PIRACIES
(Contd.)
the hills. They all escaped but a Weichow and Tamshui man, now safely lodged in the Victoria Gaol, both of whom, besides gallipots of opium, had four or five dollars in their possession.
"In thinking of this expedition, we cannot find terms expressive of our sense of the praise due to Lieutenants Price and Porcher, three midshipmen Mr. D. R. Caldwell, and the several boats' crews. Starting with only one day's provisions and water, they pulled and sailed with a midsummer sun over them for a good part of 25 hours, before they came up with the enemy; and then, almost sick from exhaustion, they commenced (with two twelve-pounders) a cannonade and fusillade on their vessels, mounting 18 guns apiece and otherwise armed to the teeth, sufficient to have blown them out of the water with a single broadside. They continued that attack until nearly all the powder was expended, and eventually succeeded in capturing and burning the three junks to the water's edge.
The recent death of Mr. Robert Gordon Shewan recalls the fact that his brother, Captain Andrew Shewan, who died in 1928, was the author of a most interesting volume, "The Great Days of Sail," in which we find glimpses of the Hong Kong of other days.
I am indebted to "Old Mortality" for the loan of this volume, which deals with the culminating era of the China Tea Clippers, those fast Aberdeen-built vessels which, in the late fifties, wrested the blue ribbon of the world's carrying trade from the famous flyers of Boston and New York.
Interesting references to piracy in Chinese waters appear in the book. The impression one has from reading the chapter devoted to this subject is that piracy, as a profession, has hopelessly deteriorated in the last 100 years. No longer do the pirates come alongside with their scaling ladders, fight their way up the sides of the ship, and give battle, man for man, on a blood-stained deck. No longer does the clash of steel on steel mingle with the shouts of the victors and the cries of the wounded as the battle for mastery of the ship is waged. The pirates of today are made wary by the effectiveness of wireless, and the proximity of fast destroyers and gun-boats, and have changed their mode of attack. Disguised as passengers, they smuggle their arms aboard the ship and at a convenient time make a sudden attack on the bridge and engine room. Unless these vital points are protected by grilles, the ship is an easy prey.
793
216
*
Piracy, says Captain Andrew Shewan, was very rife round about Hong Kong in the early sixties. The marauding fleets of Malay proas were becoming a thing of the past, but not so the junks of the Chinese pirates. Some of their fleets had been destroyed and their fortified refuges in the neighbourhood of Mirs Bay rendered useless by the British gunboats, but the scattered "pelongs" found that they could ply their trade just as well and in a more up-to-date manner, under the shelter of the British ensign in the settlement of Victoria.
Out of sight, in the native quarters about West Point, and among the "stews" of Endicott Lane and adjacent alleys, they were handy for obtaining first-hand information as to vessels with specie on board, either leaving, or expected at the port.
*
*
*
*
24
*
*
Capt. Shewan quotes the following letter he received from a friend aboard the Veronica, one of Brocklebank's ships, which had a narrow escape from piracy in 1862:
"We left the Thames in January 1862, and arrived off the pilot ground, fifty miles from Hong Kong, on the hundred and forty-eighth day out. We picked up a pilot about 7 p.m. and at 8.30 p.m.
I was lying down under the spars it being my watch below. Suddenly
PIRACIES
(Contd.)
the hills. They all escaped but a Weichow and Tamshui man, now safely lodged in the Victoria Gaol, both of whom, besides gallipost of opium, had four or five dollars in their possession.
"In thinking of this expedition, we cannot find terms expressive of our sense of the praise due to Lieutenants Price and Porcher, three midshipmen Mr. D. R. Caldwell, and the several boats' crews. Starting with only one day's provisions and water, they pulled and sailed with a midsummer sun over them for a good part of 25 hours, before they came up with the enemy; and then, almost sick from exhaustion, they commenced (with two twelve pounders) a cannonade and fusillade on there vessels, mounting 18 guns apiece and other- wise armed to the teeth, sufficient to have blown them out of the water with s single broadside. They continued that attack until nearly all the powder was expended, and eventually succeeded in capturing and burning the three junks to the water's edge.
The recent death of Mr. Robert Gordon Shewan recalls the fact that his brother, Captain Andrew Shewan, who died in 1928, was the author of a most interesting volume, "The great Days of Sail," in which we find glimpses of the Hong Kong of other days.
I am indebted to "Old Mortality" for the loan of this volume, which deals with the culminating era of the China Tea Clippers, those forst Aberdeen-built vessels which, in the late fifties, wrested the blue ribbon of the world's warrying trade from the famous flyers of Boston and New York.
Interesting references to piracy in Chinese waters appear in the book. The impression one has from reading the chapter devoted to this subject is that piracy, as a profession, has hopelessly deteriorated in the last 100 years. No longer do the pirates come alongside with their scaling ladders, fight their way up the sides of the ship, and give battle, man for man, on a blood- stained deck. No longer does the clash of steel on steel mingle with the shouts of the victors and the cries of the wounded as the battle for mastery of the ship is waged. Thepirates of to-iay are made wary by the effectiveness of wireless, and the proximity of fast destroyers and gun-boats, and have changed their mode of attack. Disguised as passengers, they smuggle their arms aboard the ship and at a convenient time made a sudden attack on the bridge and engine room. Unless these vital points are protected by grilles, the ship is an easy prey.
793
216
*
Piracy, says Captain Andre. Shewan, was very rife round about Hong Kong in the early sixties. The marauding fleets of Malay proas were becoming a thing of the past, but not so the junks of the Chinese pirates. Some of their fleets had been destroyed and their fortified refuges in the neighbourhood of Mirs Bay rendered useless by the British gunboats, but the scattered "pelongs" found that they could ply their trade just as well and in a more up-to-date manner, under the shelter of the British ensign in the settlement of Victoria.
Out of sight, in the native qua ters about West Point, and among the "stews" of Endicott Lane and adjacent alleys, they were handy for obtaining first-hand information as to vessels with specie on board, either leaving, or expected at the port.
*
*
*
*
24
*
*
Capt.Shewan quotes the following letter he received from
a friend aboard the Veronica, one of Brocklebank's ships, which had a narrow escape from piracy in 1862:
"We left the Thames in January 1862, and arrived off the pilot groun, fifty miles from Hong Kong, on the hundred and forty-eigth day out. We picked up a pilot about 7 p.m. and at 8.30 p.m.
I was lying down under the spars it being my watch below. Suddenly
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