PIRACIES
(Contd.)
789
The desperados quitted the ship about 9 o'clock, and a quarter of an hour afterwards the officers, engineers, and passengers broke out of their stifling prison, where they had been locked up with the dead body of Captain Pocock. The ship was then got in readiness as quickly as possible for returning to Hong Kong, where she arrived at 8 o'clock the next morning. The wounded were at once removed to hospital. The body of Captain Pocock lay in his stateroom and on the deck was that of the unfortunate passenger Petersen.
The deck of the ship was strewn with such portions of the passengers' luggage as had been rejected by the pirates, while all over the ship could be seen the marks made by the bullets and stinkpots. A list of the property taken by the freebooters represented a total value of about $55,000.
The arrival of the steamer in the harbour with the dreadful news of what had happened caused the greatest consternation in Hong Kong, and immediately the authorities were on the alert, the Navy doing what it could and the Chinese authorities being informed of the occurrence.
On December 12 one of the unfortunate crew shot at, a Malay quarter-master, died in the hospital, making four deaths in all.
Meanwhile the Police continued their inquiries, making several arrests upon suspicion, leading eventually to the committal of two Chinese for trial at the February Criminal sessions of 1891. With this trial, and the subsequent executions, I shall deal in a following article.
A description was given yesterday taken from old records, of the notorious Namoa piracy. This was followed by the committal in due course of two Chinese who were believed to be implicated. They appeared at the Criminal Sessions of February 18, 1891, but were not tried, as there was insufficient evidence to offer, so were immediately discharged.
The Chinese authorities, on the other hand, took strong measures against those whom they considered were implicated. On April 17, 1891, there was a wholesale execution at Kowloon City, nineteen men alleged to be pirates, being decapitated, thirteen of them for participation in the Namoa and other affairs and six for other crimes in Chinese territory.
The Hong Kong Telegraph of the time gives the following account:
"April 17, 1891, was a day of blood, when a batch of men were executed for participating in the Namoa and other piracies. The men were executed on the beach on the boundary between British and Chinese Kowloon. Each of the prisoners had his hands bound behind him, a chain round his neck and a wooden tally was tied to his queue. There were nineteen in number and they knelt in a line on the beach. The executioner, a native of Fudien, advanced to the one end of the death line, carrying a heavy iron sword. Standing over the first man, the executioner lifted the rude weapon above his head; there was a flash and the head fell to the ground.
"And so the sanguinary work went on. A moment's grace and the next was dispatched. On and on went the butcher performing his dreadful work so efficiently, that to the spectators the scene almost lost its terror. Thirteen of the victims belonged to a batch of thirty arrested at Macao on suspicion of being connected with the Namoa piracy. Four of them had been previously discharged by the Hong Kong authorities. Another was handed over by the Government to the Chinese authorities having been arrested in First Street. Two others were alleged pirates whose headquarters were at Shaukiwun, whilst another couple were brothers and had been arrested in connexion with a projected piracy on the steamer "Soochow" during the previous year.