Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 February 1918 — DEATH ON GALLOWS [ARTICLE]

DEATH ON GALLOWS

Modem German Pirates Deserve Fate of Buccaneers of Old. Sailors Serving on ..United States Merchant Marine Today Knew Man Who Remembered Fate of Spanish Freebooters. Stories of piratical methods employed by German submarine commanders in burning undefended merchant vessels and mistreating defenseless crews are no novelty to thousands of mariners on the Atlantic coast, such as are now enrolling for service in the new merchant marine. Some of these sailors, who are to man the emergency fleet of merchant ships being constructed for the United States shipping board to take supplies to our armies in France, actually knew men who suffered at the hands of the last pirates of the Spanish main, whose methods were similar, to those of the Germans. Among the men who reported for duty as mates recently at the recruiting headquarters of the shipping board were some from the Massachusetts coast who had known a survivor of the last ship taken by Spanish pirates of the Caribbean. This was CapL Thomas Fuller of Salem, who died in 1906 at the age of ninety-four. Captain Fuller was able seaman in the crew of the brig Mexican of Salem in 1832 when, laden with saltpeter and tea, with $20,000 in silver stowed under the cabin floor, she sailed from her home port for Rio. On August 29, near the coast of Cuba, the schooner was held up by a vessel described as “a long, low, straight topsail schooner of about 150 tons, painted black,” which hailed and requested the captain of the Mexican to send a boat alongside with his papers. The boat was sent, and came back in charge of an ill-looking armed crew of pirates from the Spanish main, who drove the crew of the Mexican below decks, fastened down the hatches, and began looting the vessel. Finding the silver, they sent it aboard their own ship. The pirates next cut the sails and rigging of the brig to pieces and started a fire In the galley on deck, which they expected would soon destroy the brig. They then departed for their own vessel, and sailed away in search of other victims. But they had neglected to fasten down the cabin skylight. Through this the brig’s captain crawled, and, getting to the fire, splashed water on it until he had it in control. He then caused it to smoke heavily until the enemy was out of sight. The crew rerigged their vessel, and favored by a gale made their escape from such a dangerous neighborhood. Salem sailors today recall with satisfaction that the long arm of justice meted out retribution to the pirates. A few months later a Salem vessel was in the harbor of St. Thomas, when a low, black schooner anchored near her. The Salem captain was suspicious, and Inventing an excuse went aboard the schooner for a call. On her deck he saw two spare painted black which he recognized as belonging to the Mexican. That night the stranger left the harbor, but the Salem captain notified a British man-of-war captain of her character. A few months later the British brig-of-war Curlew caught the black stranger in the Nazareth river, a slaving locality on the west coast of Africa. The pirate crew fled to the shore and found shelter with a native. They were hunted hard, and four were taken. Later 11 others were taken at Fernando Po and St. Thomas. The. pirates were conveyed to Boston for trial, and found guilty of the attack on the Mexican. Their captain. Pedro Gilbert, assumed innocence and the air of an injured gentleman. He was found guilty, with four others. In sentencing the five to death. Judge Joseph Story used language that reduced the court to tears, closing with these words to the condemned men: “And in bidding you, as far as I can presume to know, an eternal farewell, I offer up my. earnest prayer that Almighty God may in his Infinite mercy and goodness have mercy on your souls.” The five men were hanged in Boston, and with their exit piracy ended in the western world. .