CHINESE PIRATES

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 1 October 1928, Page 5

CHINESE PIRATES

CAPTURE BRITISH SHIP. AFTER HAND-TO-HAND FIGHT. FOREIGN OFFICERS SHOT. Initcd Press Association—By Electric Telegraph Copyright.) (Australian Press Association.)

-SHANGHAI, Sept. 29.

Wirelessing from -Honghai Bay, the British steamer Anking reports it w'as attacked ! by pirates en route from Singapore to Swatow on September 23. The chief officer, Air David Clifford Jones, and the chief engineer, Mr Harry Thomson, were killed, and C. 0. Plunkett 'Cole, the captain of 'the vessel, was seriou-sly wounded. A Chinese quartermaster was 'also killed, but full details are lacking. The pirates are believed to have boarded a't Shanghai. Received 11.5 a.m. v to-day. SHANGHAI, Sept. 30. * Details -of the Nanking piracy incident -show that- forty -pirates were concealed among lhe fourteen hundred deck passengers and they captured the ship. The) r were desperately resisted by the Foreign officers and engineers, but these were outnumbered and ruthlessly -shot. The fight occurred at seven o’clock in the evening of September 26, when the officers were dining. A hand-bo-hand struggle took place on deck, the pirates finally securing possession of the vessel. They s-eized the a-rm-ouiy and threw: the bodies of the murdered officers overboard. They kept- the. second- officer, Mr Bennett, on the bridge for fifty-four hours navigating the vessel and carefully avoiding the notorious pirate stronghold of Bias Bay, which is now patrolled by foreign warships. The vessel entered Honghai Bay, where the ship was- systematically looted a-nd eighty thousand dollars worth of cargo was carried off the- ship’s boats, and the crew being compelled to assist. Seven Chinese were kidnapped for ransom.