CO129-416 - Public Offices - 1914 — Page 608

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.

-

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

{