1937-06-14 — Page 11

THE CHINA MAIL, JUNE 14, 1937.

Mystery Ships Of The Torres Straits

TORRES Strait, lonely, beauti-

TORRE

ful, and almost unknown, · is Chinese Visits To Australia

the graveyard of ships of all па- tions. They rot among the coral and the sand in that wreck-strewn re- gion beneath northern seas.

my-

How many ships came that way will ever remain one of the steries of the sea. The Chinese are believed to have threaded their

In The Long Ago

Treasure Fleets

a settle-

York

the

boxes heavy with

doubloons and pieces of eight names which his- tory has made even more romantic were sparks from fiery imagina- tions, flaming strong and fierce above lonely campfires or from the childish minds of the islanders.

years ago the late Frank Jardine, one of the sons of John Jardine, Perhaps. Who can tell except time? Strange as it may seem, gold People who have heard these tales who was appointed by the Imperial coins have been picked up on Mur- clumsy junks through the treacher- have smiled. "Imagination," "local Government to establish

ray Island, and a rusted cutlass of ous shoals and reefs of North Aus- colour," they have called them, and ment at Somerset, on Cape tralia centuries before Western sea- then forgotten them..

Peninsula, in 1864, made the first Spanish workmanship and design. And had no

is also said to have been found near men had even though of sailing from definite proof been obtained it would discovery of treasure.

where the galleon is believed to Out one day, some miles from the their native shores in search of new have been impossible to place any

have struck. worlds to conquer.

reliance

settlement, Frank Jardine, seeking on these vivid stories,

It is also interesting

that on a On A In Chinese writings are referen- which flashed and glowed like polish-beche-de-mer, found gold.

small island near Thursday Island ces to a great south land, and his- ed brass in a setting of blue and small island he noticed an old rust-

ed anchor, half submerged. în

many years ago coins were picked torians have concluded that the Chin- green.

up, further proof that a Spanish ese not only reached Torres Strait, Most of the stories told in

the sand.

He went ashore, and beside

ship, probably on its way to the found gold least north lead us back to the history of the rusting iron he

settlement in the Philippines, went` for York Spain, to the days of the treasure which had rested undisturbed

to its doom. centuries. He dragged the anchor

The blue north holds many aside; he found more gold.

secrets. The earliest history of Gladstone, the port between Bunda- berg and Rockhampton, on the Queensland coast, tells of the dis- covery of the remains of a ship on the reefs outside. the harbour by some of the first settlers. The re- mains were referred to as the Spanish galleon.

but sailed some distance at down east and west of Cape Peninsula.

Vivid Stories

-By-

R. C. H. Mackie

of

Spanish Dollars

The coins were gold and silver Spanish dollars, minted in the 17th and 18th centuries, and in one after- and

Perhaps imagination again play- ed. a big part, but, strangely enough, a few hundred yards inland from where the ship had struck was found а

this clearing. In

The word treasure has been as- sociated with the Indies, both East and West, and the islands of the Pacific, ever since the time of the conquistadors and the bloody buc- fleets and of those adventurous noon. after much scratching caneers, but it

seas sifting of sand, Jardine found se- has never been spirits who sailed the seven

thousand pounds' worth of mentioned in reference to Austra- searching for the ships

gold, veral lian shores.

finding, sacking, plundering.

specie. It was discovered later that But, as the wrecks of countless Among the islands of Torres the anchor and a few yards of chain. ships among the islands of the north Strait the natives often refer to the were of Spanish workmanship.

The Murray Islanders also re tell of voyages never completed, and coming of the "yellow men" in their

the story which has been of men whose stars set 'ere they great ships, and of the treasure count could put foot again on native soil, brought ashore. Some authorities handed down by their fathers. They clearing was what the weather and so do the tales of men of the tropics, consider that the repeated refer- tell of the time, many moons before both white, yellow and black, bring ences to the yellow men is proof the white men came, when the huge of that the Chinese knew this part of "sailing canoe" ran ashore during once more to life the exploits those wandering, adventurous souls the world.

correct, a cyclone who sailed off into the blue-seek- but discoveries leave no doubt as reef off

to the nationality of those yellow crew managed to get ashore, bring ing-seeking.

For 50 years and more, over camp men. The discoveries bring us once ing with them boxes of coin,

the natives attacked and killed the fires in the Peninsula, in mining more to one word-Spain.

strangers.. camps, among the pearlers at Thurs-

This may be

day Island in fact, among all those Gold Found men who live "up near the top," stories of the past, stories vivid and

on a

and was wrecked the island. Some of the

"The Galleon "

Sufficient has been found-gold,

but

*

time had left of a small hut made of logs. The logs had been cut and roughly trimmed by axes, axes which must have been sharp and

efficient not native

weapons. Those logs had been cut years be-- fore, many years, and, according to records, white people had never set foot on. that part of Australia before.

Ships of Spain, yellow men and yellow gold. A rusted anchor, a The boxes of coin, if they ever rusted cutlass. Ships of Spain yet beautiful in their harshness, silver, and iron-to prove that ships did reach the shore, have never which came and died and left their have been related and handed down. of Spain came that way. About 40 been discovered. Perhaps

Pitcairn Islander at Coronation

those bones.

The Wise Drink

"QUINNETTE"

the famous

Double Strength Real Fruit Crushes."

David Young, rehr

ive of Pitcairn Island at the coronation cére- monies in London, is shown soon after his arrival. Young is great-great- grandson of Edward Young, midshipman on the Bounty, whose crew mutinied. set the officers adrift, and settled on the tiny island in the Pacific.

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