but we should have known the brig to bca Russian without seeing her name Her clock. chronometer 0f she had lne. log line and officers instruments together with her charts and the com pass from the pinnacle. had been re- moved
 We thought that we might learn something by a look at her cargo, but when we got the main hatch on we found she was only in ballast We made discovery Of importance in the cabin. however. She had a shallow lazaret reached by a trapdoor and from out of this recess we hauled four large leather sacks of silver plate. About half of the lot was church plate, while the rest had belonged to some private individual Every piece was of solid silver. but many of them had been bent and hammered to get them Into the sacks. These latter recepta- cles were made of cowskin, with the hair suu on. and were laced up at the seams. 1t took our united strength to haul the bags out and on deck lt was little wonder. though, as there was about 400 pounds of dead weight to sack.
 Here was something worthy of the name of loot, and in the course of an- other hour we had the sacks aboard of tbe bark and had left the derehct to her fate.
 As to Che silver. it seemed plain enough that it was the proceeds of a robbery somewhere in Russia. It was given out that 1t would be taken home with us and sold for the benefit of the crew and for two or three days we were busy figuring out our respective shares.
 Then we encountered a Swedish mer chauman in distress and stood by him for portion of the day to render as- sisauce. He had come out of the White sea and while conversing with our captain incidentally inquired if i'm cruising about We had ever got sight of small brig named the Grodno. That brought out the story and solved the mystery. and it also got our entire crew into a peek of trouble.
 The Grodu0 was owned at the port of Rem. in the White sea- It appeared that while she was waiting for a cargo a band of eight robbers plundered a church and also the residence of the governor of the province on the same night In getting away from the latter place they had a fight and killed two of their pursuers. They had carts in which Go carry oh their booty, but in- stead of proceeding inland they took forcible possession of the brig. Only her mate and a boy were aboard. but two OF three of the robbers were alsc sailors. They compelled the mate tc put to sea. aud though pursued tho next day they hl5 the luck to get clcm on
 The idea was Co get To England with She booty. but after gettins Ucgnd ou Che north coast 1t was thought better to go into hiding until there was DC longer fear of pursuit
 The island of Tana, at the enrauct Of Tana bay, was selected It wal the intention to strip the brig of every thing and live ashore for a few months but when this had been partially ac complisbed and while an hands were ashore one day the craft broke loose and went drifting out to sea, to be boarded by us four or five days later
 ] don't know whether the captain in tended to put Into any Russian port or not. but if SO he was saved the trouble Two days after We left the SWede a Russian man-Of-war which he spoke and put on our track overhauled us and demanded the plate. When that was given up We were commanded to accompany him to Rem and were vir uaUy under arrest during the voyage
 When we reached kem every man aboard, from captain to cook, was marched off to jail The captain was liberated on a bond of some sort after a few days, but the rest Of us were treated like dogs.
 It was five weeks before we were taken before the governor and a judge to bo examined. Two of the robbers had been hanged, one sent to Siberia and the others imprisoned at home You will think it a very funny thing, but these latter actually charged Ia with having robbed them. While they bad been convicted of robbery they claimed the booty as legally theirs.
 One of the questions asked me by the fudge was by what authority ] board ed and searched the brig The captain was asked by what authority he or dered and assisted in the removal Of the silver. And when he gave them 9 piece of his mind be was fined $50 anu sent to jail for two days as a punish ment It looked for a time as # our entire crew were to be sent to prison because we had taken the plunder from the wreck, but ] think the whole thing was a sort of bluff to prevent us put ting in a claim for salvage Some of our men outside of court happened tc say that the brig did not seem to be greatly damaged For three or four days her owner was loud in his threats lhat he would sue us for her value be cause we had made no effort to save Der, but be finally decided not to do so