King o' the Beach, a Tropic Tale, by George Manville Fenn.
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This book was written just before the end of the century, when it would
have been expected that travel by steamer was pretty safe. Carey, a
teenage boy making his way by steamer "Chusan" to meet his parents in
Australia, becomes very friendly with the ship's doctor, and also with
one of the seamen, Bob Bostock. But somewhere out in the Indian Ocean he
has an accident, falling from the ship's rigging, and is unconscious and
possibly may not live. His telescope took the brunt of the fall. But
while he is lying unconscious, a great gale springs up, the vessel loses
power, and is driven onto a coral-girt volcanic island.
Some of the passengers and crew get away on the ship's boats, but Carey
is not fit for the journey. The ship lies on the reef, but mostly
undamaged. The Doctor and Bostock remain with him. After they are
settling in, and Carey is recovering well, a "beachcomber", who reckons
he is king of these islands, makes his appearance with a retinue of
aborigines. He is quite a nasty piece of work. However one of the
aborigines becomes friendly with Carey and the others. The beachcomber
shoots the doctor, but then fall down a stairway, breaking both legs.
Since he can't get the doctor, he dies. At this moment Carey's father
appears, as the other passengers had reached Australia, and contact had
been made.
There are the usual tense moments with various saurians, and other
nasties, but perhaps not such a high level of tension as is usual with
this author. A good easy read, nevertheless. NH
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