They think it was a merchant ship loaded with blocks of copper, that it sunk in the storm while traveling to the island of Crete or possibly somewhere in Aegean Sea.
In that year, an Indian merchant ship crashed on a reef near the island, the crew escaped to the beach and were attacked by the locals who were seeing the first other humans in their entire civilization's history.
Little by little the scene on the quay became more animated;sailors of various nations, merchants, ship–brokers, porters, fellahs, bustled to and fro as if the steamer were immediately expected.
A Chinese envoy has reiterated the call for the Houthis to respect the rights of navigation of all merchant ships in the Red Sea in accordance with international law.
So nobody from the outside world is known to have ever contacted them on their island until a merchant ship of the British Raj just happened to wreck itself there in 1867.
In the third place, international law prescribed that a peaceful merchant ship, whether belonging to an enemy or to a neutral country, should not be destroyed or sunk without provision for the safety of crew and passengers.