Deseret Evening News

In the year 1859 a British steamer called the Fairfax arrived at Shanghai in distress, and upon investigation her damages were found to be so extensive that she was sold to a corporation known as "The Golden Tea Company."

It was composed of five British tea houses, and it had four coasting vessels in its trade.

This steamer was wanted to establish a line to the Lioo Kioo islands in the Pacific Ocean, but more particularly to the island of Kiu-Siu, where the company intended to establish a branch headquarters.

The Fairfax was a side wheeler of about 600 tons burden, and noted as being very fast. She was changed about a great deal in making repairs, and when I went aboard of her as a wheelsman I found several things to excite my curiosity. The cabin had been done away with, and in its place was an officers' messroom aft and a comfortable dining room for the men forward. The space between was used for berths and storage. I noticed that a great deal of the interior woodwork was covered with heavy sheet iron, which had been painted to resemble wood.

The doors were very heavy, and were further protected by metal. The engine room was entirely inclosed, and when I came to the wheelhouse I was surprised to find it so arranged that iron shutters hung on the inside could be closed to make a little fortress of the place.

Two rifles and a pair of revolvers comprised the armament. When I came to ask questions of the mate he informed me that we were going among a lawless and desperate lot, and were prepared for any emergency. In addition to what I had seen he showed me a six pound field piece on the promenade deck and a score or more of rifles in a room set apart for an armory.

The steamer made her first and second trips without adventure. The crew in each instance was composed almost entirely of white men--English, American, German and French sailors, who had been picked up in Shanghai. The cook, steward and stokers were natives, and on each trip we carried quite a number of native passengers. On the third trip about one-half of the white crew had to be replaced by natives, and when we left Shanghai we had sixty native passengers. I remarked on the singular fact that all were men, and the mate explained matters by saying it was a religious body on their way to a famous temple situated on the island we were bound for. They looked to me like a crafty, villainous lot, and my fellow wheelsman, who was an American, named White, predicted that we should have trouble with them before the voyage was over. We had scarcely left port before we saw to it that all our weapons were loaded, and we got the "hang" of the iron blinds so that we could shut them quickly. One of us would certainly be in the wheelhouse, no matter at what hour trouble might come.

I held for the junk headed to the southeast, and she at once lowered her sail to wait for the steamer to come up. When within a quarter of a mile of her I rang the bell for the engineer to go ahead at full speed, and the steamer started off like a wild locomotive. We were almost upon the junk before the people divined our object, and they had only time to utter one long-drawn shout of terror. I held the steamer for her broadside, and she divided that junk like the two halves of an apple falling away from a knife. I expected a great shock, but there was none. It was no more than if we had run down a yawl. I believe she held fifty men. A great cry went up as she passed, and when I had headed the steamer around not more than half a dozen of the poor wretches were in sight, who were clinging to the fragments of the wreck and tossing about. I gave the engineer information of what we had succeeded and told him I proposed to serve the other junk the same way.

The natives aboard the steamer seemed helpless and terror-stricken at first, but when they realized my plan they moved to prevent it. They ran down and opened the furnace doors to lower the steam, and a gang of six or eight attacked the wheel house. A second party made an attack on the engine room at the same moment.

The second junk, seeing the fate of the first, had gone about, and was standing due north with all sail set.

The wind was light, however, and we could run five feet to her one.

We had a large reserve of steam and after I had her nose pointed for the junk I gave the gang outside a little attention. They were banging at the door and the shutters with capstan bars, and I wounded two of them before they would desist. The engineer, also using a revolver, killed one and wounded two. The fellows then drew off, beaten at every turn and disgusted with the job, and now I was close up with the junk. She also held about fifty desperate looking fellows. Aware of my intentions, about twenty of them, who were armed with muskets, gathered aft and peppered away at the pilot house, but the few bullets which hit fell harmless. When the bow of the steamer was within a cable's length of the stern of the junk every native began to howl and wail, and most of them threw themselves prostrate on the decks.

White cloths were held up in token of surrender, but in answer I rang the bell for the engineer to pull her wide open. He did so, and we seemed to lift out of the water and be flung at the doomed craft like a missile.

The steamer struck her square in the stern, crashed into her for ten or twelve feet, and then the junk fell apart and became a heap of wreckage, which was cast aside from either bow. I ran on for a quarter of a mile and then turned. Not a living man was to be seen in this last disaster.

I ran over to the other heap of wreckage and saw two men still hanging on, but the sharks pulled them under just as I rang to stop our way. The steam was about exhausted, anyhow, and the time had come for a move against the pirates on board.

Believing they were badly frightened, I reloaded the weapons and stepped out on the deck with one in each hand. The only man in sight was the leader of the band, who stood in the bows looking up at me.

As I stepped out he said:

"Don't shoot me! We meant you no harm! We have thrown away our weapons!"

I went down to find them cowering in the passageways, every man's pluck completely gone. The captain and second mate were in the armory. I let them out, and then freed the engineer. The four of us were the only white men left alive.

We collected the prisoners in the mess room, held a short consultation and then proceeded to act.

While I remained among them to check any new ambition, the captain took his station at the forward port gangway. The engineer then led the pirates out to the captain one by one, and the latter put a bullet through each man's head and pitched him forward into the sea. It was retribution with a vengeance, and certain writers who were a thousand miles from the scene, and underwent none of its perils, have termed it the "massacre of prisoners."

I went out with the last one. Like all others who had preceded him he went humbly to his death, not even uttering a protest. When he had been disposed of we turned to and prepared the bodies of our dead for burial, cleaned the decks, and, by two of us acting as stokers, we worked the steamer up to Kiu-Siu.

For a few weeks the natives kept wonderfully quiet about the adventure, but it then leaked out that about 130 lives had been lost in the attempt to capture us. Had they got possession of the steamer it was their intention to run her up to the head of the Yellow sea, and make use of her in their piratical excursions from the coast of Formosa. As none of them understood how to navigate "the wingless devil," as they called her, it is likely that she would have been blown up within an hour or two after they got charge.

She was in the trade and on the same line for the next five years, and every native craft would turn tail at the sight of her five miles away. -New York Sun.