How Mercery Prevented Piracy

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18015, 27 November 1926, Page 17

How Mercery Prevented Piracy

By Icarus in the ■ Sydney “Sunday News”

IX the early ’forties a bale oT red shirts saved a ship, and tin's is how it happened. Somewhere far out in the: middle of the Indian Ocean the ship. Lady Blackwood, was surging along towards the Australian coast. The afternoon was gloriously warm and the sea, sparkling in its blueness, white, flecked ever and anon by the gentle blowing of the ligiii nor’-easier. Under the favourable conditions, j Captain John Dibbs, late of the Royal Navy and now master and owner of his own ship, issued an order for the I setting of the top-gallants, and glanced around the horizon. Far distant on the port quarter ' , could be discerned the sails of an approaching vessel. With an upward I look iii the direction of the topsails, now set. Captain Dobbs turned aft. and | joined his wife, who had just come on j deck. J

And there we shall leave them for the present: she a youthful and goodlooking woman, with blue eyes that sparkled: he. bearing in his carriage the stamp of the Navy, an alert scaman and commander of his own ship. Towards nightfall the strange vessel had appreciably gained, on the Lady Blackwood’. The passengers freely speculated as to the identity of the distant ship. Someone considered that she had the appearance of an East Indiaman; others considered it. likely that she was a troopship bound for New South Wales. In the minds of the captain and chief officer, however, an ominous doubt had arisen—a doubt which was next morning converted to a solid and alarming fact. At daybreak the lines of the stranger were plainly visible to all on board. At two bells, while the passengers were deciding that she looked “rakish,” Captain Dibbs decided, with the aid of his telescope, that her colours were no other than the “Jolly Roger,” the dreaded skull and crossbones which heralded doom to many an honest ship and crew in the past.

grjgPjm '<orj/rjtrj6 Without hesitation, Dibbs made up his mind. Ordering the male passengers to the cabin, he laid the startling facts before them, and this is where the bale ot red shirts comes into the story. included in the cargo of the Lady Blackwood was a large consignment of Crimean shirts for use on the goldfields. These packages were broached, and in a few minutes every male passenger was conspicuous on deck, and gaily clad in a red shirt. At the same time, the ship's carpenter and members of the crew were busily engaged in shaping spars, and painting furiously, so that shortly numbers of very presentable-looking “cannon” made their appearances at the ports. Nor was .this all. Bugles were blown, and red-shirted passengers went through simple military evolutions on the deck. All this pretence appeared to have brought about considerable wariness on the part of the buccaneer. While delighting, no doubt, in any opportunity of murdering the crew and plundering an unarmed merchantman, the criminal commander seemed to consider a well-gunned troopship a nqiatter for much deeper thought. At all events, the cutthroats held off, and during the day made no attempt to approach. Captain Dibbs ordered “no lights.” hoping by this means to lose the pirates in the darkness of the night. In vain, however, for next morning there was the “Jolly Roger” still visible on the port quarter. One can hardly imagine the presentday members of the gentler sex being kept out of such a thrill, but, nevertheless, the real facts were kept from the knowledge of the women on the ship. A good deal of anxiety of mind might have been avoided on this occa-

si on had the ladies been aware of the danger which beset the ship. Night after night, the Lady Blackwood, in inky blackness, crept across the sea Each morning was the pirate vessel still in position on the port quarter. At last the mystery was explained- The chief officer noticed one night a faint gleam on the water at. the. ship s side. Swinging over the bulwarks on a rope, he discovered to his amazement that a light, shone brightly from an open port. He at once reported the matter to the captain, who, no doubt, foamed at the mouth, and rushed below. To his astonishment, he discovered that the culprit was no other than his wife. It appeared that she had discovered an exciting l>ook, and had for several nights past read far into, the early hours c -he morning. Unaware of the danger, she had disobeyed the order in regard to flights, and placed a blanket over the cabin door, in order to prevent the light from being seen in the companion-way. With her cabin port wide open, the captain’s wife had unwittingly guided the pirates through the dark hours of the precepting nights. That evening the course was changed, and next morning the sea robbers were nowhere to be seen. As to the disciplinary measures taken by the captain, nothing is known, but, as she was very young and pretty, and had blue eyes that sparklet!, it can be safely assumed that Mrs Dibbs avoided anything more severe than a loving reprimand.