PIRACLES (Contd.)
2797
rattan chairs common in China, and dragging it and himself towards the port sponsons, threw it into the water, and dropped in after it. Fortunately, he was not perceived; the steamer, with nobody at her engines, kept on her way, and he was soon astern, floating, but alone in the sea.
"In great agony, as the swell moved his broken bone, he floated for nearly an hour, with the assistance of his chair. Once it escaped from his hand, and in turning to recover it, as he rose on a wave higher than ordinary, he discovered a lorcha working to windward: and, from his nautical knowledge, he knew that, not being weatherly, his true course would bring her within hail. And he was right; she came nearer and nearer, until she got within hail, and just within an hour of his leaving the steamer, he was taken on board as the hapless Queen was seen slowly standing to the northward and was now half-funnel down.
The lorcha took him on to Macao, not, however, before the crew had asked him how much money he would give them to do so; and even then they would not land him amongst the Chinese boats. But he wrote on a card in pencil, "Mr. William Dent, or any other European;" and in half an hour Mr. Dent arrived and took him to his house, placing him on a bed, which he did not leave for many months. He is now a cripple, and, although formerly distinguished for athletic exercises, limps about in great suffering.
"All the Europeans on board the Queen were murdered, and the ship burnt. The whole plan was conceived and carried out by that fiendish miscreant Yeh, another link in the chain of his hideous cruelties. Mr. Cleverly declared that if a couple of men had stood by him, he could have recaptured the boat."
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Many local residents will recall the piracy of the Sui An, of the Hong Kong, Canton and Macao Steamboat Company.
She was pirated on November 19, 1922, about 10 miles from Macao, while on a voyage from Macao to Hong Kong. The pirates shot dead two Indian guards, and two passengers. Money, jewellery, and clothing to the value of more than $34,000 was stolen. General Chan Kwing-ming, who was in power in Canton at the time, sent an expedition to Bias Bay, but the troops made little effort to locate the pirates and no useful results were obtained.
As I have pointed out in previous articles on piracy in Hong Kong waters, the methods of pirates have changed with the times. At one time, Hong Kong sheltered two great fleets of marauding junks, heavily manned and well-armed, which thought nothing of drawing alongside sailing ships, and pouring a hot fire on the hapless passengers and crew.
They were a blood-thirsty crew, with nothing of the finesse of the modern pirate. Many a stirring tale is told of their successes and failures, and many a British life was lost in the campaign to drive them out of these waters.
The Friend of China, in its issue of July 5, 1854, tells the story of an ill-organised but gallant attempt to clean up a batch of piratical junks, believed to have been responsible for some particularly dastardly outrages in the vicinity of Bias Bay.
Information concerning the movements of these junks reached the Senior Naval Officer in Hong Kong, Commander Sir W. Hoste, on Sunday, July 2, 1854, and he immediately despatched one of the cutters from H.M.S. Spartan to search for and destroy the pirates. A Chinese boat was taken to act as a decoy.
When the cutter reached Lintin, the pirate junks, eleven in number, were sighted away on the port bow. Although the leading junk mounted a large number of heavy guns, the British sailors, nothing daunted, proceeded at once to the attack.
PIRACLES (Contd.)
2797
rattan chairs common in China, and dragging it and himself towards the port sponsons, threw it into the water, and dropped in after it. Fortunately, he was not perceived; the steamer, with nobody at her engines, kept on her way, and he was soon astern, floating, but alone in the seal
"In great, agony, as the swell moved his broken bone, he floated for nearly an hour, with the assistance of his chair. Once it escaped from his hand, and in truning to recover it, as he rose on a wave higher than ordinary, he discovered a lorcha working to windward: and, from his nautical knowledge, he knew that, not being weatherly, his true course would bring her within hail. And he was right; she came nearer and nearer, until she got within hail, and just within an hour of his leaving the steamer, he was taken on board as the hapless Queen was seen slowly standing to the northward and was now half-funnel down.
The lorcha took him on to Macao, not, however, before the crew had asked him how much money he would give them to do so; and even then they would not land him amongst the Chinese boats. But he wrote on a card in pencil, "Mr. William Dent, or any other European;" and in half an hour Mr. Dent arrived and took him to his house, placing him on a bed, which he did not leave for many months. He is now cripple, and, although formerly distinguished for athletic exercises, limps about in great suffering.
"All the European on board the Queen were murdered, and the ship burnt. The whole plan was conceived and carried out by that fiendish miscreant Yeh, another link in the chain of his hideous cruelties. Mr. Cleverly declared that if a couple of men had stood by him, he could have recaptured the boat."
*
*
Many local residents will re-call the piracy of the Sui An, of the Hong Kong, Canton and Macao Steamboat Company.
She was pirated on November 19,1922 about lo miles from Macao, while on a voyage from Macao to Hong Kong. The pirates shot dead two Indian guards, and two passengers. Money, Jewellery and clothing to the value of more than $34,000 was stolen. General Chan Kwing-ming, who was in powercin Canton at the time, sent an expedition to Bias Bay, but the troops made little effort to locate the pirates and no useful results were obtained.
As I have pointed out in previous articles on piracy in Hong Kong waters, the methods of pirates have changed with the times. At one time, Hong Kong sheltered two great fleets of marauding junks, heavily manned and well armed, which thought nothing of drawing alongside sailing ships, and pouring a hot fire on the hapless passengers and crew.
They were a blood-thirsty crew, with nothing of the finesse of the modern pirate. Many a stirring tale is told of their successes and failures and many of British life was lost in the campaign tà drive them out of these waters.
The Friend of China, in its issue of July 5, 1854, tells the story of an ill-organised but gallant attempt to clean up a batch of piratical junks, believed to have been responsible for some particualrly dastardly outrages in the vicinity of Bias Bay.
Information concerning the movements of these junks reached the Senior Naval Officer in Hong Kong, Commander Sir W, Hoste on Sunday, July 2, 1854, and he immediately despatched one of the cutters from H.M.S. Spartan to search for and destroy the pirates. A Chinese boat was taken to act as a decoy.
When the cutter reached Lintin, the pirate junks, eleven in number, were sighted away on the port bow. Although the leading junk mounted a large number of heavy guns, the British sailors, nothing daunted, proceeded at once to the attack.
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