of March, by the ship Signet of Alloa. The vessel was
apparently an English brig, heavily laden. She went
down, and all on board perished. Among other vessels
lost from the same cause, down to the middle of May, are,
the Ostensible, from Liverpool, for Quebec; the
Conservator and the Acorn, both of Liverpool; the Hibernia,
from Glasgow, for Quebec; the British schooner
Collector, from St. John's, Newfoundland, for London; the
brig Astree, of Weymouth; the Wilhelmina, of Aberdeen;
the Goswell, of Newcastle; the Sylph, of Leith,
and three others, the names of which are unknown.
With the exception of these last, the crews were saved.
Most of the unfortunate vessels were heavily laden, and
these losses in total are estimated at nearly £100,000.
A Remarkable Shipwreck is related in the West
India papers. The sloop Star, Captain Robertson, was
near Battawya, in the island of St. Vincent, on the 3rd of
May, when it was discovered that a plank in her bottom
had started, and that, notwithstanding every effort, she
could not be saved from going down. The captain, a
young gentleman named Bynoe, a Miss Webb, a Mrs.
Gibbs with a boy, her nephew, were upon deck. Several
of the sailors leaped overboard. Mrs. Gibbs clasped her
young nephew to her breast, declaring loudly that he was
the cause of her being there, and that if she was lost, he
should go with her. The captain tried to induce Miss
Webb to leap overboard with him, and took her hand;
but she could not be persuaded to venture, and he
jumped overboard alone, followed by Mr. Bynoe. The rest
must be told in that young gentleman's own words:—
"As soon as I quitted the vessel, which I did at the
same time as the captain, and some two or three minutes
after the others, I struck out for the dog-house. The
sloop instantly sunk; Miss Webb, Mrs. Gibbs and her
nephew, going down with her. There was a little
moonlight. A female passenger and her husband had
hold of the dog-house. I observed a little boy floating,
and I swam and took him to the dog-house. The
current was strong and we made little progress, and I was
obliged to go behind the dog-house to push it on. As
this exhausted me and many held on, I let go, which
gave the others more room. I then laid hold of an oar
and used it for a short time; but I thought I heard
something blow beside me like a whale or porpoise, and
I became alarmed and threw away the oar, determined
to swim. Before leaving my companions in misery, I
told them I would swim to Bequia and send them a boat,
that if it came it would be a sign I was alive; if not,
that I was drowned. They implored me not to leave
them, because I cheered them up. I now undressed
myself in the water, not keeping on a vestige of clothing,
and struck out with the greatest confidence in my
power of endurance and swimming. Battawya was at
this time just discernible. We were about five miles
from it, and fifteen or sixteen miles from Bequia. It
was four o'clock in the morning. The captain called to
me, and I replied. I have since heard that he called me
an hour afterwards, and, as I did not reply, all gave me
up as lost, as a very heavy sea was running at the time.
I remained in the water until three or four in the
afternoon, swimming all the time, at which time I
reached Bequia. I was alongside the rock an hour
before I could ascend it. The surf and heavy swells
sometimes dashed me against the rock and at others
drew me away from it. I twice despaired, and placed
my hands on my head; but I could not sink. I was
completely exhausted, and suffered much in trying to
land. I remained fifty hours on the Bequia rock without
food, water, rest, or clothes. I tried to eat a small
shell-fish, but it made me sick. I was very thirsty, but
I found relief in sea-bathing. Altogether I was sixty-
two hours deprived of every necessary of life. While on
the rock I hailed some vessels and boats, but was not
heard. At length the Caledonia sloop passed by; I
hailed her, and she sent a boat for me. I had determined
to attempt the next day to that on which I was relieved
to swim to Bequia harbour, rather than die slowly.
The bruises and cuts you see I got in attempting to land
on the rock. I feel no inward ill effects from my sufferings.
I was like a skeleton when I landed. The crew
and passengers of the Star who were saved were brought
to St. Vincent by the Emily Strath, which picked them
up." Much surprise and rejoicings were manifested at
St. Vincent when it was reported that Mr. Bynoe had
been landed from the Caledonia.
