The reputed grave of Sir Abram Shipman. Angediva, The North Canara Coast. Photographer:...

It is said it at one time had an inscription, but it is no longer there. The marble cross was in pieces and was propped up for this picture. By the time more positive orders arrived from Lisbon to admit the English to Bombay, of Shipman and his 400 men only Ensign Cooke and 117 other ranks were alive to take possession of that place. (N.B. Dowry of Catherine of Braganza, Queen on Charles II). The remainder are buried on the island. ''Poisoned partly by the Noissomness of the Air, the Violence of the Raines and the little defence against them but chiefly by their own Intemperance.''. There is little to show when the men were buried for the island is nothing but a laterite rock with just a few shallow pockets of soil. The ruins of lines of crude huts remain but whether these were used by the Portuguese garrison or by Shipman's men one cannot definitely say.

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