PIRATE RAID

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 11735, 24 January 1924, Page 6

PIRATE RAID

SHIP LOOTED AT HONGKONG MANY CHINESE PASSENGERS HELD FOR RANSOM. CAPTAIN KILLED. JUotsr's TtlHtua. PEKIN, January 22. The Chinese river steamer Tai Lee, voyaging from Hong Kong to Kongmoon, with about three hundred passengers, was boarded by pirates at midnight on Sunday. Captain Willox and one of the Indian guard were mortally wounded, and two other Indian guards seriously wounded. The Tai lee was looted and considerable booty carried off. Chinese passengers, variously reported at from 15 to 80, were carried off and are held for ransom. The report of the piracy was communicated to H.M.S. Robin, which hastened to the scene from Pak Kai on the West River. The pirates had disappeared, but the Robin found one of the Tai Lee’s empty lifeboats, wherein the pirates had made off to the shore and escaped. FURTHER DETAILB PIRATES EMBARK AS PASSENGERS. (Sydney "Sun” Cable.) (Received January 23, 6.5 p.m.) HONG KONG, January 22. Pirates embarked on the Tai Lee at Hong Kong as passengers, the police in their search for arms failing to discover them. It is believed that the Chinese boatswain of the Tai lee was their leader, a witness stating that he had shot the captain, while in the lavatory, where he was discovered after the pirates left the ship. He was then alive. He was taken to hospital ashore and died. The boatswain departed with the pirates, who numbered sixty. They secured 20,000 dollars worth of loot.