NEW YORK PIRATES.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 46, 23 February 1929, Page 3

NEW YORK PIRATES.

LAST of the harbour thieves.

FOLDING UP THE RUM-RUNNERS—WHOLE CARGOES

STOLEN.

(By JACK C:

Talk about the Chinese river pirates! Hi a river pirates of New York harbour iiit any gang of buccaneers afloat. A tingle crew has been known to get away nih more loot in one night than Captaijj Eidd collected in his whole bloody jyjer. Gather round and listen to this ttm what th# sailors call a dirty tizlt in New York harbour. There was t whistling wind from the seat that bit jjto one's marrow. Pier watchmen jjads their rounds with heads pulled, t!ir tle-like, deep down in the upturned eollars of their heavy coats. Passengers on the late Staten Island ferries looked «it of the windows at the March night jud were glad they were not targets for the crystal-hard hailstones that ■B-hirled down over the dark, windTilipped waters. Tugboats—switch engines of th® sea _moved cautiously in and out of ships, towing lighters laden with rich cargoes. Harbour craft constantly sent mournful warning blasts back and forth. In the W sv cabin of a lighter tied to the offi fio'rs fids °f a big ship from an East Indian port—a ship flying the British Union Jack —the lighterman, who bears tie courtesy title of captain, was lying jj big bunk reading an evening news,aper. His thoughts were far from the fflr"o of shellac, valued at more than 50,000 dollars, in the superstructure of lij craft —a long shack resembling a freight car. Suddenly the more serious liings of life were brought back to him by the toot! toot! of a tugboat. Rising, ie went to the window and peered out into the wind-swept night. "Hey, cap'n!" came a hail from the tag that had come alongside. "Haul in jour lines. We're taking you down the river a piece." Grumbling because he had to leave Ms warm berth, the captain donned a heavy coat,, and stepped out on deck. He had hardly slammed the door after Ma when he was jerked off his feet and thrown to the deck. "Yip once and we'll feed you to the isles" ha was told in a low voice. At the same instance a. hand was clapped over his mouth and a pistol was pressed his head. '<Tniss him!" ordered a. second voice. In another moment the lighter captain was heavily bound with rope. While his assailants were dragging him back into his cabin, the captain saw others casting off the lighter's lines. There were a few preliminary jerks that told Jim the tag was bringing the lighter about. Out into the open water of the Upper Bay went the tug with the prize in tow. Half an hour afterward the lighter was tied up to another dock, and tia captain heard the rumble of moving trucks and lurrying men. He knew that his cargo of shellac was being transitrred to another craft. When the work was completed, the two men who had been guarding the lighterman shoved a gag into bis mouth, , made sure that he was securely tied, then left. The 50,000-dollar cargo of shellac was now the property of one of the gangs of harbour pirates who ply their profitable trade in the waters inand around New York—the buccaneers of ths hay—the Captain Kidds of 1928. The tug used to tow the lighter to the prates' point of getaway was abandoned. It had been "borrowed" for this operation from a company that considered nightwatchmen a dispensable luxury. With the shellac aboard their trucks, ths pirates hurried to their favourite fence, sold the cargo for about half its real value, and the night's work was done. In the last twelve months these twentieth century freebooters made away ■*ith approximately 50,000,000 dollars' Torth of merchandise in the port of Xew York. How do they get away with it! They get away with it by exercising the game daring and cunning employed by their more picturesque predecessors, plus modern signal systems aid elaborate organisations. Pirates of old—"sweepings of hell and Hackney"— *sr» recruited under the Jolly Roger from ships where the rule was small fay, scanty food, and a hard-fisted captain who believed that men should be kept u busy as the devil in a gale of *ind. The pirates of to-day are recited from New York gangs—th# furtive-eyed Hudson Dusters, the YorkPointers, the Gophers, Gas House psgs, the Red Hooks, the Bay Ridge Hoofers, and the Dago Pirates —men who %e hard, die hard, and go to hell iferward." The buccaneers of th# bay have be«mß such a serious menace to shipping that the Maritime Exchange recently ulled a mass meeting to devise means of putting an end to piracy in New harbour. A few nights after this Meeting was held, a small band of P'rates set out from tie Brooklyn side of the bay in search of loot. A concealing fog hung over the bay, and the Pirates had word that a flotilla of targes loaded with hard coal was com®g up from Perth Amboy. Down the •jay they went until they met the coal Beet chugging along. There were 18 Jjrges In the tow, a watchman on each. they knew. They also knew that «j# watchman on one barge was their man. He used a flashlight—waved « horizontally three times. The barge in the rear of th# tow, 700 ft or from the tugs. ,j n * few minutes they were along"de. In a, minute their motor boat and J l *! were made fast. Then all hands to work on the black diamonds. j 3 a short time their yawl was loaded 0 the gunwales. Twelve tons of A 1 ssthacrte, which could be disposed of in frooklyn next day at 15 dollars a ton. /**11» that's only 180 dollars," you say, fl ot such a big haul for a boat's crew a night of hard work." But this Mrt of thing is going on all the year *wnid; deckloads of merchandise far jnors valuable than coal are constantly by harbour pirates. While the pirate operates on the bay ? e has Ms colleague on the docks, work- ? ferhap6 as a shenango or longshoreHe makes elaborate plans for a ,2 hauL He works by da/ and by One profitable job done recently ff aj that of three cases of gold watches a case of solid silverware, taken from the hold of a ship which was Jwut to sail for British ports. The •P-off came from one of the gang who *as working on the dock as a shipping J 1 ®* or checker. The buccaneers know that sailors "earn their money like rse 3 and spend it like asses." They always broke. So what is easier wan to bribe one of them to give aid J?d comfort to the captain's enemy? .he pirate chief who had an eye on the Jewellery cargo found one of the ship s in a waterfront speakeasy. A E3 ' was made. That night, when

