A MYSTERY OF THE SEA

Greymouth Evening Star, 27 March 1914, Page 8

A MYSTERY OF THE SEA

OLD-TIME COLD SHIP'S FATE. STORY REVIVED AT THE BLUFF. BLUFF, March 23. An inquiry received at the Bluff from the United States concerning the location of the wreck of the ship Madagascar has revived speculations as to Lie .a.c ol this celebiated Bla.ekwall liner, which was lost in 1853 while on a. voyage from Melbourne to the Old Country, never officially heaid of after sailing. The inquiry was referred to Mr J. W. H. Bannerman, author" of "Wrecks of Southern New Zealand." and he has given an interesting record of the Madagascar and her fate. The name °f the Madagascar is more or less, fresh in the memory of some old residents of the Bluff. Those who

have heard the old story of the mysterious treasure-laden ship believed to have been wrecked near. Doughboy Bay, on the west coast of Stewart Island, are in doubt as to any definite details, but they are all fairly unanimous that a large vessel

lamed the Madagascar met her doom in

:hat locality in the "fifties." There still lives at the Bluff an old Maori identity vho states that he saw a vessel wrecked in a storm near Doughboy Bay about that leriod. and ho maintains that she was the Madagascar and that not a soul escaped. : Efforts have on more than one iccasion been made, to extract defiite details from the Maori, but his one answei has always been, "I will say where in my will: I will not tell." He described hei as a big ship. Another man who is re-

ported to have seen the Madagascar was >ld Tommy Chasland. who used to say that he saw the Madagascar in bad v eat her off Stewart Island, and in such % position that she could.not possibly:, have. weathered the storm. It is largely upon these two.stories that the men of the elder generation have

based their belief in the treasure-shi' romance. The general belief has bee:

sufficient to cause search to be made, and only recently it was reported that the wreckage of a large vessel has been ob-

served in calm easterly weather ilea

Doughboy Bay. It- was at once believe •hat the hull of the old Madagascar ha >een found. However, this wreckag. was either what was remaining of tl

Niearaguan barque Emily, wrecked i

1890. or the barque Jack Frost, wrecker in 1854, both meeting their doom in thai

vicinity. Some of the, old hands, howiver, still believe in the old tradition and they maintain that at Stewart Island there lies a treasure ship as rich in gold is the famous General Grant, lost at the Vuckland Islands in 1866. Nothing oilicial lias ever been avaii.ole us lo tile actual late ol the Madagascar, that is so far as Lioyti s is con,eiiiej, anU it is o*uy ot lave LliaL ciuca ..ave ocen IOUiiU. il appears utal toe celebrated MTvor escort louueiy m \ ictoria occurred in July, 1853, and that .me oi Lie. liiguwaymen was arrested on ,oard the .Ua-aagaacur in August, IBu3, m IxObsuii s J->ay, just as she was about .o sail for England. Detective Tuck..ell, one of the Melbourne detective staff >i that vessel, visited the vessel shortly ,jfore she sailed, and in the Melbourne •Argus" he described his visit as follows : "The Madagascar, one of Green's .ilackwall liners, a frigate-built squarerigged ship of 1000 tons, lay snug at her moorings in Hobson's Bay, with hatches aattened down. Some 600 passengers were on board, and there was a heavy .rcight of gold-dust in her lazarette. The cene that revealed itself baffled all deeription and will for ever remain fresh in my memory,—drunkenness, fighting, rearing, and men, women and children in a state of semi-nudity, howling like wild animals. The crew were composed of men who were the most villainous and eotley that ijver signed articles on a capstan-head. ' Somo of the passengers ,-ere a rough lot, escaped convicts of the worst class. A pang of horror shot Jirough me a.s the thought rose to my brain, should evil overtake the Madagascar what would become of the women and young girls and the better class oi lassengers. Several days later the ship -iipped her moorings, and proceeded down l he bay in charge of a pilot, passed safely through the Rip, and after getting an offing of about seven miles dropped the pilot into his dinghy. From that moment to thc present she has never been seen or heard of " Further reference to the vessel occurs' u Mr John Saddler's "Recollections of a Police Officer," in which appears a dying confession by a woman in New Zealand to a clergyman. This confession states that the Madagascar was robbed, set on fire and scuttled off the coast of South America,. The captain and officers and I some of the passengers were murdered by a. mutinous crew, and six of those on board escaped, but afterwards succumbed to fever.