On the evening of the 30th of May, Mr. Thomas Lang
of Bristol Nearly Perished while crossing the Dangerous
Sands between Hayle and St. Ives. The horse of his
carriage suddenly disappeared in a quicksand, and he
felt the carriage rapidly sinking. He sprang from his
seat and with much difficulty succeeded in struggling to
firm ground. The horse and carriage were rescued by
the aid of about twenty men who had seen the accident
from a distance. Had it happened after dark, or when
the tide was flowing, escape would have been hopeless.
Mr. Robert Dundas Jones, a solicitor, Poisoned
Himself with prussic acid on the evening of the 30th of May.
It appeared, at the inquest, that he had several bills of
exchange unpaid, and that one, of considerable amount,
had been presented for payment on the morning of his
death. The jury found that he had died from the
effects of poison, but that there was not sufficient
evidence to prove the state of his mind.
On June 5th, Eleven Men and Two Boys were Killed
in the colliery of Little Usworth, near Washington, by
the explosion of a quantity of gas accumulated in a
natural reservoir or hollow. The accident was caused
by firing a blasting charge of gunpowder.
As Mr. Samuel Rogers the poet was returning home, on
the evening of the 6th, from dining with a friend, he was
Knocked down by a Cab in crossing the street, and
seriously injured, but has nearly recovered, we are
happy to understand, from the effects of the accident.
On the 8th, Mr Sibley, a schoolmaster at Highgate,
alarmed by a cry for help from one of his pupils, who
was bathing in the Hampstead ponds, plunged in to
save the boy, and Both Perished. The youth was a
son of Mr. Barnes, of Brecknock Villas, Camden Town.
Mrs. Sibley had gone out to meet her husband, and the
abrupt communication by one of the pupils of what had
happened almost deprived her of reason. At the
inquest on the bodies the coroner commented on the
dangerous state of these ponds, and said that if some
steps were not taken by the Hampstead Water Company
to prevent similar accidents in future, an action could
be brought against them for want of proper caution.
The jury attached to their verdict of accidental death a
strong recommendation that such steps should be taken.
A young man named Benjamin Tate was Drowned in
the Serpentine while bathing, on Sunday morning,
the 9th. At the coroner's inquest a servant of the
Royal Humane Society who had found the body said
that many fatal accidents occur on the north side of the
Serpentine, which is very deep, with a great accumulation
of mud and many holes. The jury requested the
coroner to write to the Duke of Cambridge, urging
the necessity of prohibiting persons ftom bathing there.
As Lieutenant Webber, son of the late Dr. Webber,
Dean of Ripon, was Handling a Loaded Pistol, in
Charterhouse Square, on the 9th, it accidentally went
off, and the charge, passing through his hand, produced
locked jaw, of which he died in a few hours.
Miss Seymour, of Bath, daughter of Lady Seymour,
who had come to Oxford with a party of friends to be
present at the commemoration, was Killed by a Fall
from her Horse, while taking an airing, on the afternoon
of the 11th, with several ladies and gentlemen.
The horse stumbled, and threw Miss Seymour on her
head. She was taken up insensible, and remained in
that situation till the 14th, when she expired.
On the 12th, a young servant-girl was cleaning the attic
windows of a house in Blackman Street, Borough, and,
as usual, had placed herself on the window sill, when
she lost her balance, and, falling into the street, was
Killed on the Spot, her head being shattered to pieces.
On the 13th three workmen, employed upon the
New Docks at Liverpool were Killed by a Fall of a
High Wall, under the foundation of which they were
making an excavation. When their bodies were dug
out of the heap of rubbish, two were quite dead, and
the third expired a few minutes after being carried to
the hospital. Several other men narrowly escaped, by
getting out of the way before the wall fell.
On the 15th, while several men were engaged in laying
down what are called "turn-tables," or great cast-
iron tubes weighing five tons each, on the Brighton
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