Berwick Register,
August 22, 1923
NOVA SCOTIANS BATTLE WITH RUM PIRATES
Gloucester, Mass., Aug. 20. – In a battle with rum pirates on board his schooner, the J. Scott Hankensen, out of Nova Scotia, Captain Arthur Moore, of Weymouth, N.S., was shot and probably fatally injured today.
Harry Hamm, cook of the vessel, was shot in several places. Both were brought to hospital here by fishermen who sighted the schooner’s distress signals after the shooting.
According to the story told by the crew of the schooner, the vessel was laying-to off Rockport, about 4.30 this afternoon, when two men approached in a motor boat and boarded her. The schooner’s cargo consisted of 3,000 cases of whisky.
PIRATES OPENED FIRE
Two men entered the cabin and at once opened fire with revolvers on the captain and cook. Although shot through the stomach at the first volley, Captain Moore returned the fire, wounding one of his assailants. The cook was shot in the neck, shoulder and both legs.
The pirates, discouraged by the skipper’s resistance, left without any plunder and headed off shore in their boat. Some time later two fishermen who were passing in a motor boat saw the schooner flying distress signals and took off the two wounded men, who were landed at Rockport, and brought to a hospital here.
Late tonight physicians said Moore would probably die of his wounds.
The J. Scott Hankinson is a schooner of 220 tons, and was reported at Yarmouth on July 10th, undergoing repairs, and was cleared from that port for Nassau.