Hutcheson, John Conroy: The Penang Pirate v1 26 jan 2009
 

John C Hutcheson was born in St. Helier, Jersey, in mid 1840. He died in Portsea, Hampshire, England either at the end of 1896 or early in 1897. This information came from the Registers of Births, Deaths and Marriages.(Athelstane)

This is a fairly short book, consisting of two short stories. The first of these, "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.

It was the custom at that time for a ship's pinnace to be left behind under the command of a junior officer whenever the warship left the station on a chase. No junior officer being available the pinnace is left with the bosun in command.

All is well for a time, but there is a severe storm, and the pinnace is lost, several miles from the Madagascar shore. Some of the crew are lost, but the remainder, including the bosun, who is telling the tale years later to a friend back in England, reach the shore. Their journey to the capital of Madagascar is very difficult and dangerous, but most of them get there in the end.