Pirate Ship - Yellow Sea Journey

Sample Chapter from The Obstinate Horse and Other Stories

MARIE MONSEN looked round her “cabin” with a rueful smile. It was little bigger than a cupboard, had bare boards for a bed, no window, and was thick with dust. All the other cabins were filled, and as this one, belonging to the Mate, had been offered to her, she gladly accepted it.

“It is only for one night,” she thought. She was the only white-skinned person on board, though there were several hundred Chinese passengers. Having seen her suitcases safely put in the cabin, she went out on deck to talk to her fellow-passengers and to give out leaflets which told the Gospel in a simple way for those who had never heard it. As darkness fell, she went to her cabin, knelt in prayer by her hard bed, and then lay down, fully clothed, to sleep. She felt sure that God meant her to make this journey because she had prayed much about it.

Very early next morning she was startled by the sound of pistol shots, the shrieks of pas-sengers, doors being wrenched open, and people running up and down. Twenty pirates had mingled with the passengers and, once at sea, compelled the captain at pistol point to change course. Now the passengers were being ordered out of their cabins down to the hold.

“Oh dear,” thought Marie, “How awful! Pirates!” Immediately she remembered a verse in the Bible that had often been a comfort to her in times of danger. She repeated it to herself in this way.

“Fear not, Marie, for I am with you; be not dismayed, Marie, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, Marie, yes, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.” And then she added, “Lord, I will obey and not be afraid.”

The pirates came to her cabin one after another and ordered her down to the hold, but as they never stopped to see their orders carried out, she stayed where she was. “God gave me this cabin,” she said to herself, “so here I shall stay.”

A second lot of sixty pirates came aboard with guns and ammunition. They broke the lock of Marie’s door and came in and out freely. Her only defence was prayer. One of the leaders held a pistol at her head, saying, “I’ll shoot you!”

“No, you can’t shoot me just when you like,” she replied. Somehow all her fear had been taken away. “My God has said, ‘No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper.’”

Again and again in the days that followed, Marie heard him say, “Just think! She says I can’t shoot her whenever I like because her God says that no weapon that is formed against her shall prosper.” One man stole her wrist watch, but surprisingly, a man who seemed to have some sort of authority and was more friendly to her than any of the others ordered it to be returned to her.

On the second day Marie noticed that the cabin had fit-tings for an inner screen door. If only she could have that door! There seemed to be only one of the real crew about, so when he brought her small allowance of hot drinking water she asked him if he knew where it was. “Yes,” he re-plied, “and when the pirates are smoking their opium I will bring it up.” He did so, and helped Marie to fix it in position. How wonderful it was to have some air, and yet to be able to fasten her door again on the inside!

For five days the ship, under its new command, steamed up and down, shooting at every boat that came in sight, and then capturing and looting them. Marie’s cabin was situated between the pirates’ headquarters on the one side and the ammunition store on the other. Day and night pandemonium reigned. After five days Marie was utterly exhausted from the noise and lack of sleep. But there was nothing to do but pray! “Lord, let me sleep. I ask You for sleep.” Miraculously, the ship suddenly became quiet and Marie fell sound asleep. After the ship had anchored in a secluded estuary out of sight, it was never so noisy again.

About this time Marie’s friends had heard that the ship had fallen into the hands of pirates and were praying earnestly for her. And their prayers were heard. From that time on, instead of feeling as if she were swimming against the stream, it was as if she were being borne along on a strong current to a safe landing.

After looting the passengers’ clothing, the pirates paraded up and down outside Marie’s cabin in fine silk garments, looking very ridiculous. For a few days they all wore spectacles too! New bicycles from the hold also provided hours of entertainment, as one after another tried to ride them up and down the narrow deck.

This deck was the place, too, where the pirates chose to have their meals consisting of all sorts of luxurious tinned foods they had stolen. They often offered some to Marie, who replied,

“No, thank you!”

“Well, tell us what you would like to eat, and we will try and get it for you.”

“No, thank you! I can’t eat stolen food; and whatever I asked for, you would only go and steal from other people.”

“But you will die of starvation,” they said.

“No, my Father in Heaven is able to keep me alive,” she answered. And this is how her Heavenly Father fed Marie.

She had bought some apples the day before she sailed with-out really knowing why, and she had been given four boxes of chocolates. These with a few biscuits were all the food she had, so she divided it up into rations to last for nine days. The nine days had passed, the food was gone, and there was still no hope of being freed. But Marie was not worried, just interested to see how the Lord was going to supply her need now!

On the tenth morning before it was light, there was a gentle scratching on Marie’s door. She had been thinking of the story of Elijah and the ravens, and as she jumped down from her bunk she said to herself, “This is the raven!” It was the Mate whom she had not seen since they sailed.

“Have you any food?” he whispered.

“No, I haven’t,” she truthfully replied.

“Let me come in then. The guard is on the other side of the ship. I have a box full of eggs here in my cabin and a tin of cakes. You can have them all. I bought them in Tientsin with my own honestly earned money.” Saying this, he pulled out the treasure from among the buckets of paint, old shoes, empty paraffin tins, and other junk. Every day he ap-peared at that early hour, took four eggs, boiled them, and brought them back to her. Her daily ration became four eggs and two sweet cakes, and the supply lasted out until they were rescued. Marie was never hungry.

