Show A OF THE SEA N THE year 1849 the honorable east india company a ship the star of in dia set sail from madras for london having on board C over gers and mang them lord glen ham gen swift lady artwell and her two daughters and other men inen and women of note at hame and abroad aside from her general cargo the ship carried treasure to the amount of the bank era ers at madras figured f out that the pas must have had at least 10 among them while an indian potentate on his way to be received as a guest of royalty had a strong box of jewelry and gems valued at so great a sum that no one dared speak it it was intended that the sh p should be con voyed as far as the cape of good hope by a man of war as there were plenty of pirate craft still afloat but the gov vessel met with a mishap at sea and was detained somewhere and the star finally decided to sail with out her as there was little fear but that she could take care of herself two days out of madras she was s ed and reported but that was the last seen or heard of her until the year 1864 the los of the star made a great sensation for several reasons and when it was finally concluded that she had been lost various vessels were sent in search of her and evera ever effort was made to ascertain her fate in 1856 a malay sailor who died aboard of an english tea ted ship told her captain that the star wa attacked and captured c by pirates to the south of ceylon and that he lie was one of the men engaged in the attack he said there were five na five craft and that they came calne upon the stir in a calm and carried her by boardm g the ship made a long and stubborn re istance but was finally captured and the pirates had suffered such heavy loss that in revenge they killed ei to the last child they then looted the ship and scuttled her and the plunder was subsequently divided on an island in the china sea some people believed this story and some eald said it was absurd the general idea was that the star foundered at sea during a heavy gale the dying statement of the pirate was never fully in vesti gated for some reabon so tar far as the investigation went it was proved to be a tact fact the pirates had long been scattered many were doubtless dead and tho the idea of bung ng the gang to j estile v was as gt gi en up az in t tl e 3 ear 1863 1 I was one 0 the crew of he english brig Swit tsure hi h was making a survey of the islands to the northeast of madagascar at af the chagos gro p as we ve were pull ins ing into land one day with seven men in the boat ye ve were A ere upset in the surf and only two of us es apece death my compain ion was a sailor named wal ace an ani I 1 ft h hie ic in a halt half drowned skate we were swept a ong the coast of the island by a curi curien en and finally thrown on a bit of a cove cone A boat put off from tho the brig as coon qoon as the d sas ter vias u noticed but only two bod es were wire rEen re ered the three others were pulled down don by the sharks before the boat go to them believing this to have been the sad fate of all five no search wa aa made for the pair of ns us cast ashore and before we had ered from ou exha stion and prepared a signal the brig had departed for an other feld the island on which we wei e cast i one of a gi group aup of nine and the innermost one of all it is likely the same today as then having plenty of fresh water vater most of it covered with verdure and ind wild fruits shrimps and shellfish 0 o plent ful a shipwrecked eq crow crew of twenty men could get along there tor for months wallace and I 1 were inclined to look uron the affair as a lark AA e erected a hut in the woods procured fire bv rubb ng two dry sticks together ani ant after a thorough explore aaion ct et our domain which was not over two in les across in any d we slept ate and talked and had a pretty earv time of it we had been on the island about three months when we awoke one morning to find the sea like a sheet of glass and the air as still as death the sky was oi overcast ervast and 3 vet et of a cop pery color and the birds on the island appeared to be in great alarm great flacks flocks ot of them came in from the sea and all along shore the fish were leap ing out of the water as it if it were pol POI after surveying jing things tor for a while wallace gave it as his opinion that we were in for a typhoon or an earthquake the smell in the air li ii dined him to the latter and as soon is we had eaten we started tor for the center of the island there was a high hill in tho the center bare of 0 every thing but i t couple of trees and a few bushea and we sought it on account of the tidal nave ave we knew would sure ly follow an earthquake chere I 1 here was vias more than one shock but the first was the most violent and last ed longest the three or tour four which succeeded were thrills rather than shocks ran through the island from east to west and out to sea and we heard a chorus of what may be called the flip shrieks of distress from the birds w alth ith e eab cb vibration two or three minutes after the fourth or fifth shock 1 illace stood up and looked out upon the sea to the east and shout ed to me look LOO looz the tidal wave Is coming in and there s a big ship on the