ATTACKED BY PIRATES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10017, 13 April 1910, Page 4

ATTACKED BY PIRATES.

A recent cable message from Melbourne relating the stirring experience with pirates of the steamer Kilburn on a pievious voyage, served to wet the mental appetites of those wiljh a love for stories of adventure to a keenness foe fuller details of the >story. From the circumstance it

I would appear that not one of the in- i J in the compounding I of thrilling fiction so well beloved in I boyhood days, was Jacking on the I occasion. The incident resounds with the clash of barbaric arms, and is thronged with cut-throats just as picturesque and bloodthirstily determined as were ever pictured for the 1 delectation of our youthful ima«in- , ation by masters of ihe romantic pen. , The Kilburn bumped on a rnck in the JRedJSea in the vicinity of the Sarsan Islands, about ten miles from the mainland of Arabia, and HOO or 400 miles north of Perim. The rock prevented her from sinking, but those on board were powerless to do more than wait patiently for assistance. For a week the crew were idly awaiting the appearance of another steamer. The pitch bubbled in the deck seams and the ship's company lay gasping almost in a state of nudity under the canvas deck awning. A friendly Arab dhow stood by in the hope o? taking the officers and crew to Perim, bat deserting' the ship and leaving het as salvage to anyone who chanced to come along, formed no part of their intentions. And so the time went by. One morning, however, from behind one of the islands there shot seme sixty boats, crammed to the gunwales with yelling Bedouins, armed with scimitars, daggers, Bpears, rifles, revolvers—almost every kind of weapon the world has known. Most of them were naked to i the waist, but the chiefs wore long, flowing robes ana turbans. The pirates immediately opened fire, and the Kilburn's company, preceiving that they were hopelessly outnumbered, dropped over the side into the friendly dhow, and promptly put out to sea, being picked up a day or so so later and taken to Perim. Ihe yelling horde swarmed through the vessel and stripped her of every bit of woodwork, copper, pipes and much other valuable material. Luckily the holds and engine-room were not interfered with, probably because they were flooded. The Kilburn people returned later with a detachment of Turkish soldiers to recaptureltheir ship, but the pirates had gone and were not seen again. The vessel was pumped out, refloated, and towed to Perim for temporary re"pairs. As a result of her exciting experience the Government took possession of the and a warship keeps a friendly eye upon the locality, so that the picturesqua ruffians will require to transfer their field of operation to waters less highly seasoned with the drawbacks of civilisation.