Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1897-11-11
A SEA SECRET.
BY C. B. LEWIS.


company's ship the Star of India set
sail from Madras for London, having on
board over 200 passengers, and among
them Lord Glenham, General Swift,
Lady Artwell and her two daughters,
and other men and women of note at
home and abroad. Aside from her gen.
eral cargo, the ship carried treasure to
the amount of $3.50. 600. The bankers at
Madras figured out that the passengers
must have had at least 500, 900 among
them, while an Indian potentate. ON his
way to be received as guest of royalty,
had strong box of jewelry and gems
valued at SO great sum that no one
dared speak it. 1t was intended that
the ship should be conveyed as far as
the cape of Good Hope by man-of-
war, as there were plenty Of pirate
craft still afloat, but the government
vessel met with a mishap at sea and
was detained somewhere, and the Star
finally decided to sail without her, and
there was little fear but that she could
take care of herself. Two days out of
Madras she was sighted and reported,
but that was the last seen or heard of
her until the year 1854
The loss of the Star made great SEN
was finally concluded that she had been
lost various vessels were sent in search
of her, and every effort was made to as
certain her fate In 1855 Malay sailor
who died aboard Of an English tea ship
told her captain that the Star was at
tackled and captured by pirates to the
south of Ceylon, and that he was one Of
the men engaged in the attack He said
there were five native crafts, and that
they came upon the Star in calm and
carried her by boarding. The ship made
long and stubborn resistance, but was
finally captured. and the pirates had
suffered such heavy loss that in revenge
they killed everybody 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 said it was absurd. The general
idea was that the Star foundered at sea
during heavy gale. The dying state
ment of the pirate was never fully in
vestigated for some reason So far as
the investigation went it was proved to
be fact. The pirates had long been
scattered, many were doubtless dead,
and the idea of bringing the gang to
justice was given up as impossible.
In the year 1868 was one of the
crew of the English brig Swiftsure,
which was making survey of the
islands to the northeast of Madagascar.
At the Chagos group, as we were pull
ing into land one day, with seven men
in the boat, we were upset In the surf
and only two of US escaped death. My
companion was a sailor named Wallace,
and while in half drowned state we
were swept along the coast of the island
by a current and finally thrown on
shore in a bit of cove. A boat put off
from the brig as soon as the disaster
was noticed, but only two bodies were
recovered. The three others were pulled
down by the sharks before the boat got
to them. Believing this to have been
the sad fate of all five no search was
made for the pair of us cast ashore, and
before we had recovered from our ex-
haustion and prepared a signal the brig
had departed for another field. The
island on which we were cast is one of
a group of nine. and the easternmost
one of all. 1t is likely the same today
as then, having plenty of fresh water,
most of it covered with verdure, and
wild fruits, shrimps and shellfish SO
plentiful that a shipwrecked crew of 90
men could get along there for months.
Wallace and / were inclined to look
upon the affair as a lark. We erected a
hut in the woods, procured fire by rub
bing two dry sticks together, and after
a thorough exploration of our domain,
which was not over two miles across in
any direction, we slept, ate and talked,
and had pretty easy time of it.
We had been ON the island about
three months. when we awoke one
morning to find the sea like sheet of
glass and the air as still as death. The
sky was overcast, and yet of coppery
color, and the birds on the island ap-
peared to be in great alarm. Great
fiocks of them came in from the sea,
and all along shore the fish were leap
ing out of the water as if it were pol
luted
After surveying things for awhile
Wallace gave it as his opinion that we
were in for typhoon or an earthquake.
The sulphury smell in the air inclined
him to the latter, and as soon as we had
eaten we started for the center of the
island. There was high hill in the
center, bare of everything but couple
of trees and few bushes, and we sought
it on account of the tidal wave we knew
would surely follow an earthquake. AS
to disturbance of the earth, we were
helpless except to keep clear of the for
est 1t was midday before anything oc-
Cured The menacing look of the sky
and the sea increased, and fish by the
thousands drove up on the sandy beach
to their death. just about noon, when