The opium clippers / by Basil Lubbock.

  • Lubbock, Basil, 1876-1944.
Date:
1933
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The opium clippers / by Basil Lubbock. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The Sylph left Singapore at noon on January 30 and with a fair wind and tide had the North-east point of Bintang, from which she was going to take her departure, only a few miles ahead at 7 p.m. Finding that the ship was closer in than he expected, owing probably to the strong current, Captain Wallace ordered a cast of the lead to be taken. The Sylph was travelling a good 8 knots. As the deep-sea lead was being passed the ship grazed slightly, and a moment later, with a tremendous crash she ran on a reef of rocks. Captain Wallace’s first action was to throw every sail aback; and on this proving useless he tried to make her pay off. Her head swung inshore with the swell and the wind right aft, and with some very violent bumps the Sylph continued to forge more and more over the reef, so that for a while hopes were entertained that she would force her way over the coral, into deep water. But after an hour of banging and crashing on the reef Captain Wallace realised that she was hard and fast. The Sylph apparently only possessed one boat besides her long-boat and this was a jolly-boat, in which the second mate was sent off to Singapore, which was about 60 miles off. All that night the crew and passengers, to the number of sixty souls, were kept hard at it pumping, with the ship filling up fast, her sternpost and rudder having been carried away and her counter burst open. At daybreak a sharp lookout was kept for ships, though the Sylph was a good deal inside the beaten track. At length the Syed Khan hove in sight, hoisted her colours and seemed as if she would bear down upon the helpless Sylph, which promptly hoisted a string of flags. It was not possible to fire a gun as a sign of distress because the Sylph, as was usual with the clippers when racing to China with the drug, had all her guns down in the hold and by this time under water. Hardly had Captain Wallace hoisted his signal than the schooner hauled her wind and sailed away. The clippers were so fond of playing tricks with each other by signalling that it was supposed that the Syed Khan suspected the Sylph of trying to humbug her. All that day, though sails were sighted on the horizon, nothing came near the wreck which by nightfall had settled down in sand and coral, completely waterlogged. On all sides the surf roared