The Sydney Gazette 23 April 1814
'PIRATES'
SEIZE THE SCHOONER SPEEDWELL
Information is received from
Newcastle of the piratical capture of the Speedwell,
a schooner of about 21 tons burthen, Patten master, on the
night of the 7th instant, by four desperadoes,
whose names are Burridge, Styles, Scarr and Pearce. The
report states that the night was a continual heavy rain; and
that about midnight the master was awakened by one of the
ruffians, who requested in the name of the Commandant the
loan of a grapnel, for the purpose of mooring a boat off;
which the master went down the hold to procure, and was
there secured after a struggle, in the course of which he
received several blows on the head. The wife of the master
being on board, and a seaman, who was asleep in the
forecastle, they were both secured, and the wind favouring
the audacious attack, the vessel was taken out of the
harbour without the slightest alarm reaching the shore nor
was she discerned till at the very mouth of the river; when
the people on board the Governor Hunter, which had
been that day launched from the beach she had sometime
before grounded on, saw her beating about, and concluded she
had got adrift, and was endeavouring to work in ; so that as
it continued to rain very hard, no further notice was taken
of her. The Governor Hunter’s boat had been missed
the same night from along side, and it proved afterwards
that she had been stolen by these depredators, and was
employed in the capture, but given unto the three persons
whom they made prisoners, to return with it to the
settlement. On board the vessel was month’s provisions, and
about sixty gallons of water; which may enable them for a
short time to subsist, but they have no boat with them, and
consequently can procure no supply of necessaries without
the utmost risque to the vessel and their own lives; and
thus as has been the case with every former attempt of the
kind, may be counted on as the certain destruction of those
who have been rash enough to engage in it.