JACK TARS’ ESCAPADE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2091, 28 May 1907, Page 1

JACK TARS’ ESCAPADE.

COMMANDEER WARSHIP’S CUTTER.

Throughout tho day of April 1 and tlio following day parties of police and hluejackots were scouring Portland and its outskirts in search of eight sailors belonging to tlio battleship Mars, who committed tlie serious offence of breaking tfaip. Tlie Mars, which has just taken tlie place of the Commonwealth in tlio Channel Fleet, arrived at Portland from Plymouth the previous day, and in tlie early hours of the next morning seven A.B.’s and one ordinary seaman secured one of the warship’s cutters, and rowed away in her. Tlie sailors did not actually launch tjio cutter from lior davits, for she had been put in the water when the Mars came to her moorings in Portland Roads. Great stealth, however, must have been shown by the men to have got every the ship’s side and clambered down a rope to

where the cutter was moored. The usual sentries were on duty, but none of them or tlie officers of tlie- watch seem to have noticed anything unusual, and it was not until daybreak that the boatswain responsible for the cutter found her missing, and reported the fact. Tlie ship’s crew was then mustered, and tlie roll called over. The names of the missing eight men having been ascertained, information was given to the local police, and parties were also landed from tlie lleot to search J(he neighborhood. During the morning tlio boat was discovered moored to what is known as tlie Ferry Bridge at tlie village of AVyke Itegis. It is within the confines of Portland Harbor, and tlie eight men had rowed a distance of about three miles before landing. A good deal of reticence is shown by the authorities, and whilst on one hand there is talk of disaffection oil board tho Mars, ojher people are inclined to regard the incident as a mere sailors’ escapade, and "believe that they will give themselves up after a spell on shore. A Weymouth telegram sent later says tlie liue-and-cry after the eight seamen liad failed to result in any arrests. After landing near Whitehead’s torpedo works the men walked into Weymouth and took train, but their respective destinations are unknown.