The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-03-26 00:00:00

THE LOSS OF THE MAIL STEAMER
"NORMANDY."

The following particulars of the unfortunate collision
between the Normandy and the Mary, have been given
by one of the surviving pees, ngere
• • - -

"I was lying in my cabin' with my cost and boots off, and
heard a tremendous crash. Rushing on deck, I found we
were in a collision. The Normandy hail been struck such a
Mow abaft the paddle-box that the captain at once saw
the ship must inevitably founder. Ile immediately ordered
out the te o boats remaining, the life-boat, it transpired,
having been carried away in the collision, and a portion of
the passengers and crew thus succeeded in reaching the Mary,
all the gentlemen standing back, and making no attempt to
get into the boats until the ladies were in them. lhe captain
of the Normandy behaved with the greatest coolness and
judgment under such trying circumstances, and the last I
saw of him he was on the bridge, giving orders as to the
management of the boats and the working of the engines, and
during the whole occurrence an extraordinary amount of order
and quietness prevailed, arid the greatest fortitude shown.
The captain of the Mary gallantly stood by and did all in
his power to resider assistance, firing blue lights, sending up
rockets, and three boats were put out, and the Mary stood
hy the scene of the disaster for shout two hours, lost without
result, the Normandy having gone down whilst her two
boats were reaching the Mary. The Mary herself was so
badly injured that some of us doidneil whether she would
reach port, there being an immense hole in her bow, the
iron torn away, and the fore compartment flooded, and had
not the bulkhead stood well the pressure put upon it, the
Mary must have gone down. As it was, she was lightened at
the fore by the corn being hove overboard. She arrived
safely in the Southampton Water at fast, and her captain
deserves great thanks for the kindness and attention shown
to us, whom be had done his best to rescue from the grave.
Many of us passengers came ashore as we were in our cabins
at the time of the c Allston ; some of the ladies with only
their night dresses ; and 1 believe there were only two
articles saved, so sudden and rapid was the break up. I
should think that not more than ten minutes elapsed between
the collision and our hearing the cries when we supposed the
Normandy went down."

Perhaps the most graphic account of the shocking
occurrence is the following :
The Normandy left the Sauthampton Docks about a
quarter of an hour before midnight on Wednesday, for
Guernsey and Jersey, under the command of Captain Henry
Beckford Harvey, with about 35 passengers, the total number
of souls on board being estimated at 60. The night was
hazy, and the fog gradually thickened. and became very dense
as the English coast was left behiud. At 3.45 the steamer
canoe into collision with a large screw steamer, which struck
her abaft the starboard sponson. It was at once apparent
that the Normandy was sinking, and Captain Harvey, who
Was on deck at the time of the accident, immediately gave
orders to lower the boats, hut of these two only, slung in the
port aide, were available, the large lifeboat which was in the
starboard slings having been smashed in the collision.
"Ladles first" was the neat order given by the gallant old
captain, who, with the rest of his crew, appear to have acted
with remarkable coolness and a regard for the safety of the
passengers entrusted to their charge. Consequently
the female passengers who were aft were huddled
into the boats, most of them attired in nothing else
but the clothes in which they had been sleeping, and as
many of the other passengers as could be taken; all were
put on board the other vessel; which proved to be the Mary,
of Grimsby ; but before the boats coulol return to their own
ship she suddenly sank, about ten minutes after the collision.
Captain If arvey was last seen on the paddle-box bridge, and
went down In the ship, as did also his chief mate, Mr. fickle.
ford, several of the crew, and passengers, Mr. Con, the chief
engineer, the other engineers, and firemen—one only of the
latter, indeed, being all of the ermine room staff saved. Cap-
tain Strannock, the commander of the Mary, thought his
own vessel was sinking, and had ordered out the lifeboats,
and all was done, so far as we can hear, to save life, hut of
course so brief a space of tinie elapsed between the collision
and the sinking of the Sormandythat but little means beyond
those taken on board that Yea el could be adopted with any
uccessful result. The Mary, whose eutwater is badly
damaged, with both her bows stove in, remained about the
spot for two or three hours, and then steamed slowly
to Southampton, the nearest pork, where any substantial
assistance could lie afforded her in her crippled con-
dition, and reached here oh nit four o'clock in the
afternoon in charge of Eilot Eldridge. She brought up in
the river to await tide service, but the rescued passengers,
who included a little child, vfere at once landed in the dick.
and conveyed to an hotel, where every attention was paid to
them by direction of Mr. E. K. Corke, the South-Western
Company's energetic superintendent here. The ladles were
Is a pitied plight indeed ; most of them were without shoes,
some without stockings, and three or four were wrapped in
blankets, numbed by the crew of the Mary. The fireman
who was saved owes his life to Mr. Goodwin,' who was stand-
ing on the deck with him, and exchamed, "Jump into the
boat and take that oar," and on the man denaurrtng he
pushed him in, saying, " Mud you come back for me," but
before the boat returned the Normandy had gone to the
bottom. One of the ladies saved broughi back a favourite
dog which was thrown to her, we are told, by her brother,
who, poor fellow, was lost. Another laoly is saved whose
mother has perished in the ill.fated vessel, and a third whose
husband and two children perished.

