Pirates threaten a Scarborough ship
The importance that sailors attach to their provisions and stores is great and sometimes amusing. The Scarborough Barque Migrator, belonging to W and B Fowler and commanded by Captain Hargreave Potter (uncle of the present Captain Potter) was lying becalmed one day off the China coast, when a couple of piratical looking craft, full of men, were observed coming out from the land under sweeps. Captain Potter studied them very carefully through his glasses, and then, his worst fears confirmed, called the crew, and announced the approaching visitors, giving orders for the boats to be lowered, and telling them that as the pirates came up they would abandon ship, for a massacre would only result from resistance.
Hearing this, a cousin of mine, who was an apprentice onboard, said "Pirates eh! Well they won't have my sugar" and he dived below and quickly ate his weeks supply, which had been only that morning served out. He returned on deck, but happily a light breeze had sprung up, and the Barque managed to clear away, but my cousin had to do without sugar until the following saturday!
The above story appeared in a series of articles by Forrest Frank in 1920 in the Scarborough Daily Post - This story came from Captain Wyrill
OTHER ARTICLES
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• Crimps agents in the era of sailing ships
• The national RNLI and the Scarborough lifeboat of 1861.
• A sea shanty about a storm on the Scarborough coast
• The early years of the Scarborough Lifeboat
• Dennis Allen - stories from the sea
• Strange customs amongst the Scarborough shipbuilders
• Charles Dickens account of Filey and Scarborough graveyards
• Tommy Rowley - stories about loss of life at sea
• Scarborough trawlers sunk and wrecked in the modern era
• Hinderwells account of the first launch of the Scarborough Lifeboat in 1802
• Coastal erosion in the 19th Century around the North Bay and Scarborough Castle area
• Stories of human interest from the sea port of Scarborough
• The press gang and the Royal Navy at Scarborough
• Harwood Brierleys description of Scarborough harbour at the opening of the 20th century
• The U-Boat campaign in the First World War
• Some Scarborough sailing ships - Mercia and A.I.
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