Passenger's Vivid Description of Life on the Steamer After Seizure by Pirates: How the Vessel Was Seized and Officers Captured: Foreign Passengers Unmolested The following is a personal. nar-motive by My. H, G. W. Woodhead, rix, Editor of the China' Year Book' and the "Peking & Tientsin Time The China Navigation Company's steamer Tungchow left Shanghai for Tientsin, vid Weihaiwei and Chefoo, at 11 a.m, on December 17, Thad taken a passage by her in order to reach Tientsin by Christmas, On the 18th the weather was rough, and the sh 1g and_pitching heavily, After walking round the deck after tea T lay down in my cabin to read, Between 6.15. and 6.30 pin, iny cabin steward sidled into the room, shut and locked the door, pulled up the porthole shutter, turned off the light, and lay down under one of the berths. I could not at first make out what he was up to, his explanation merely being that there were some bad men on bourd, I could hear a good deal of scurrying about on the deck overhead, but had no idea what it meant, After a few minutes in the darkness with the steward peeping out int the corridor from one of the lower gratings I got up and went into tie saloon, There T found four more Pastengers, two ladies and two men, who told me that the ship had been captured by pirates. A few minutes later'the Chief Officer entered. the saloon followed by two Chinese with revolvers pointed at him, and announced that the ship had been put about for Hongkong, He added that} was sorry, but he could not help it, The pirates took him away and more armed Chinese, some very nasty looking. fellows, appeared, and by signs and in broken. English attempted to indicate that we had nothing to fear and that we should not be molested. They even stated that they did not want our money} or any other valuables.
Here, perhaps, I had better digress to record what happened, as far as T have been able to gather from the statements of the officers and pas-songers. Tt appears that a gang of about, 25 Chinese who had shipped ay passengers at Shanghai, made a simultaneous attack upon the bridge, the engine-room, and the officers! quarters aft. The bridge party fired ft, but missed the lookout man, and closed with the Second Ofleer,' who was on watch, and unarmed, and quite unable to resist, He was immediately rushed down to the saloon pantry, and there kept under guard two pirates.
Captain Melntosh, who was in his cabin, hearing the that, rushed out wee what was the matter, grappled ith one of the pirates,' and. was immediately shot and wounded © in the groin, He collapsed on the chart-room floor, and, as was subed after taking the Chief Officer away one of the passengers asked. if he might' see: the Captain, and was taken up under escort to the bridge. Seeing what had happened he came down and asked if anyone among the passengers had any knowledge of bandaging, and fortunate. ly Mrs; Emmett, who had had hospital training, volunteered to do what she could, and, with her hus. band, undertook' the responsibility' of nursing the Captain for the rest of the voyage. She washed and Gréssed the wound, and made the Captain as comfortable as possible on the cabin floor, but throughout the night he was in excruciating' pain, and it was not until two days Inter that the broken bone in the foot was discovered.
The only passenger who had a really unpleasant experience at the outset, was Mr. Sharp, of the B.A.T., who found two revolvers placed against his stomach when he opened the saloon door to see what was the matter.
After half an hour had elapsed without any further developments, someone suggested a gin and bitters, and this was produced by the Steward, and certainly had a steadying effect upon the nerves of those who secured their ration,—Dinner Was served a little later than usual, and by this time the pirates had invaded the saloon, which they made their headquarters for the rest of their stay, They left us the long! table, but' we were constantly in their company,-and it not easy to wet accustomed to the smell of} unwashed pirates, and the constant clicking of rifle and revolver medianism, with which they never seemed to be tired of playing.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.