Sorry for this late report, which has taken three generations of "Els"'s and 85 odd years to post. I'm a bit lazy.
To summarise the story, SS Sunning was boarded by pirates pretending to be passengers and hi-jacked, the South China Sea's being a somewhat dangerous place to be at the time. The crew fought back and held out in the bridge, overcoming their pirate guard and seizing their weapons. Other pirates then set a fire below the bridge in order to smoke them out but the Captain ordered the anchor dropped. This swung the ship round which in turn, encouraged by the wind, fanned the flames towards the pirates. At this, the pirates gave up, throwing away their weapons and mingling with the passengers in order to evade capture. 9 escaped on a life boat, to be picked up by HMS Vindictive, on which my Grandfather happened to be on...
Fuller info here
The ship was towed to port, which must have been when these pictures were taken.
The best bit by far, the Pirates on HMS Vindictive.
To summarise the story, SS Sunning was boarded by pirates pretending to be passengers and hi-jacked, the South China Sea's being a somewhat dangerous place to be at the time. The crew fought back and held out in the bridge, overcoming their pirate guard and seizing their weapons. Other pirates then set a fire below the bridge in order to smoke them out but the Captain ordered the anchor dropped. This swung the ship round which in turn, encouraged by the wind, fanned the flames towards the pirates. At this, the pirates gave up, throwing away their weapons and mingling with the passengers in order to evade capture. 9 escaped on a life boat, to be picked up by HMS Vindictive, on which my Grandfather happened to be on...
Fuller info here
The ship was towed to port, which must have been when these pictures were taken.
The best bit by far, the Pirates on HMS Vindictive.