The Normandy, it now appears, had not had thick
weather up to within a minute or two of the collision, and
immediately there was an indication of fog the chief mate
Mr ockleford, who was in charge of the steamer, sent a man
to call Captlin Harvey, wile, as on m as he pot hie foot on
deck, heard the mate ask the man nit the wheel it It was hard
a-starboard, and the man replied, Yes, sir." The captain
told the man to keep it so, and within another minute or no
the accident in stated to have occurred. The Many was

sighted two points to the starboard how of the Normandy,
and the chief officer of the latter vessel acted with good
judgment in sterboarding and hard a-starboarditig his
vessel, to clear, if possible, the Mary; and, although that
was not done, there can be no doubt, as we have already
eatc d, that the collision was thereby rendered less ilisastrous
The whole cause of this unhappy affair is probably to he
at tributed to the dense fog at the time, and the immediate
proximity of one ship to the other. There is one great
point, on the part of the Mary, which deserves notice,
and that was, that her mast-head light was not up at
the moment she was first sighted by the Normandy, as
it was down on the deck for the purpose of cleaning, lied
the light been up, doubtless the crew of the Normandy would
have seen the vessel much more quickly, and, humanly
speaking, would have passed well and cleared her. From the
account of the Morn, it appears that the whole time of sight.
tog the vessel and the time of the collision taking place did
not occupy more than one minute. It was, in fact, a ques-
tion of both vessels meeting, both giving orders for their
helms to move, and both ordering their engines to be stopped
to try and avoid the calamity. had it not been for the
turbulent sea on at the time it would have been hoped and
expected that the Normandy would have floated, but the
water getting into her after compartment to so great an ex-
tent the sea rushed in wills such violence as to break a
board, and the stream of water was supposed to have entered
the engine room from the top, thus causing the fires to be
put out and the ship to MI quicker. This is the idea of the
survivors, based upon the sea that was running at the time,
and which rendered the transfer of the passengers to the
boats exceedingly dangerous At the spot where the Nor-
mandy sunk there is about 25 fathoms depth of wati r, and
there is no probability of reaching either c irgo or mails It
is supposed that the engineers and firemen on board were
below, and carried down with her, as all were at their p
She was insured, the company being their own underwriters.

The following is a carrected list of those who were
lost, as far as can be ascertained :
Crew ,—Captain. 11. B. Harvey, commander: Richard Cox,
chief engineer; Marsham, second engineer; James Ocklef ord,
..hiet mate; Philip It•chardeon, csrpent,er ; IJoskina. seaman;
Wadmore, PC,11.11; Colborne. seaman ; Allen, fireman ; Head,
fireman; Balsom, fireman; Grant, fireman; Stairs, fireman;
James flout, coal trimmer; George Bunt, (brothers), coal
trimmer; Alfred Clements, boy.
Pas,engers;—General Grantham, Mr. Westaway, and Mr.
NI; tb first data; Mrs. Limas Und three other female and
four male passengers, whose names have not yet transpired,
Mr. Jackson, and Mr. Cluett, second class; and on deck two
labourers, two soldiers, one naval seaman, and one merchant
seaman, whose names also are not yet known, Mr Cluett is
the husband of the lady of that name saved, and accompanied
her to the ship's side, but hearing the captain give the order,
'ladies first," withdrew in favour of the ladies, and so lost
his life.

