Show STOLE IRONCLAD BY PIECEMEAL at least nothing was left that could be carried away the most audacious pei cemeal robbery on record was that effected by some peruvian irregulars during the war with chile in the summer of 1873 for tear of the harscar which was cruising along the chilean seaboard and which tor power and weight 01 metal was infinitely superior to any thing the latter nation had then afloat the chilean man of war pareja was temporarily hidden away in a creeh some fifty miles south of valparaiso and as fighting men were urgently needed elsewhere her crew were kaaen off and she was ie in charge of a corporal s guard of marines these were overpowered one dark night and the bodies tumbled over board after which the adventurers proceeded to carry away the whole of the internal fittings of the ship and this apparently impossible task they actually accomplished the pareja s guns her stores and ammunition 1200 stands of small arms even her machinery and boilers were lowered into a number of fruit boats which had been chartered for the purpose and safely carried north ward into peruvian waters where they were afeei wards used to outfit another vessel and when some months later the harscar having been sunk by the chilean fleet the lawful owners of the pareja came to look lor her and bring her out to sea again they found only the empty shell of a ship silent and deserted and without as much porta ble property aboard as would hava to fill a decent sized portman stray stories |