00
272
!0:|| 1
system of patrols cannot be thoroughly effective. The pirates have only to wait for their opportunity until the ship is out of sight and earshot of a patrol and it is obviously impossible to have so many patrolling vessels afloat that a ship will always be in the vicinity of one, Even if a patrol vessel could be summoned by signal gun or wireless directly the pirates commenced operations, it would probably arrive too late and it is difficult to see what action it could take to recover control of the ship. short of sinking her by gun-fire which would cause greater loss of life and property than the piracy.
14. The method which has been adopted of making ships sail, as far as possible, in company and putting a special guard on the'mother ship' of such a convoy promises better results but it is very inconvenient to trade, as it means that the pace of the convoy must be slowed down to that of the slowest ship, and here also there is always the possibility that if the prospects of a rich booty are good enough a gang of desperate men will take the risk of seizing one of the ships of a convoy, in the hope of being able to resist recapture until she can be run aground,
The difficulty of preventing the pirates
15.
from embarking appears to be insuperable. They may ship as first class passengers, as in the "Hydrangea" case or they may be found among the crew, as in the "Tai Lee" case. A rigorous search takes place on the Hongkong wharves before passengers embark but it is not very difficult to conceal automatic pistols and revolvers on the person of women-passengers or in passengers' baggage in such a way that they camot be discovered except by so exhaustive investigations that the sailing of the ship would be delayed for hours, and even if we could make absolutely certain that no arms were taken on board by passengers it would be impossible to guard against their being concealed on board during the ship's stay in harbour with the
T
1|--
assistance
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.