A PIRATICAL STORY.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1842, 12 November 1897, Page 6

A PIRATICAL STORY.

[From the Evening Star's Correspondent, London, September 10, The pirate is a character that one meets with for the most part in the novel of the day, and more often in the “ penny dreadful” than in literature of any other class. That he still exists in the flesh, however, outside the China seas is shown by a little episode that occurred off the Moorish coast recently. The British steamer Onfa recently reported supplying the starving crew of the schooner Fiducia with provisions, that vessel having been pillaged by pirates. The story of the crew, who arrived the other day at Marseilles, is told in the ‘Globe.’ The Fiducia (says that paper) is a vessel of 850 tons, and on June 4 last left Pensacola with a cargo of timber for Marseilles. She was commanded by Captain Emanuel Razzetto, and had a crew of ten hands. Of these seven were Italians, one was a Greek, and two were Frenchmen. After a spell of contrary winds the Fiducia arrived off the Moorish coast on August 14. Here she got becalmed, and while she was in this condition two boats approached her from the shore. At first the crew of the Fiducia thought they were Moorish fishing boats. When, however, the latter got within 100 yds of the helpless schooner the suspicions of the crew were aroused. The captain cried out to the Moors not to approach any nearer, and in reply to this the Moors gave him a volley from their firearms, followed by a regular fusillade as they came nearer and nearer. There were only three revolvers on board the ship, and with.these the crew prepared to defend their craft and their lives. Soon, however, their supply of ammunition failed, and the pirates came over the side of the ship. AN UNEQUAL CONTEST. Captain Razzetto had soon a loaded rifle placed at his head, with the demand that all money and valuables on board the ship should bo given up. The captain had only five dollars in the ship, and this was taken bv the pirates, who then commenced to ransack the vessel, seizing packages of provisions, liquors, and everything they could lay their hands on. Even the clothes of the crew were purloined. The ship’s boat was lowered, and into this the pirates placed their plunder and took it ashore, also carrying the master and one of the crew with them. About an hour afterwards another boat, containing about twenty Moorish pirates, came off and fired on the ship. The crew, seeing that they could offer no effective resistance, hid themselves away in the hold. The other pirates had left very little for the new arrivals to take, and this seemed to annoy the newcomers so much that they gave vent to their ill-feeling in several ways, not the least wanton being the pollution of the ship’s fresh water. They also smashed the vessel’s compass and tore up the charts. For the next two days the crew existed on a few biscuits which the pirates had left behind. On August 16 the steamer Onfa, of London, hove in sight. The crew hoisted a shirt as a signal, and fortunately they were seen, and the Onfa sent a boat off. The Onfa gave the Fiducia’s crew a bag of biscuits, some cases of preserved meat, a compass, charts, matches, and oil for their lamps, and thus enabled the Fiducia’a crew to continue their voyage until they were spoken by the Italian cruiser Ercole and taken to Marseilles. AN EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. An arrangement has now been made with the Bocoya Kabyle whereby the latter have agreed to release the captains of the Italian brigantine Fiducia and the Portuguese barque Rosita Faro, together with the other members of the crews of those vessels recently captured by them, in exchange for the Rifflans captured by the Spanish steamer Sevilla at the time of the attack on the French barque Prospercorin in October, 1896, and a ransom of 3,000d01. Of these Riffian prisoners two are imprisoned at Albucemas, and one at Tangier.