'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from January 1847 to May 1849. Edited by the Secretary. Volume VIII.' [‎40] (143/496)

But Captain MacGregor was actuated by other feelings of the
most praiseworthy and humane kind. The greater part of his crew
were laid up with scurvy, and, before the Buckinghamshire got into
the gale, on the 11th April, it appears that “ most of the Chinese
« and all of the Manilla, men were sick,” and “ many were dead and
“ others dying and on the 17th, no less than forty-nine of the crew
were sick. Few require to be told that the most effective means of
checking scurvey consists in fresh provisions, vegetables, and rest;
and that the ravages of such a disease on board ship were to be
apprehended far more than those that might possibly happen to a
1,400 ton vessel in a storm. Therefore, every effort was made to
use a fair wind in running for a port almost within twenty-four hours’
sail.
There is another vessel to which a very melancholy interest is
attached—the H. C. Steamer Cleopatra, which left Bombay on
the afternoon of the 14th April, bound to Singapore, with convicts,
and had between 200 and 300 souls on board, since which time no
thing has been heard of her. What the fate of this unfortunate
vessel has been, we fear must ever remain a matter of mere con
jecture, as not even a vestige of wreck belonging to her has been
picked up to guide us in our surmises. It would almost be cruel to
say aught to annihilate that hope which those who are deeply inter
ested in the question, cannot yet resign, but, if we consider that the
Cleopatra must have met the hurricane in her very teeth, and have been
exposed to that frightful weather and sea which produced such
cripphng effects on the other ships that escaped, it is hardly credible
t at she should have avoided such serious damages as would have com-
^ , 01 l 31 ^ * ir k° 801110 harbour on the coast,—-a measure that
, aVG ^ asil J keen adopted, nay, almost forced on her, by the
es er y and S.W. gales consequent on the departure of the vortex.
imnedprl progress of the Cleopatra would b
tlJ 1. 1 7 + i 10 and first P art of gale at S.E. if nea
till I \it , Sh8 W0UM n0t have £ ot near the focus of the gal
along the colt atllT 1 Man ^ alore - Supposing she ra
ofthe o- 1 <- o t? 1 ^ miles distance from it, the increasing for c
wold f 1 t0 East ’" by the storm Irrent setting wesl
her farthp-1 Ua ^ a PP roac h e d the coming vortex, have drive
ei rom the land, and consequently right on the central pad