The Penang Pirate and the Lost Pinnace

The Penang Pirate and the Lost Pinnace by John Conroy Hutcheson and Illustrated by Archibald Webb first published in 1880. This book includes two stories. The first “The Penang Pirate”, describes how the Captain of the “Hankow Lin”, suspecting that there might be a piratical attack on his vessel on her return voyage from Canton to Australia, lays plans to spoil the pirates’ fun. As a result of this the attacking pirate vessel is soundly beaten, but there were some interesting events and confrontations before they actually met the pirate schooner. The second story is “The Lost Pinnace”. HMS London is cruising the East Coast of Africa in search of any slaver dhows. One of these is met with and deleted, so the London, a midshipman with knowledge of the local language having overheard that there is a second slaver not far away, sets off in search of a further conquest. John Conroy Hutcheson (1840- 1897) was a British author of novels and short stories about life aboard ships at sea.