Galapagos Pirates

The trim, 110-ft. U.S. yacht Valinda stood at anchor off Ecuador's Galapagos Islands in predawn darkness. The weather was balmy; the yacht's owner, Los Angeles Attorney William Rhodes Hervey Jr., 48, dozed on deck. Suddenly Hervey was roused by the chugging engines of two ancient fishing boats pulling alongside. Remembering a warning about seagoing thieves among the islands, he warned the boats to keep off, tried to kick one of them from Valinda's side.

It was no use. Waving pistols, 21 ragged, filthy men piled over the rail. Wakened by shouts, Hervey's wife Mildred rushed on deck, was held at gunpoint. The four-man crew was rounded up. Then the raiders, fugitives from the Galapagos penal colony on Isabela Island, demanded to be taken to the mainland.

As the yacht churned east, the amateur pirates chattered to their captives about the horrors of the prison island. Their jailers, they said, stole most of the ration allowance of 14-c- a day. Gold teeth were forcibly yanked from their mouths. They were housed in shacks, clothed in rags and forbidden to eat the produce they grew. For punishment they were beaten with rattan whips and hoisted by the armpits to hang in the sun all day without water.

Last year Ecuador's Congress abolished the colony, but 61 convicts were left on

Isabela because of overcrowding in mainland prisons. The day before they boarded Valinda, the prisoners mutinied. They raided the arsenal, disarmed the few remaining guards, then pillaged Villamil (pop. about 200), the island's administrative settlement. Loading their loot into a pair of stolen boats, 21 of them set course for the mainland, hoping for a chance to seize a more seaworthy craft en route; Valinda became their prize.

For the Hervey s, the trip to the mainland was a 63-hour nightmare. The convicts, brutalized by life on Isabela, tore through the yacht with savage greed. They gorged themselves, fouled the cabins, stole everything they could find from cash to toothbrushes. Only after one of the wild-eyed escapees broke into the Herveys' cabin was a semblance of order restored. A young convict called a ship's meeting, delivered a ringing oration pledging that he and his comrades would mend their ways if their escape succeeded. He got his fellow convicts to sing Ecuador's national anthem, then led cheers for Ecuador, the U.S. and liberty.

At Punta Galera, 100 miles from the Colombia border, the young convict embraced the Herveys, kissed their hands in gratitude, then rode ashore with his friends and their loot in Valinda's launch. When they were gone, the yacht headed north to Panama. By week's end, Isabela's commandant reported that order had been restored. And, on the Ecuadorian mainland, ten of the Valinda's fugitive passengers were rounded up.

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