crest of it I 1 sprang up and followed his gaze ten milea miles awas there was a wall of water which seemed to lift its great white crest almost to the sky and to reach north and south as far as I 1 could see riding or the crest was a great ship with her three masts standing erect and some of the yards across for the first ten seconds the wall seemed to stand still then it came rolling on ill e a railroad train and al most bea beffie oi e I 1 could have counted awen ty it struck the shore of our island and swep acra across s it the island was a good thirty feet above water in every part while on the hill we were at least 10 but all poi pol tiona tion save the hill were covered ba b at least ten feet I 1 had my eye on the ship hip alone it came straight tor for the I 1 ill but as the wave wane div ded it was vias swept to the left and struck the earth and was vas turned full about while it hung the waters passed on and la at our feet resting almost on a level keel v was as as strange a sight as the eyes of a sal sat or ever beheld it was a ship to be sure but one had to rub his ea eves ea and bicok again and again to be certain of it there was the great hull there tb th three masts up aloft the carls and there were scores of ropes trailing like slimy serpents from front stem stein to stern and from keel to masthead the fabric was covered with mud and s ime and barnacle and sea grass and shells and as she rested there the water poured oft off her decks and out of her hold in such a sobbing choking way as to bring the shivers not a word had packed between the pa r of us while the wave vave raced in and across the island and the ground below us was clear of the last water before wallace said I 1 think this ends it and let us both thatis god this ship was heaved up flom the bottom of the sea where she must have rested for a good many years but we 11 have haver to wait a day or two before we investigate blei a coup e oll 0 hours to Is let t the ground dry out a bit we descended the hill to see what damage had been done about one half the trees on the island had been uprooted and carried out to sea and of our hut not a vestige remained there was scarcely a stone as large as a hen egg on the island previous to the wave but now we found that hundreds of rocks had been dis tributes tri buted around while the dead fish were co 0 o numerous that we were hours in gathering them up and giving them to the tide to bear away two hours after the last shock the sky cleared the sun a came out and by night the sr island was fa fly riy dry in all parta parts we however gave the ship all next day to 9 gei et rid of her ter water and harden in the hot sun you are prepared to hear of co arse th it she proved to he be the lin li n lost itar tar ot 0 india we found that 0 t be ore we I 1 a I 1 beer aboard ot of her a quarter of an hour and later on we ha I 1 a dozen I 1 leaon for bellring beli bell ving that the dying malay had spoken the truth I 1 tell 0 o i thit hip wa a a beer sight her ocean bed had been hundreds of feet d ep binl in I 1 jhc ir id covered cc vered every th ill ng to tho the depth of a toot foot in some placebo tv 0 or thi ee net nei her one of us had hear I 1 of the her loas los but vie e knew this wreck to be that of 0 an in di it ii I 1 ne e TV out cut at it to clear A wiy ay iy the sti stift ft and got ct into her we we 0 a full tek doing this and at every turn we came across bences to prove tha the a ory of the malay three or tour four of her guns were yet in place and from the way she had been knocked about by cannon shot it was easy to figure that she had made a hard fight light and buffeted suf feied great loss of life before she gave in aven before we began work we found the augur holes bored in her bottom to scuttle her the great cabin and every state room had t vo feet ot of mud on the floor and I 1 may tell you that we worked hard for four weeks before we got the hulk cleaned out in the mud and among the mold and rot we found rusty muskets pistols swords pieces of jewelry cutlery crockery glassware and what not but in actual money we found only 5 sovereigns A part of the cargo had been wool but we got nothing wh whatever ateer of value out of it JL indeed when our work had been fin flu dished we simply had a big hulk rest ing on land a mile from the beach and were only five gold pieces better 0 off it than before the pirates had swept her clean of treasure plundering the passengers before murdering them and we did not find in cabin or state room so much as a single bone of human anatomy we made the ship our home for six sot months and were then taken off by a whaler and our story was the first news received of the long lost ship the english government sent a man of war to the island to overhaul the hulk and mementoes of her have long been on exhibition in the british museum nothing could be more queer than the way we found her or rather the way she was heaved up by the sea to be discovered from soundings made to the east of the island in 1867 68 it was estimated that the great ship rose from a depth ot of over 2 feet Nothing but an earthquake could have lifted her from that depth nothing but a tidal wave held her up and swept her to our feet |