SHIP MADAGASCAR.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16508, 25 March 1914, Page 12

SHIP MADAGASCAR.

—♦- A MYSTERY OF THE SEA. OLD-TIME GOLD-SHIP'S FATE. STORY REVIVED AT THE BLUFF. [Feoic Ovjr CoßKKsrosnvKT.] BLUFF. March •>■•). An inquiry received nt the. Bluff from tho United States concerning the location of Ihe wreck of the ship Madagascar has revived speculations ;ia to the late of this celebrated Black wall liner, which was lost in 1853 while on a voyage, from Melbourne io the Old Country, never officially heard of alter sailing. The inquiry was referred to Mr J. W. H. Bauneruian, author of "Wrecks of Southern Now Zealand,'' and ho bus given an interesting record of tho Madagascar and her fate. The name of the Madagascar is moro or less fresh in tho memory of sonic 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 definitedetails, but they arc all fairly unanimous that,a.large vessel named tho .Madagascar met her doom in that localitv in the "fifties." There still lives at the Bluff an old Maori identity "who states that ho saw a vessel wrecked in a,storm near Doughboy Bay about that period, and ho maintains that she was the Madagascar and that not a soul escaped. Efforts have on more than one occasion been made to extract definite details from this Maori but his one answer has always been. "I will .say where in my will; I will not tell."' Ha described her as a big ship. Another man who is reported to have scon, tho Madagascar was old Tommv Chasland. who used to sav that he saw the Madagascar in bad weather off Stewart Island and in such a position that she could not possibly have weathered tho storm.

It is largely upon these two stories that the men' of the elder generation have based their belief in the treasureship romance. The general belief has been sufficient, to cause search to bo made, and only recently it was reported that the wreckage of a large vessel has been observed in calm easterly weather near Doughboy Bay. It was at once believed that the hull of the old Madagascar had been found. However, this wreckage was either what was remaining of the Nicaragun.n barque Emily, wrecked in 1890. or the barque Jack Frost, wrecked in 1864, both meeting their doom in that vicinity. Some of the old hands, however, still believe in tho old tradition and they maintain that at Stewart Island'there lies a treasure (■hip as rich in gold as the famous General Grant, lost at the Auckland Islands in 1866. Nothing official has ever been available as to the actual fate of the Madagascar, that is so far as Lloyd's is concerned, and it is only of late that clues havo been found. It appears that the celebrated M'lvor escort robbery in Victoria occurred in July, 1853, and that ono of the highwaymen was arrested on board the Madagascar in August, 1853, in' Hobson's Bay, Melbourne, just as she was about to sail for England. Detective Tuckwell, one of the Melbourne detective staff of that period, visited the vessel shortly u&foro she sailed and in the Melbourne " Argus" he described his visit as follows:

"Tho Madagascar, one of Green's Blackwall liners, a frigate-built squarerigged fillip of over 1000 tons, lay snug at her moorings in Hobson's Bay. with' hatches battened down. Some 600 passengers were on board, and there was a heavy freight of gold-dust in her lazaretto. Tho scene that revealed itself baffled all description and will for ever remain fresh in my memory—drunkenness, fighting, swearing, and men, women and children in a state of seminudity, howling like wild animals. The crew were composed of men who were the most villainous and motley that ever signed articles on a capstan-head. Some of the passengers were a rough lot, escaped convicts of the worst class. A pang of horror shot through me. as the thought rose to my brain, should evil overtake the Madagascar what would become of the women and young, girls and the better class of passengers? Several days later the ship slipped her moorings and proceeded down the bay in charge of a pilot, passed safely through tho Rip and after getting an offing of about seven miles dropped the pilot into his dinghy. From that moment to the present she has never been seen or heard of."

Further reference to the vessel occurs in Mr "John Saddicr'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 some of the passengers were murdered by a mutinous crew, and six of thoso on board escaped, but afterwards succumbed to fever.