AMONG PIRATES

Gisborne Times, Volume LXV, Issue 10304, 13 January 1927, Page 3

AMONG PIRATES

WOMAN’S ADVENTURES

S.S, UNNING URVIVOR

KEPT HER DIAMOND RINGS

SYDNEY, Dec. 28. . “Hands• up or we’ll fuel” was the cry of tne pirates, as they cute.eel t!u saloon of the Biitish steamer Sunning, where passengers and officers were partaking of iuternoon tea. Up went the hands. There was no alternative, for the threat to shoot was real and revolvers were pointed menacingly. That was the first of many terrifying experiences through which Miss A. Prokofieva passed when the Sunning was seized by pirates off the China coast. Miss Prokofieva, who is Russian, arrived in Sydney for the first time by the 'Panda, yesterday. On her lingers yesterday were two diamond rings which the pirates removed and then restored again. One pirate said to his companion, “Why are you taking them now? There will be plenty of time to get them later on.

“But they did not get them later on,” said Miss Prokofieva. “The British officers completely turned the tables on the pirtaes.”

ONLY WHITE WOMAN ON BOARD.

Miss Prokofieva was the only European woman on board—for the Sunning is a small coaster. The steamer was on her usual, run from Shanghai to Hongkong, when the pirates, who had come on board in the guise of passengers, seized her. Alter the armed men appeared. Miss Prokofieva hurried from the saloon to her cabin and bolted the door. She was nearly prostrate. Outside, she could hear shouting, the scamper of Chinese along the alleyways, and shooting. Occasionally there was a splash—the pirates had thrown overboard a Chinese passenger, who had grumbled because they were taking his valuables. Minutes seemed like years. Then two pirates came to the door and demanded admittance. She thought that her last hour had come. She was quite resigned to the loss of her jewels when the confederate of the man who, had snatched her rings gave the advice which his mate accepted—that they should save themselves trouble and get them later. LOCKED IN CABIN. Miss Prokofieva was subsequently locked up iu tlie chief officer’s cabin with a few other passengers and six of the officers. The story how the second officer, Mr. Hurst, saved the situation, which has already been related by cable, appears all the more remarkable from details given by -Miss Prokofieva.

Mr. Hurst was on watch, and was keeping a sharp lookout ahead when two pirates crept up stealthily on the bridge and threw him to the deck. They both pressed revolvers into his side, and under the threat of instant death told him to Keep on navigating under their directions. Made bold by their success in .seizing the steamer and ladiev-ng in ssiety through their numbers, the pirates were later tricked by Hurst’s qinYk wit. Hurst was allowed to go to his cabin for a while under oxcjyt. There lie diverted the escort’s : rteutior, to a passing steamer, and a few moments later congratulated himself that he had been able to transfer a revolver and 50 rounds of ammunition from his cabin into the chartroom.

The whole world knows how Hurst that night again tricked the pirates. Pointing to a light, which lie said he thought was on Chilang Point, lie handed over lii.s binoculars to the two pirates who formed his guard, and then while tliev were adjusting them felled them both with a piece of lead.

Then through the fanlight of the cabin, the officers who had been made prisoners escaped to the bridge. The revolver of one pirate, who had been knocked unconscious, was handed to the master, and the chief officer took the other pirate’s rifle. ESCAPE IN LIFEBOAT. Another revolver and more ammunition were found, and the officers needed them. Determined attacks were made on the bridge by the pirates, incensed at finding the tables turned on them just when everything appeared to be going so smoothly. Eleven pirates were killed in shots from the bridge, and among the defenders there was only one casualty, the chief engineer, lie was wounded in the chest.

As a last desperate attempt to defeat the Britishers, the pirates set fire to the saloon in the hope of smoking them out. Miss - I’rokotieva said the heat was terrific, a big sea was running, but she was relieved when it was decided at night to lower a lifeboat with a party, consisting of herself, two engineers, a quartermaster, and two Chinese. At 10 n.m. next day the boat was sighted by the Norwegian steamer Revensfjell. It was too rough to get a line from one ship to the other, so the third engineer, Mr Duncan, swam to the steamer, and the passengers were dragged on board from the lifeboat.

Subsequently H.M.S. Verity, a British destroyer, took the party to Hongkong. Meanwhile, H.M.S. Bluebell bad arrived, and stood by the burning Sunning. After arresting the pirates a party of her crew subdued the flames, but the vessel had been badly damaged amidships. Miss Prokofieva’s cabin was among those gutted.

When she arrived in Hongkong, she said yesterday, she bad onlv the clothes she stood up in. But she is not grumbling, for she considers herself lucky to have escaped with hci life.