Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1897-11-11
WOODBURY., N. ), THURSDAY, NOVEMBER II, 1897.

we were wondering what it was to be,
the whole island suddenly began to heave
and tremble For what seemed full
minute it was like riding choppy sea
in a small boat, only the sensation was
strangely bewildering and made the
head swim.
There was more than one shock, but
the first was the most violent and lasted
longest The three or four which sue
ceeded were thrills rather than shocks
They ran through the island from east
to west and out to sea, and we heard a
| chorus of what may be called shrieks of
distress from the birds with each vibra-
tion. Two or three minutes after the
fourth or fifth shock Wallace stood up
and looked out upon the sea to the east
and shouted to me:
Look, look, the tidal wave is COM
ing in, and there's big ship on the
crest of it. .
| l sprang up and followed his gaze.
pTen miles away there was wall of wa
ter, which seemed to lift it's white crest
almost to the sky and to reach north
and south as far as could see. Riding
on this crest was great ship, with her
three masts standing erect and some of
the yards across For the first ten seq
onds the wall seemed to stand still.
Then it came rolling on like railroad
train, and almost before / could have
counted 20 it struck the shore of our
island and swept across it. The island
was good 80 feet above water in every
part, while on the hill we were at least
100, but all portions save the hill were
covered by at least ten feet. had
my eye on the ship alone. 1t came
straight for the hill, but as the wave
divided it was swept to the left and
struck the earth and was turned full
about. While it hung there the waters
passed on, and, 10, at our feet, resting
almost on level keel, was as strange a
sight as the eyes of sailor ever beheld.
1t was ship to be sure, but one had
to rub his eyes and look again and
again to be certain of it. There was the
great hull-there the three masts-up
aloft the yards, and there were scores
of ropes trailing about like Shiny SER
pents. From stem to stern and from
keel to masthead the fabric was covered
with mud and slime and barnacle and
sea grass and shells, and as she rested
there the water poured off her decks
and out of her hold in such sobbing,
choking way as to bring the shivers.
Not word had passed between the pair
of us while the wave raced in and
across the island, and the ground below
us was clear of the last water before
Wallace said:
II think this ends it, and let us both
thank God This ship was heaved up
from the bottom of the sea, where she
must have rested for good many years.
but we'll have to wait a day or two be-
fore we investigate.
After couple of hours, to let 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 vestige re-
mained. There was scarcely stone as
large as hens egg on the island pre-
vious to the wave, but now we found
that hundreds Of rocks had been distrib-
uted around, while the dead fish were
SO 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
came out, and by night the island was
fairly dry in all parts. We, however,
gave the ship all next day to get rid of
her water and harden in the hot sun.
You are prepared to hear, Of course,
that she proved to be the long lost Star
of India. We found that out before we
had been aboard of her quarter of an
hour, and later on we had dozen rea-
sons for believing that the dying Malay
had spoken the truth.
tell you that ship was queer sight.
Her ocean bed had been hundreds of
feet deep, and the mud covered every
thing to the depth of foot--in some
places two or three. Neither one of us
had heard of the Star or her loss, but
we knew this wreck to be that of an In
diaman, and we went at it to clear
away the stuff and get into her. We
were full week doing this, and at
prove the story of the Malay. Three or
four of her guns were yet in place, and
from the way she had been knocked
about by cannon shot it was easy to fig
ure that she had made hard fight and
suffered great loss of life before she
gave in. Even before we began work
we found the auger holes bored in her
hot 70 10 nto hi
and every stateroom had two feet Of
mud on the floor, and may tell you
that we worked hard for four weeks be-
fore we got the hulk cleaned out.
We made the ship our home for six
months and were then taken off by
whaler, and our story was the first news
received of the long lost ship The Eng
lish government sent man-ofwar to
the island to overhaul the hulk, and me-
mentos of her have long been on exhi-
bition 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 1868 it was estimated that
the great ship rose from depth Of over
2,000 feet. Nothing but an earthquake
could have lifted her from that depth,
nothing but tidal wave held her up
and swept her to our feet.
Opposed to Thirteen.
was buying parlor car seat for the
Atlantic City express when l observed
q lady Just ahead of me at the window