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and traditions that make men (and women) take to the profession of piracy. As it is the book is a "good read" in the sensational nineteen-twenties style of journalism, padded out with cuttings from the newspaper library. And the piracy which forms the main theme of the book is less the battle-boarding-bang-bang scenario of excitement and tension favoured by generations of schoolboys, than a roughly institutionalised form of "protection". You entered into "discussions" with fishing-junks to protect them from real pirates, in the same way as today's Hong Kong Triads contact a new shop or restaurant to "protect" them against burglars.
Not that the nineteen-twenties lacked their share of genuine piratical drama. This was the decade of the inside operation, with villains booking passages on coastal and ocean-going ships and, once out of sight of land, storming the bridge and forcing the crews to steer to Bias Bay, where the cargo would be looted, and the passengers sometimes held to ransom.
Of all the piracies that of the SS Sunning in November, 1926, was the most spectacular and interesting, because the officers not only fought against overwhelming odds, but actually recaptured the ship, although with heavy losses in dead and injured. All this against a background of well-defined Hong Kong colonial policy. The drill was simple. Any pirates caught in Hong Kong waters, if found guilty, were hanged. If the crimes were committed in Chinese waters it was up to the Mainland Chinese authorities to deal with them, and in the nineteen-twenties China was too occupied with war-lord politics and other problems to bother much with coastal piracy, which had anyway been a nuisance for centuries.
In order to make contacts with the sea-going underworld the author paid many visits to Macau and was extraordinarily lucky in making contact with useful intermediaries. He lacks literary style but he is the kind of determined reporter every editor would like to have on hand for investigative purposes. In an effort (unsuccessful) to pursue useful contacts he even committed a minor crime and got himself locked up among the convicts in Hong Kong's Victoria Prison. Not surprisingly the pirates there had been found guilty not of piracy but lesser offences; had their real identity been revealed and proved they would have been doomed men. The gallows was a few yards outside author Lilius' cell.
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and traditions that make men (and women) take to the profession of piracy. As it is the book is a "good read” in the sensational nineteen- twenties style of journalisms, padded out with cuttings from the newspaper library. And the piracy which forms the main theme of the book is less the battle-boarding-bang-bang scenario of excitement and tension favoured by generations of schoolboys, than a roughly institutionalised form of "protection". You entered into "discussions" with fishing-junks to protect them from real pirates, in the same way as today's Hong Kong Triads contact a new shop or restaurant to "protect" them against burglars.
Not that the nineteen-twenties lacked their share of genuine piratical drama. This was the decade of the inside operation, with villains booking passages on coastal and ocean-going ships and, once out of sight of land, storming the bridge and forcing the crews to steer to Bias Bay, where the cargo would be looted, and the passengers sometimes held to ransom.
Of all the piracies that of the SS Sunning in November, 1926, was the most spectacular and interesting, because the officers not only fought against overwhelming odds, but actully recaptured the ship, although with heavy losses in dead and injured. All this against a background of well-defined Hong Kong colonial policy. The drill was simple. Any pirates caught in Hong Kong waters, if found guilty, were hanged. If the crimes were committed in Chines waters it was up to the Mainland Chinese authorities to deal with them, and in the nineteen-twenties China was too occupied with with war-lord politics and other problems to bother much with coastal piracy, which had anyway been a nuisance for centuries.
In order to make contacts with the sea-going underworld the author paid many visits to Macau and was extraordinarily lucky in making contact with useful intermediaries. He lacks literary style but he is the kind of determined reporter every editor would like to have on hand for investigative purposes. In an effort (unsuccessful) to pursue useful contacts he even committed a minor crime and got himself locked up among the convicts in Hong Kong's Victoria Prison. Not surprisngly the pirates there had been found guilty not of piracy but lesser offences; had their real identity been revealed and proved they would have been doomed men. The gallows was a few yards outside author Lilius' cell.
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