FIGHT AT SEA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18898, 26 June 1923, Page 5

FIGHT AT SEA.

COLOURED SEAMEN USE RAZORS. “It has been said that it never rains but it pours. The statement is applicable to my last trip.” Loaning over the bridge-rail of the steamer Ooma, recently in port at Melbourne, the master (Captain Roy) grimly surveyed the members of his crew as they swabbed decks. “A polyglot crowd,” he continued, “and they have brought a train of misfortune with them. With a full orew of 37 coloured men we reached New York. When it was time to clear port I found myself in a josition, probably which no other sea captain—short of a marooned buccaneer of the days of Drakelias experienced. Every ‘man-jack’ of the crew had deserted; they evidently preferred the lights of New York to a life afloat.” The docks and byways of tho great city were scoured by Captain Roy and his officers, and tho present crew was engaged. “They are a savage lot,” said Captain -toy, “embracing Somalilnmlers, Arabs, negroes, Chinese, and every known kind of halfbreed. Each section hates the other with an intensity which has manifested itself in desultory fighting. Once a row ended almost in murder.” “Coloured men, it seems,” he resumed, “are inveterate gamblers. They are good winners but bad losers. One of tho Arabs, having lost heavily at cards, borrowed money from his shipmates and deserted. Several of his creditors witnessed the escape and pursued, captured, and carried the Arab forcibly to the ship. Thereafter two camps were formed. For days trouble brewed. Then a Somalilander approached the pump for water, and he was attacked. In a moment a fierce battle was beiiur waged around the pump. Razors and other weapons were used. One man received obliqu" gashes which laid open his _ back. More than 100 stitches wore inserted in the wound.” While at Melbourne another disturbance broke out in the forecastle. The third officer, attracted below by the noise, was met in the darkness of the companionway by a man who presented a firearm at his hood. This disturbance was quelled by tho police. “But,” added Captain Roy, “we are living in r state of unpleasant uncertainty. Further strife is likely to break out nt any moment.”

While nassing through the Panama Canal the death of a coloured seaman is said to have been the indirect, cause of the Ooma striking the side of the canal. Just as she was passing another vessel the crew heard that a shipmate had died. “Probably a death at sea has some special significance to coloured seamen.” said Captain Rov. “At nil events, the men seemed to be momentarily paralysed, and failed to obey orders shouted to them from the bridge. No damage was done, however.”