CHINESE PIRATES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19478, 24 December 1925, Page 9

CHINESE PIRATES

CAPTURE TRADING STEAMER DISGUISED AS PASSENGERS. PEKING, Dec. 22. The China Navigation Company’s Tungehow, bound from Shanghai to Tientsin, was pirated by Chinese disguised as passengers two hundred miles south of Weihaiw’echi. Tho pirates shot and wounded the captain, held up all tho other officers and passengers, ami put tho ship about to Bias Bay. The. ship was navigated by tho chief and second officers under tho watch of armed pirates, who seized all the ship’s arms. The engineers also worked under pis tol threats.

ANXIOUS MOMENTS BUT PASSENGERS WELL TREATED FOREIGNERS NOT MOLESTED. Received December 23, 8.15 p.m. PEKING, Dec. 22. The pirates made their headquarters in the first-class saloon, but did not interfere with the passengers, who wore fed and occupied their cabins ns usual. They were told that in ths event of interference everyone on board would bo shot. Tho pirates insisted that a course be kept far out from land, and evinced murderous intentions every time another steamer hove in sight. Tho captain’s wound was dressed and he was nursed by Mrs Immott, a mission ary. There were several anxious moments, notably at the end of the trip, when another steamer belonging to the same company passed close, by, almost in sight of the pirates’ lair. Foreign passengers, on the advice of the officers, remained within their cabins while boats came from shore to take, off the loot, which included a considerable quantity of specie, some cargo, and all portable property of the Chinese passengers.

The foreigners were not molested. The steamer later sailed for Hongkong. The captain’s condition is hopeful. No one else was injured, though all were suffering severely from strain.