FIERCE FIGHT

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 138, 14 June 1930, Page 6

FIERCE FIGHT

ABORIGINAL PIRATES

IN GULF OF CARPENTARIA

(From "Tin Post's"'Representative.) SYDNEY, sth June. The full story has just been told of tho seizure by aboriginal pirates some time ago of a sailing ship in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Two Japanese and four aborigines were killed in that fierce conflict and four of the pirates were also killed. The vessel was then ran ashore. Not long ago Mr. W. B. Coehrane set out from Darwin with tho idea of bringing, the wrecked vessel to port. He found' that every scrap of | canvas and rope had been, removed by the blacks. So Ke sold the hulk as it stood to a lonely ■settler.' "I took no chances with the natives on my trip back to the vessel,'' he said on Ms return to Darwin the other day. "They are an. oily lot of scoundrels round that quarter. Some of them can make themselves' understood in pidgin English, and all professed great friend.ship for the white man. Some of the boys spoke their own language, and piecing together information from various sources, I was able to gather the story of the capture of the boat and the murder of the crew. "The Japanese captain, it appears, was fully aware of the treacherous nature of the natives there. He sat at the stern of the boat with a doublebarrelled shotgun across his knees. No blacks were allowed to approach tho vessel with spears or other weapons in their hands. The day after his arrival six natives went alongside with a big lot of fresh fish. 'You gibbit tobaccer,' the leader said, 'you take fish.' And so the'deal was made and the ship secured a fine lot of fish. The sis blacks then went aboard, and. while the crew were busy cleaning the fish the blacks were filling their pipes and cutting up the tobacco. "Cunningly the leader of tho black pirates directed the attack. No one on board understood, their language, so the leader could with perfect safoty tell his men what they were to do. He ordered one to sit down on the deck close to an aie which was leaning against the side of the ship. Another began to bruise up tobacco with the sharp end of a, small crowbar. Another took one of the knives used for scraping the ship. Another sat down on a piece of wood—• a round stick about 3ft long. Still another rested his arm on a coal shovel. The leader finished filling his pipe and then went along to the captain and made signs that he wanted a match to light his pipe. The Japanese understood. He straightened his back and put both hands in his pockets, leaving the gun resting across his knees. "In a flash the pirate leader seized the Japanese by the legs arid pitched him overboard, gun and all. A heavy! tide was'running at the time and the Japanese was not seen again. That was tho signal for a general rush, and i the pirates savagely attacked with axe, knife, crowbar, shovel, and stick. Tho remaining Japanese,- together with the aborigines that formed the crew, put up a wonderful fight for life. But they lost. The aboriginals may have been good pirates, but they were bad sailors and soon; wrecked the vessel they had captured. So they proceeded to loot it. That job at least was thoroughly done."