Copy.
PIRACY OF S.S."TAI ON".
FINDING OF MARINE COURT OF ENQUIRY.
601
"We find that the British S.S."Tai On"
O.N. 95858, of Hongkong, of which Robert Henry
Wetherell, the number of whose certificate of
competency as Master is 08651 of London, was Master,
left Hongkong on the 27th April, 1914, on a voyage to Kongmoon, with a general cargo of about 100 tons,
395 passengers, of whom only 363 paid any fares, and
a crew of 38. At about 10 p.m. the ship being then
off the Island of Kiu Au, near the Swashway entrance
to the West River, some of the passengers who had embarked at Hongkong rose and attempted to gain
possession of the ship, being armed with Mauser and
Browning pistols. They attacked the bridge, where
the Master, Mate, Chief Engineer, and two armed
Portuguese guards were entrenched behind iron and
barbed-wire grilles and loop-holed bullet-proof
shields, who were able to repel the attack of their
assailante, with the loss on their side of one
Chief Engineer slightly wounded.
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the
The pirates then retreated below, and endeavoured to persuade some of the peaceful passengers to go up and call upon the master to surrender, and
upon their refusal to do so shot them. They then
deliberately set the ship on fire in two or three
places. This was about 11 o'clock.
In the meanwhile the officers, in the
intervale
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