[woofa.express]

Lahad Datu Pirate Attack. Part 1 of 2 parts.

Preamble to story.
I was spreading fertilizer on oil palms in the Malaysian state of Sabah in the North East of Borneo. The Philippines islands were only about 30 miles off the coastand those islands were the home of pirates. They had fast long boats powered by three 150 hp outboards. No other boat could catch them. A machine gun was mounted on the bow. They were renowned as merciless. One of our Pilipino crew had some strange tattoo marks on his cheeks which was apparently a form of brand from his former pirate days.
There were three pilots and an engineer based at alocation known as Sahabat one and our nearest town was Lahad Datu, about 20 min flight or an hour and half in motor car. Our accommodation at Sahabat was a well set up motel style accommodation with a large dining room and lounge. It was purpose built for business meetings and social events for the management of the palm plantations. By Malaysian standards it was pretty comfortable and even elaborate. The complex was fenced in by a man proof fence and at night guards were posted, each equipt with sawn off 12G shot gun. I asked one what they would do if pirates appeared and he said “run”. That would make their purpose solely for the false comfort of us guests. They never did appear during the period that I worked there, ’96 to 2000. Although some motor bikes were stolen and some found abandoned on the beach. Said to be pirates. If they were they were pretty amateurish.
They did serve a useful purpose to our group because they were our source of liquor supply through an intermediary, Razzol,the bloke with the facial markings I mentioned earlier. San Magill beer, good quality lager for an affordable price and Tanduay rum, very affordable and very poor quality. Burnie on the throat. But we still drank it.

part 2, tomorrow night. cheers, gary