As explanatory of the female passengers mentioned in the
above list not being saved, it may be stated that, although
the captain and chief mate did their duty so nobly in request-
ing every lady to be seated in the boat first, at the thee of the
collision these were in the fore part of the ship, and on their
coming on deck, aml being urged to move to the side where
the boat was, the naval seaman who was lost) advised them
not to, stating that it was much better for them to remain as
they were. The water was, however, fast coming up over
the quarter-deck, the embarkation had to be done rapidly,
and there being no time to discuss the ftnestion, after all the
ladies that could be got were in, the boat was tilled with
those gentlemen who were saved. In leaving they were
urged to return quickly to the Normandy to save the re-
mainder, and all those who so left state that they were in
the full hope and expectation of the boat being able to re-
turn and save those left before the vessel went down.

A Jersey correspondent, writing from St. Helier's on
Friday night, says:—
. . . . . .

" This town, and indeed the whole island, has been in a
state of the most intense excitement to-day, consequent on
the report received late last night of the total loss of the
mail packet Norma.aly The arrival of the mall pa,ket
Haute, due to-day, was watched with great anxiety. The
piers were crow led with WI itlariroSo number of persons,
sonie of whom had friends on board the ill fated vessel, and
many others were anxious lest relatives or friends had taken
pasaage in her. Thu scene was heartrending when the worst
fears of some of the crowd were verified by the absence of
those they sought for. The list of passengers 00 board the
Normandy had not been taken at the time of the dreadful
calamity, so that no correct list of those passengers lost
could be obtained. There were, however, known to be
on board some residents of Jersey, and among the missing
are Mr. John Nathaniel Westanay, builder and contractor,
Belmont-road ; and General Grant and his niece. A woman
named Toned, a Jerseywoman, who was on board, Is also
among the number of the lost. A lady passenger, who was
almost paraly zed with fear, owed her life to the couragerini
conduct eta young man named Dacome, belonging to the
Marine Artillery. He gallantly took off his coat, threw
It over her, and then carried her into one of the two
boats by which the saved passengers wire rescued. Another
lady was indebted for her preservation to a nian-oh
war's man, who was on board. As she was blocking up
the only passage to the boats, and was afraid to venture,
he pushed her violently so that she fell overboard, when
she was picked up with little injury. A poor fellow named
Smith, a seaman belonging to Her Majesty's ship Asia, lost
his life through his endeavour to save the baggage of a lady
passenger. She was in one of the boats, and requested the
poor follow to get her luggage and pass it into the boat for
her. While he ens engaged in doing this the boat put off
and he went down with the unfortunate vesseL Ile sins on
his way to Jersey to see his wife and family. The sad fate
of Captain Harvey, the commander of the Normandy, is
much lamented. Ile was known sea brave and skilful com-
mander, and during the man) years he has been in the mail
service between here and Southampton he endeared him-
self to all who knew him." .

ine of the saddest incidents was the fate of a young gentle-
man of high promise—Walter Kenloch—who had passed
through the Royal Military o.dlege, sandhurst, and its
examinations with distinction, and was about to obtain his
commission it, the anuy. As soon as the crash between the
Normandy and the Mary occurred, he thought of his sister,
horn he was accompanying to Jersey, drew her from the
cabin, anti deposited her, enveloped in his cloak, in one of
the boats which had been lowered. Ile threw his little I log
to her, and gave it to her charge. Ile was asked to place
himself in the boat, as there was yet room, but he bravely
replied "Not till the other women on board are taken off."
The boat of the Normandy returned only to find that the
vessel, with all on board, had sunk.
Captain Harvey was the oldest captain In the service of
the London and South Western Railway, and on his last
voyaee to Jersey a friend was reminding him of it, when he
remarked The company want me to retire on a pension
Intl. M. in jounce, 1 havo a presentiment I shall die in the
service." His words proved true within four days. M. Is
Fencer, who communicates this anecdote, asks:—" Cannot
anything be done to assist Vie widows awl orphans of the
crew who have Ist their lives under such painful circum-
stances, and allowing the weaker portion of the community
to get into the boat, they standing by their captain and his
ship ^