Battle off Mukah

Part of Piracy in Asia and Pirate attacks in Borneo

A map of Sarawak showing the location of the naval battle off Mukah in 1862.

Date	mid November 1862
Location	off Mukah, Borneo, South China Sea
Result	Sarawakian victory

Belligerents

Kingdom of Sarawak

Moro Pirates

Commanders and leaders

John Brooke

unknown

Strength

1 steamer
1 gunboat

6 prahus

Casualties and losses

~1 killed
~2 wounded
1 steamer damaged
1 gunboat damaged

~100 killed or wounded
4 prahus sunk
1 prahu damaged

The Battle off Mukah was a naval engagement fought in 1862 between the navy of Sarawak and pirates. After the kidnapping of Sarawakian citizens some time before, their navy dispatched two small warships which encountered the pirates off Mukah on the northern coast of Borneo. In an unusual action, the Rajah Mudah, Captain John Brooke, then the heir apparent to be white rajah of Sarawak, led his force in the defeat of six pirate ships and the rescue of captured civilians.

The pirates who participated in the battle were Illanuns of the Moro pirates from the southern Philippines. They had raided several coastal settlements in 1862 and the years preceding so many men and women were being held prisoner or worked as galley slaves on board the pirates' prahus. A prahu was a type of large primitive sailing ship, with about a ten-foot beam and usually over forty feet long, they could also be propelled by oars and the pirates armed theirs with three brass swivel guns each. The prahus had crews of over 100 men and were roofed by a bamboo cover to protect the ammunition and provisions from rain and to provide a platform to fight from. Sulu pirates sheltered in bays along the coast during the trading season to prey on merchant shipping passing from places like Singapore, Penang, or China back to the Americas or Europe. In response to the affair, Captain Brooke headed down the coast from the town of Sarawak, in November 1862 to build a fort at Bintulu and release the captives at Mukah. He had with him his eighty-foot screw-steamer named Rainbow, armed with two 9-pounder cannons, one 12-pounder and one 4-pounder, the latter two were meant to be offloaded for use at the fort. There was also a gunboat named Jolly Bachelor, under the command of a Captain Hewat, and armed with two brass 6-pounder guns and two small swivels.

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Wikipedia