The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1906-08-03
POLLING PIRATES IN
The RED SEA

In the harbor of New York, with |
bow and stern warps out, alongside |
a great cream-colored pier shed lies |
Draw steamship. There's nothing |
visible about the vessel that wasn't |
made in Scotland. She was herself, |
so was her name, and her captain |
and officers are Scots. Clan Maclach- |
Ian in red letters on a black hull an |
nounces her christened appellation |
on each side of the bows Capt. Gray
commands her and when the third Of
fcer, James Robertson, put his head
, into the engine room hatch to call
the second assistant and yelled
Mac" four men answered Sir"
Steve McCosh, the extra fourth of
ficer, says the why of the attempt OF
the boarding party in the Red sea is
that the old ship was hauled off the
London Calcutta route, where she has
snored along for many years, and
was sent off across the north Allan
tic in a new lane. This is the story
of Mr.. McCosh, incredible as it seems
in these days Of twin screws and tri-
pie expansions.
Wed coaled up at Alden the day
before and the next mornin' saw the
ship in the Bab-el-Mandeb straits, the
Gate o. Tears, as the young ladies in
the Peninsular and Oriental boats
like to call it, We had just got
abreast O. Perrin and saw the loom o
it over to starboard, when ahead o
us and on the port bow wee bit we
raised the tall mast @ native dhow.
Now, there's a power o these
boats that trade along the coasts and
across the Red sea. carryin' dates
and figs and pal moil and filled Wi
Arabs like an ant heap. So we paid
no more heed to the craft till we over
hauled her and then when she lay
not half mile to windward of us she
hoisted a bucket at the masthead.
Now the auld mans no siccan fool
as to slow down his ship for a boat
load o. lazy blacks, but no sailor can
pass a thirsty crew, so what does
Captain Gray do but set the tele-
graph at dead slow, and then in an
other minute the dial read, stop
For the empty bucket at the mast
head could only mean that there was
no water aboard, and the next minute
a small boat put off from the dhow
and pulled over toward us. The men
! at the oars looked to be a weak lot,
as if half dead with thirst, and the
heart of every man aboard went soft
and opened up at the skinny arms OF
the black folks in the boat.
and so, as they pulled closer and
closer. slowly and wi great pain, even
.. the Calcutta Mohammedans on board,
twistin their white cloths about
: them. looked sorry like for the poor
! brutes below. They splashed wi the
oar blades and tumbled over the seats
like they was more than half dead,
and the chief officer had just hailed
em when Cap'n Gray let out a big
; boot and skipped over the port side.
"All the rest of us stood huddled
under the bridge deck lookin' an
lookin' over at the Twin skulls below
1 and most of us didn't hear the auld
man sing out till we saw him skitter-
in up the pilot house ladder and
: heard the jingle in the engine room.
; Then we looked t'other way, and
the eyes o me never saw the like.
4 For there was the great dhow comm
I. for us like a turbine man o war I'M
/: der the enormous hoist of her lateen
SAIL and every black GRIMM soul in
her, full 20 o. the lynn sons o Mo-
manned, armed wi gun o some
:, sort or else spear as long as the
| 81
t dhows, you know, think nothin' o. ly-
!. ing in three points o. the wind and
t the big black hull was alongside in no
n time.
4 "'Sheer off, you niger hounds!
4 shouted the cap'n, while the black
. guards twirled their javelins and
: barred their spiked teeth and steered
;. the black shell so as to come along
side at the lowest freeboard. There
t was whirr l. the air and the voice OF
! the chief. Mind yourself!' as crap
!; plin' iron few over the side and took
y a grip o. the iron rail. jamie Rob
ertson cast it off just as the heathens
got a turn around a cleat, wi a score
=, o. guns leveled at his head. And still
u the big dhow held us. We couldn't
- shake her off.
c. why they didn't blaze away at us
u wi the guns | dunno. Maybe they
J. had no ammunition. Boardin' was
= their little game and If they had ever
l. gained the main deck those rs pop
II eyed rascals. every beastie o them a
Mohammedan, what chance would us
r. IL white men ha' stood when oul
r. own natives turned and shifted over
D; to their ain kind? Ma, ma. | dom
- care about thinkin' too much on
l. even now, a month after. But just
as the air seemed to get thick wi the
iron hooks the engines got under full
:. way and we shot out ahead o the
At dhow and the niggers shoutin like
III souls T. the pit as the screw churnet
q, up the foam banks and the lofty mas
IN o. the pirate dropped gradually as