56 CONFESSIONS OF A BEACHCOMBER 



and restricted dishes came as a sweet and a comforting re- 

 flection. No marvel if the ship whence it was ejected was 

 in bad odour among the sailors. Leaving, as it lurched 

 along, a greasy, foul stain on the sea, it may have poisoned 

 multitudes of uncomplaining fishes during its evil course. 



Occasionally a case of fruit, washed from the decks of a 

 labouring steamer, drifts ashore. One was the means of in- 

 troducing a valuable addition to the products of the island. 

 It gave demonstration of how man may unwittingly, and 

 even in opposition to his wit, assist in scattering and multi- 

 plying blessings on a smiling land — blessings to last for all 

 time, and perhaps to amend or ameliorate the environment 

 of a budding nation. 



Many years ago — in 1878, to speak precisely — a ship 

 laden with fragrant cedar logs from the valley of the 

 Daintree River — 140 miles to the north — touched on 

 Kennedy Shoal, 20 miles to the south-east of Dunk Island. 

 Crippled though she was she managed to make Cardwell, 

 where she was temporarily patched up, and whence she set 

 sail for Melbourne. It was the critical month of March, 

 and the Merchant — clumsy and cumbersome, but a good 

 and safe ship given ample sea-room — before sailing many 

 miles on her course, was caught in the coils of a cyclone, 

 the violence of which is well remembered by old residents 

 on the coast to this day, and was lost with all hands. She 

 is supposed to have struck on a reef to the southward of 

 the Palm Islands, as the bulk of her cargo was cast ashore 

 in Ramsay Bay, Hinchinbrook Island. Portions of the 

 wreckage were found on the Brook Islands ; her figure- 

 head; — the spread eagle of the United States — and a sea- 

 man's chest were picked up on the beach here. Her 

 windlass, with a child's pinafore entangled with it — for the 

 skipper had taken his wife and two children to bear him 

 company — drifted on the South Franklands, 40 miles to 

 the north, and a large portion of the shattered hulk on a 

 reef eastward of Fitzroy Island, 25 miles still farther up 

 the coast. Fate did her worst for the poor Merchant, and 

 not yet content, relentlessly pursued two (if not more) of 