The weather was stormy and bitterly cold, and Marie had brought no bedding. As she was going to a warmer part of the country and expected to spend only one night at sea, she had packed all her winter clothes. But God knew what she would need and had made provision beforehand. Just before she started out, a belated Christmas parcel had arrived containing a warm cardigan and woollen stockings. The post that day had also brought no less than five fat bundles of newspapers from home. “Oh, dear,” she had sighed, “why didn’t these things come earlier? I shall have to take them with me now, and my baggage will be heavier.” How glad she was of that warm cardigan! The newspapers came in very useful too, for, pinned inside her coat, they helped to keep her warm at nights.

The days dragged by. More than two weeks had already gone. An intense desire filled Marie’s heart that the hundreds of passengers and the thirty-five members of the crew, all of them heathen, might see that hers was a living Almighty God.

Often one or other of the pirates said to her, “Don’t you know you are worth a lot of money?” —showing that they hoped to get a good ransom for her. Sometimes they deliber-ately tried to make her impatient, usually by saying they meant to keep her captive for a long time.

“Don’t you ever get impatient?” they would ask her.

“Do I look impatient?”

“No, that’s just what you don’t look. Whatever we do, we can’t provoke you. Aren’t you longing to go ashore and get away from us?”

“No, I’m not, and I thank God for that. He sent me to China to preach the Gospel, and now He wants me here to preach the Gospel to you, so I’ll stay as long as God wants. It is He who has allowed this to happen.”

“Can you understand such peace?” she heard them say to each other. “We can see it in her face. The other passengers look quite different. They get more and more impatient every day!”

Nearly three weeks had passed. Then government gunboats were reported to be nearby, and preparations were made to flee with the loot. About fifty junks, moored alongside the ship, were loaded with food and other stolen goods. But the great question concerned Marie and what to do with her. For hours they argued, and Marie could hear all that they were saying through the thin boards which divided her cabin from their headquarters. It was clear that only the Lord could deliver her. As she prayed He reassured her with His Word in Psalm 31:20: “Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.”

Plans were finally made to leave the ship at 3 pm on the twenty-first day, but Marie was so sure that God was not going to let her be carried off that she dared to tell the pirates so!

Just before the zero hour a tremendous storm arose around the ship, causing all the junks to cast off in great haste and make for the shore. When the storm subsided Marie neither heard a sound nor saw anyone for some hours. The pirates evidently believed that it was her God who had sent the storm to protect her. But the next day they decided to go ahead with their original plans. But when their spies returned, Marie could hear loud arguments and sounds of dis-agreement among the leaders. Then the time for their daily opium came, and nothing more could be done that day. The day following, as they were about to leave, Marie heard one of the pirates say,

“Go and tell the foreigner to get into the junk at once. We must go!” Hearing steps on the deck, Marie jumped to her feet.

“Lord, what will You do now?” she breathed.

The door was flung open and a pirate faced Marie. He stood staring for a long time, but without speaking a word; nor did he cross the threshold. Then, without delivering his message, he slammed the door and went off. Marie heard him say, “You can do what you like to me, but I can’t give your order!”

That evening an unexpected chance came for Marie to talk to the pirates about Christ for two or three hours.

“We are bad, only bad,” said one. “We were born bad. We do evil from morning to night, and from night to morning. You were born good. You don’t hate us like the other passengers.”

“Yes,” they all agreed, “that is quite true.” To which Marie replied that she was born with the same evil heart as they, and went on to tell them of the Saviour who came to save all men and give them new hearts. They were clearly impressed, for they listened to her in complete silence. It was an evening they would never forget.

Next day was Sunday, the twenty-third day of Marie’s captivity. Just after noon the sound of distant gunfire was heard, and after much running about, most of the pirates left the ship. Those left released the Captain from his cabin and ordered him to take the ship up the estuary. But it was too late. A gunboat was hard on their heels. In the cabin next door Marie heard frag-ments of a conversation:

“We must take the foreigner with us. . . they won’t dare to shoot if they see we have her. . . but how can we? She would have to run, and after eating nothing for twenty-three days, she couldn’t walk, much less run.” Marie thought she recognized the voice of the friendly pirate who had re-turned her watch.

“Hurry! Hurry! There’s no time to lose,” shouted some-one; and with that, the last of the pirates left the ship.

Marie, her heart full of thankfulness, was soon out of her cabin. Looking out over the water, she saw some of the pirates already on shore in full flight, littering the path with discarded garments as they ran. Others were making for the shore as fast as they could in the boats.

Seeing this, Marie ran down to the hold where the passengers were imprisoned, shouting, “Come up! Come up! The pirates have all gone!” But no one stirred. Again she shouted down to them, “I am the foreigner. The pirates really have all gone. Come up and see.” Cautiously they emerged and when they saw their former captors fleeing pell-mell across the sands, they forgot their usual Chinese dignity and laughed and cried and embraced one another. Then, rather sheepishly, they apologized to Marie.

“Forgive us, please. You see we have been sitting with a sword pointed at our hearts for twenty-three days!”

The original voyage southwards was now resumed without the unwelcome fellow-passengers. So Marie had four more days on that ship to witness to God’s faithfulness. The other travellers said to her, “Your great God has helped you, but none of our small gods has helped us!” This was Marie’s great opportunity to speak of the One who is “our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” and of the Saviour who can also rescue us from our sins and set us free (Psalm 46:1).

This is a samle chapter from The Obstinate Horse and Other Stories