197
2.
have some knowledge of seamanship. The ship arrived
at the above-mentioned Inlet at about 19.00 hours on the
15th April, 1928. The master was then allowed to go
At
to his bunk where he remained for the night. At about
05.30 hours on the 16th April, 1928, he was awakened by
the Chief Officer who informed him that the pirate
wanted the ship taken further in towards the Inlet.
this time a launch was sighted coming from the West,
and the pirates appeared to think that they were caught and at once got into a ship's life-boat and sampan, taking with them the master, chief officer and 5 deck
passengers. After arriving on shore and seeing that the launch took no notice of them, the pirates decided to return to the ship to get some of the cargo. They took
the chief officer with them and left the master on shore. About 2 hours later, a Chinese gunboat was sighted steam- ing from the West and on seeing this, the pirates took the ship's lifeboat further up the Inlet and jumped ashore. During the excitement the master got the ship's boat and rowed to the ship. He made a signal to the gunboat and told them that he had been pirated. Two of the ship's boats were sent off to the gunboat and were loaded up
with sailors who went ashore but returned 2 hours later without effecting any arrest or recovering any cargo. The anchor was then raised and the ship steamed to Hong Kong where it arrived at about 21.00 hours on the 16th
April, 1928. The gunboat escorted the ship as far as Tuniang Island. No shots were fired by the pirates
and no one was injured.
The