Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1912-03-28
CRUISE OF The
YACHT HILDA
Why Her Disappearance Re-
mains a Mystery.

the yarn was spun.
'"Thc Hilda had the newest thing in
engines. and as soon as she had been
tested her owner. Mr.. Chippindale,
started in her for a trip around tho
world. with me as engineer.
"A great many people think the days
of pirates are past and gone. Don't
you believe it. Ships 20 out and are
never heard from-gone down IN Il
storm; more likely their crews are
murdered and the ship is plundered
and >cuttled. Well we were steaming
westward somewhere between Hong
kong and Manila when we met IA sailci
wearing British colurs coming through
the water. turning the white before
her, heading right for us and signaling
us to slow down Thinking she hIu
something important to communicate.
we stopped the engines, and boatload
of men came aboard. AS soon as they
were ON our deck the ship they came
from hauled down the British flag and
raised the skull and crossbones.
Tin not going over the doing away
with every man of us. That's what
keeps ne from Slecping"-
"Weren't you one of the yachts
crew."
Sure But | was the engineer. and
net one of the pirates could run an Ell
CINE. Coolidge, their captain, said t.
me: Run them engines. and 50 long as
you run them right you live. When
You run them wrong
II knew what he meant without his
finishing, and you bet | ran the en-
gnes right This was the time when
the Spanish war was coming on. and
we'd learned all about it from speak
ing an American cruiser, especially
that Dewey was soon to sail from
Iiongkong. Besides. all the nations
we're sending mcn-ofWar to the Phil
ippines 10 see fair play. Gooledge had
been lodging vessels that were cal
culated to give him this information
and did not know anything ut all
about it. He came to me and asked
me what Kind of craft we'd been meet
ing, and | concOcted Il story. told
him that Il couple of hundred miles
east of Manila we'd passed small
steamer, capable of making eight KNOBS
and no more, that carried express mat
ter. Coolidge suspected that Il money
safe belonging TO the express compa-
nias might he aboard and was itching
to get mt it. We would have to go
back between Hongkong and Manila
to reach the steamer and were likely
TO fail in with a cruiser
sure enough one morning we saw
black line on the horizon to the
northward then another and another.
It was Dewey's feet, but we didn't
know it.
AS luck would have it. we We're
stelming across the line of scout
ship. looked out and saw the smoke
north by northeast ANA made up my
mind that the stranger would pass
nstcrn of us. kept IN eye out the
port hole. and when She came within
sieht ! sHw signal dying for Us to
hCavc to. Gooledge didn't dare risk
an inspection and paid no attention 10
ii. Tie cruiser came ON. but was only
two knots better than us and gained
SLOWLY didn't know that she WAS
ordered to overhaul everything she
met. and was afraid she'd set tired
Of the chase. so I cont!ivcd to loosen
Il screw and let go rod. then called
Gooied4c and told him Id have to stop
the engine Il few minutes and Tx it or
the thing would break us up. If |
hadn't been necessary 10 him he would
have killed me right there, but instead
he told me he'd give me just five min
utcs to fix it after stopping and held
his watch in one hand and Il pistol in
the other.
IL kept asking him the time. blunder-
ing as we'll as | could without his see
ing me do it, until he called four min
utcs. Then screwed her up and
started on. hadn't more than done
so when Il shot went skipping before
our bows. and l made up my mind
we'd be overhauled. | heard Coolidge
come below and go into Mr.. Chippin-
| dale's statcroom, which he'd appropri-
| ated to his own use, and in few min
utes there was the report of pistol.
/ went to the room, looked In and saw
tuc dtc CIV lIs5 lis iuSI SetSP.
II hurried on deck, and there in the
distance was fleet Of war vessels,
and the cruiser that had been follow
ing us had turned to join them. Seiz-
ing Gooledges glass lying on one of
the quarter deck wicker chairs, | lev
eled it and saw the flagship of the
feet signaling the cruiser TO come in.
"When it was known that the cap
tain had blown out his brains, two of
the crew came to me and said they
had been taken when Coolidge was
short handed and had joined to escape
walking the plank. They said they
MOULD have hard work to get clear if
taken. The others We're tired of the
business. They proposed that If l
would run the yacht ashore and de-
stroy her | might go free. AS there
was nothing else to do and | was in
the same boat with the others, | con
scented. A few days after Dewey cap
tured Manila we landed on the island
| burned the Yacht and. making our way