Is This From Historic Wreck ?

What may possibly be a relic of the American brig Eliza, which was wrecked in the Lomaiviti group of Fiji in June, 1808, has been brought to Suva by Captain S. B. Brown, of the cruise ship Maroro. It is a piece of ship’s timber containing eight bolts (seen here with Captain Brown, on the left, and Mr. Tom Ramsey, of Melbourne). Mr. Ramsey will take a piece of the wreckage back to Australia for tests to determine the age.

A search for the Eliza wreck was initiated last year by Capt. Brown and the Tony Ayer group of young Americans who chartered the Maroro for a two months cruise of Fiji waters. They searched the Mocea reef at a spot where the Eliza was claimed to have been wrecked, but found nothing. Their interest, however, prompted several of the villagers from Lawaki to keep their eyes open, and a fortnight later, Jiogi Bakoso and Jiogi Batikala, while fishing in an area half a mile to the south of where the Maroro search was originally made, located an iron bolt protruding from the sand under about three fathoms of water. The bolt was seen when one of the men dived to clear his fishline which had fouled on coral. Digging beneath, they discovered the piece of wreckage and brought it ashore and kept it until Captain Brown visited the island again.

The wreck of the Eliza did much to shape the course of events in Fiji at the time. It contained a treasure of 40,000 dollars and a quantity of firearms, and the dollars and the firearms attracted white men of violence. The story was re-told by R. W.

Robson in January P1M, p. 75.