CHINESE PIRATES’ DARING COUP

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22512, 16 December 1947, Page 7

CHINESE PIRATES’ DARING COUP

DUTCH SHIP. SACKED BY GANG

LOOT ESTIMATED AT £IBO,OOO

(N.Z.P.A.—Reuter —Copyright.)

(10.40 a.m.) KONG KONG, Dec. 15. Pirates disguised as passengers and with arms as cargo, carried out the most daring post-war piracy aboard the Dutch 5000-ton ship Van Heutz on Sunday afternoon off the South China coast, north of Hong Kong.

The act is described as the b: the China coast and was entirely

iggest outrage for many years off successful.

: Twenty-five men, disguised as passengers, overcame the ship’s company and passengers with revolvers and sub-machine-guns on Sunday afternoon when the Van Heutz was 80 miles north of Hong Kong, bound for Swatow.

gun, recognised one of the pirates as coming from Singapore. This is the first trip the ship has made on the coast since dispensing with the Dutch military guard of 12 soldiers and one officer.

They held control of the ship until daylight today when they escaped to the China coast with an enormous hoard of loot and took six first-class Chinese passengers for ransom. The attack occurred toward the end of the afternoon siesta when armed men herded the officers into two cabins and the crew of 160 Chinese into their quarters at the revolver point. Captain K. A. Vliek and the Chief Mate, Mr. G. Altona, were ordered to steer the ship into the unchartered Honghai Bay where, by a miracle, she did not strand.

Meanwhile, the pirate gang ransacked the cabins of the first-class passengers and wrested jewellery, ornaments and money from 1600 Chinese passengers. At the same time the pirate leader and his cronies made merry in the captain’s cabin with liquor and opium. Loot Loaded on Seized Junk At dawn this morning a passing junk was stopped by a shot across its bows and commandeered. The loot was loaded aboard. Part of the pirate crew left for the shore, personally loaded down with stolen goods and carrying valuables in buckets and basins. Some were wearing three or four felt hats. Also herded into the junk were six Chinese first-class passengers, including Mr. Parkson Chan, Chinese Commissioner for Overseas Affairs at Swatow, who is being taken for ransom. Later, the captain, first mate and six sailors were ordered into a lifeboat which was rowed halfway to the shore, when they were released. Tlie remaining pirates escaped in the ship’s motorboat. The Van Heutz returned to Hong Kong this afternoon when the police immediately began an inquiry.

Individual losses are heavy, the captain losing property valued at £2OO , (N.Z.) The only European passenger, Mr. G. Collins, who was held up by a machine-

The latest estimate of the loot is £2,000,000 Hong Kong dollars (about £IBO,OOO N.Z.)