Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-06-20
PIRATES IN NEW YORK.
A Mosquito Fleet Is Building to Sup
 press Them.

Pirates have become so bold in New York harbor that the police depart ment has been forced to build mos quito fleet to subdue them. Possibly pirates" Is q rather high sounding title to bestow upon gang of dirty, low, sneak thieves who skulk about the harbor in skiffs stealing anything of value they can lay their hands up- on; but thieves are commonplace even vulgar, while pirates are distinctly romantic So, bv universal consent, whenever a water thief is spoken of he is designed as pirate. Perhaps he may have some just claim to the title, since he is as ready to cut a throat when the victim Is helpless as any buccaneer Of old.
 The new mosquito fleet now build ing under the supervision of the sec retary Of the police department navy is to cosinSt of six launches of high speed and little noise. As they are to cost $S00O0 they may be expected to be something pretty fine.
 With the boats now in the service they will make n fotilla of IS craft, In which the harbor police will patrol the waters around the greater city.
 Recent annoying increases Ill the number of robberies of vessels, whar- yes and warehouses reused the author tiles to take extraordinary measures to exterminate the pirates.
 Some years ago the river pirates be- came so numerous and bold as to of- fer @ really serious problem for the police to solve. They were not mere ly pirates in name. but in fact No oen was safe to venture out in small boat after dark. and in some instances they even boarded small craft in the day time. Old time policemen can re- late thrilling adventures with these sea robbers and many a captain of a sailing vessel can spin yarns about them by the hour. Then the police woke up and dealth with the pirates so energetically that the latter dropped out of public notice for a long time But recently they have been growing bolder and their numbers have in- creased, until the police have again been forced to declare war upon them.
 The present force of river police while doing excellent work with the facilities at hand, was not properly equipped to cope with the ,marauders and the necessity of prompt action to suppress this class of outlaws was so forcibly demonstrated that 1t was deemed wise to speedily provide more boats. The harbor fleet now consists of the steamboat Patrol. capable of carrying 100 men. one small steam | laucnh, three naptha launches, and three row boats. The six new launch es will add to the efficiency of the l fleet three-fold.
 Probably one of the most potent l Fa Nff. {Ya Inffr nN9r ,n1 priation was a battle that the harbor police had short time ago with six river pirates in three boats in the Kill von XIII, Just west of Staten Island. The police were in a naptha launch and started to run down the thieves who were escaping with ther plunder from n large barge they had just robbed. The robbers made q stub. born resistance, and there was live ly exchange of shots, but the police pushed on. When closely pressed, the pirates Jumped overheard in the l icy water. Three were captured and three swam to shore.
 This opened the eyes of the city au- thorities. They realized that the DO. lice navy was not on war footing and that something must be done to enable 1t to vanquish the pirates. They heard that merchandise worth "a con- siderable sum was stolen annually from the vessels and the docks. They learned that these pirates were not only the worst kind of thieves, but that whenever opportunity offered they became murderers. They had shown their willingness and their abil- ity to kill the police and on many oc- casions they had attacked captains of barges that were being lowed into port and driven them below, helping themselves to the cargo and making off before the men on the tugboat could reach them. They were des- perate men and 1t was necessary that they should be dealt with by men who knew how to handle them on their fav- orite hjghwayi-the water.