PIRATES OF TO-DAY

Taranaki Daily News, 31 March 1934, Page 13 (Supplement)

PIRATES OF TO-DAY

STILL MENACE TRADE

(By

O.E.W.)

The recent news story of a daring rescue at sea carried out by officers and men of the British destroyer Wishart while on “piracy patrol” near Bias Bay is a forcible and authentic reminder that the last pirate did not, by any means, go out of business when Captain Kidds career was interrupted by an appointment at Execution Dock in the 18th century. Ever since European ships have traded along the China coast—even before—the pirate had been a menace more dreaded by the shipmaster than even the terrible Yellow Sea typhon. Even with the warships of five nations patrolling the shallow waters, day after day, year after year, the fear is no less prevalent to-day. The history of Oriental piracy is as old as the history of Oriental navigation itself. For more than two thousand years the peasant fisher-folk of Southern China have been, hereditarily, the thieves of the narrow seas, preying first upon the barges and junks of native merchants, and later upon the ships of the ferenghei who came to exploit the mercantile wealth of China's maritime cities. The littoral peasants of the Bias Bay region, particularly, regard their clandestine profession as a traditional and an honourable one. It is a profession with which, almost without exception, every man, woman and able-bodied child of the population is connected, either directly or indirectly. Therefore it is a virtual impossibility to attack the matter at its root. . Nor can evidence be obtained ot piratical activities among the people themselves, and it is nearly impossible to trace the loot once it has been landed. When a Government official pays a call on Bias Bay, every male among the population is merely an inoffensive fisherman. There is simply nothing tangible to prove that he isn’t. In the entire annals of counter-piracy activity by Western powers in the Bias Bay region, there is not one single instance of betrayal of his comrades by a Bias Bay Chinese. Naturally enough the nations holding concessions in the Treaty ports and, more particularly, the naval authorities in Hong Kong have spared neither money nor energy in endeavouring to save the many thousands" of pounds lost by traders to the pirates every year. It is only in very recent times that even a semblance of control over piracy has been gained. Less than 25 years ago Bias Bay fishermen openly boarded becalmed sailing vessels from junks and sampans, killed or imprisoned the officers and crews, and looted the ship at leisure. None but a powerful man-of-war dared venture into the hornet’s nest of the Bay proper. But the coming of steam gradually altered the pirates tactics. From being a desultory, sporting sort of game at the foreigner’s expense, piracy developed into a commercial art of remarkable finesse. Since it was not possible to board a steamship travelling at ten or more knots an hour from a junk or sampan, obviously the only way to gain control of a vessel was for pirates disguised as passengers or members of the crew to board her in port, await a favourable moment when the ship was near “home,” overpower the officers and loyal crew, and work the ship herself into the notorious Bay, where the looting proceeded as of old. Such methods required organisation and capital—indeed, excellent organisation and considerable capital. The pirate “king” evolved on the China coast much as the pork, pickle or soap “king ’ evolved in modem occidental commerce. The old, desultory methods no longer served. Piracy, to the Chinese “business” man, became a problem in highly skilled staff work, the solution of which spelled an extremely rich reward. Perhaps the fact that such conspicuous talent should be required to undertake a successful venture in piracy to-day, has something to do with the fact that the Chinese authorities, or some of them, have been notoriously apathetic in lending the ferenghei assistance in his efforts to maintain law and order on the high seas. It is common gossip in Hong Kong and in the Concessions that many Celestial gentlemen of wealth and prominence, even in matters of international finance and diplomacy, draw a goodly portion of their fat incomes from the stockings of poor fishermen in Bias Bay!

Constant patrol of coastal waters by European and American warships has, at long last, made impossible that blatant piloting of the seized ships into the bay itself. The pirates now merely seize the most easily portable valuables to be obtained on board, and hurriedly decamp before a suspicious cloud on the horizon proclaims the approach of a destroyer or gunboat. Often when a distinguished or wealthy passenger is on board the seized vessel, he or she is also carried off by the pirates to turn an additional honest penny in ransom money. Usually some minor reminder that the pirates are in earnest is sent the unfortunate captive’s relatives. The reminder usually takes the form of a finger or an ear. It will be recalled that, scarcely a year ago, four Englishmen were seized on a British ship and ransom, was demanded. Furthermore, it was paid. The devices to prevent the seizure of a ship by pirate “passengers” are many and varied, but by no means wholly efficient. Steerage quarters on all China traders are partitioned off from the rest of the ship by stout iron grilles and frequently barricaded from control points of the ship by barbed wire. All passengers are searched for arms before they are permitted to embark. All officers go armed and constantly on the alert in dangerous waters. Even such stringent precautions are not effective. Pirates filter, after months of patient “mining,” into coolie crews. More than once a highly respectable Chinese merchant, travelling saloon, has filed the padlock on the steerage deck and held a pistol to the captain’s ear, while confreres from the ’tween decks recovered hidden arms from hollow bulkhead partitions or from beneath lifeboat-covers. It is even recorded that five inoffensive maidens, bound for the household of an Annamese merchant, who spent their leisure hours on deck chewing watermelon seeds, became extremely active one evening on a Norwegian tramp steamer not long ago. The result was that 20 or 30 steerage passengers appeared on forbidden ground, shot the first mate, bound the captain and two white engineers, and piloted the vessel off to a sinister rendezvous with a large fishing junk. No amount of naval patrolling can cope with this sort of thing. It seems that the small merchant trader of the China coast must pay a varying toll in lives and valuable until such remote time as the Bias Bay nest is cleaned out altogether and the fishing fraternity are driven far afield.

Meantime such ships as the Wishart make their monotonous “pirate patrols” up and down the shallow seas, hoping for the best or the worst io break the monotony. They at least make the modem pirate work for his money.