The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1897-11-23
ESTABLISHED 1879.

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
penis. 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 of her decks
and out of her hold in such a 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:
81 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 day or two be-
fore we investigate
After a couple of hours. to let the
ground dry ont 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-
manned. There was scarcely a stone as
large as a hen's 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 a 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 a queer sight
Her ocean bed had been hundreds Of
feet deep and the mud covered every
thing to the depth of a foot III 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
every turn we came across evidences to
r,f ri u Malo
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
bottom TO scuttle her The great cabin
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 OF by
whaler. and our story was the first news
received of the long lost ship The Eng
lish government sent a man of war 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 1878 it was estimated that
the great ship rose from a depth Of over
9 900 feet Nothing but an earthouaISe
could have lifted her from that depth.
nothing but a tidal wave held her up
and swept her to our feet