'DONNE LL.Y

stevedores knocked off, they threw tarpaulin over the hatches, but did not batten them down. Watchmen were placed on guard. It happened that the night was wet and cold, with a biting sea, wind. By midnight the watchmen were chilled to the bone. Then along came sunshine in. the person of the bribed sailor. He was wet inside as well as out. •"Heigh-o, mates!" ha cried cheerily. Soon the watchmen were in easy conversation with the sailorman. "What do you say, mates, to a drop o' rum? It'll warm up your hatches. I've got the stuff here." He patted his hip. What could be fairer? "Come along," invited the congenial seaman, as he started for the fo'c'sle. The watchmen followed. Grimy glasses were brought out, a cork popped and the trio sat down to their grog. The pirate's confederate was a good story-teller and a generous host. After the shock of the first drink passed, it was easy for the watchmen to take another and another, until finally, That with the heat of the fo'c'sle and the droning voice of their host, they dragged their moral anchors and drifted out to the wide channels of unconsciousness. Out on deck, with nobody to disturb them, the pirates were hard at work. They managed to transfer three cases of gold watches and a ease of solid silverware—enough loot to keep a group of pirates comfort-able for the remainder of a hard winter. The pirates in that instance made a clean get-away. Another gang, not so fortunate, was caught disposing of a cargo of copper. This outfit had made a big haul of ingots from a lighter, after beating the captain and leaving him tied on the open deck. The harbour police received word of the piracy by wireless. Their boat scurried to the scene, arriving there just as the last truckload of copper was being hauled away. Three policemen trailed this truck half the night without making an arrest, their aim being to follow it until they found the fence. Toward dawn the truck turned into an alley near Flatbush and came to a halt. The driver and his companion jumped down and entered by a side door of what appeared to be a hand laundry. The cops followed, hearing muffled sounds of revelry. One of them opened the outer door with a skeleton key and the three, with guns drawn, crashed through a second' door. Here was a modern pirates' den. Here "were grog and fair women, feasting arfd celebrating. In a short, swift battle the police won. The copper—thousands of dollars' worth of it—was rqpovered and the entire gang taken into custody. Out Rum Row way the buccaneers of the bay are feared even more than the Coast Guard. In ye olden days, when the black bunting at a pirate craft's masthead carried the slogan: "A gold chain or a wooden leg!" there was, perhaps, honour among pirates. Not so today. It wasn't so long ago that one of the bands that infest New York waters learned that a lone rum ship with a cargo of 2500 cases of old Orkney Scotch was hovering just beyond the twelve-mile limit. It looked like fair prey. It was fair prey. Two emissaries of the pirate chief went to the ship to reconnoitre, taking a bank roll with them. The money was to be flashed to whet the appetite of the rum runner's supercargo and to make it. easier for the pirates to get aboard and look things over. That worked out just as the pirate chief figured. "We'll be back tonight," said one of the freebooters, after sampling some of the Scotch. That night the gang "borrowed" a tug and 15 of them went aboard her, armed and ready for high, adventure. Their scouts had reported that the crew of the rum runner numbered only sis, including the captain. As they neared the rum runner all but two of the pirates flattened themselves on the cabin floor. Numbers would arouse suspicion. After a short exchange of words the visitors were invited alongside. Hardly had the two crafts eome together when the pirate captain yelled: "Up and at them!" Over the sides the band swarmed, guns in hand. The crew of the rum runner made no resistance, only three of them being above deck. They were lined up against the rail, made fast with line, and then the others were summoned from their berths and tied. Before the sun rose the 2500 cases of booze had been transferred to the tug and all was ready for the return trip to Long Island City, the gang's headquarters. But before they left they showed they had in them a strain of their piratical forefathers. They hauled in the anchor of the rum ship and turned her adrift, her captain and crew lashed to the rails. The rum runner m.» picked up by a Government boat the next afternoon, her men in a state of exhaustion from exposure. It is said along the waterfront that this haul brought 90,000 dollars and that in the split-up of the loot a fight started in which two men were killed and five wounded. These pirates of 1928 are a far more picturesque band than their unlawful cotsins, the rum smugglers. They have imagination, courage, and some of the swashbuckling qualities of the pirates of old. They can spin a good yarn when under the lee of the longboat on a dirty night. All of one March day and part of one night I was the guest of a modern pirate chief. In a motor boat, cosy as a Dutch kitchen, he took me round the harbour, pointing out the rendezvous of other gangs, the lurking places of police boats, where this job was done and where that pirate ran foul of the law. That night I was taken to the den of these freebooters —a place I could never find so completely was it hidden in the heart of Brooklyn's waterfront, and there I saw things that took me back to the days whenT thrilled over Stevenson's "Treasure Island."

What's to be done about them? The problem is growing more and more serious. Immediately after the waf. when the Federal Government restored the harbour to its former and natural guardians, the marine police were able to cope with the pirates. Then came prohibition and fleets of rum pirates. The dry organisations demanded the dispersal of the rum fleet. The Coast Guard wasn't able to do it alone. It had to look for assistance to the little fleet of speed boats that flew the fiagof the New York Police Department. But, while this agency of the law was devoting its efforts to the rum runners, the buccaneers of the bay began running „~"_ a nd away, as well—with 50,000,000 dollars' worth of booty every year.