The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-05-27 00:00:00

THE Loss BY FIRE OF THE " WILLIAM

_
III" AT SEA.
The burnt-out hull of the iron-built screw stFamphip
William 111., which wan destroyed by fire off the Isle
of Wight during Friday night and Saturday morning,
arrived at Spithead about 12 noon on Saturday, and
was afterwards placed on the shoals off the entranc. to
Portsmouth Harbour, and scuttled there, to extinguish
the fire which was still raging in the =burnt residue
of the coal forward of the engine-room.
Very fortunately no loss of human life has been
caused by this rapid and complete destruction of a
large steamship at Fea, crowded, so to speak with
passengers. The fire broke out in sight of land on a
beautifully calm night ; other vessels were near at
hand to render help, and every man woman, and
child on board found a secure means Of escape from
the burning ship. The most fortunate of all were
thosecompletelyclad.itlany women and children landed

at Portsmouth with their nightdresses on. Some were
partly dressed, but with bare feet au' without head
covering. All, in fact, were just as they had escaped
from the chip in the rush for life. All that belonged
to them has perished in the ehip. One gentleman and
lady who were passet_wers on board, Oermans, have
recently been married, and were on their way to
Batavia to settle there, taking with them all they
possessed in the form of general stock to open a store
there, to the value of £l,lOO. All this was lost, and
was, mug unfortunately for them, unineured. They
are now without mean! of any kind ; nor is this a soli.
tary Instance of the kind among the unfortunate pas.
@engem.
The majority of the people rescued from the chip
were landed at Portsmouth early on Saturday from
the SeorPio, screw steamer, bound from S•inderland t.,
Charente, and the remainder were afterwards landed
from the pilot cutter the Mary, of Portsmouth. This
small vessel took on board no less than 114 pereons,
including 48 soldiers and their officers and families,
belonging to the detachment going out to Batavia in
the chip under contract with the Dutch Government,
and_2o ladies and 12 children.
. .

Mr. Coote, the pilot of the Marc, states that about
ten p.m. on Friday, the 0 were lightship, then bearing
N.E., about eight miles distant from the cuter, white,
red, and blue lights burnt in rapid succession, evi-
dently as signals of distress from some ship, were seen
to the southward. The wind was very light at the
time from the N. W. , but the cutter IVIld at one, pt
away before it for the position where the signa's were
seen, the pilot's usual answering flare signal being
at the Fame time made and kept repeated in answer.
The cutter making but little way with the light
wind, the boat was put ahead and manned by two
of the crew, who towed the cutter for upwards of
an hour, and until they reached the spot from
which the 'delude had been made, and where for Berne
time now the euttel'a crew had set that a large ship
was bureing furiously from stem to stern. Several
lights were soot around the ship, and these proved
to be lanterns in the chip's boats, which were lying off
from the ship, with all the passengers and part of the
the crew in them. Those on board four of these boats
—to the number already stated—were at once taken
on board the Mary, and the remainder were directed
by Conte to pre ceei4 to another vessel then Been bear-
ing down to the burning ship. Upon inquiry from the
passengers the latter was found to be the William 111,
from the port of Amsterdam, bound to Batavia, yid tits
Musa Canal, the pioneer of a new line of steamships
starte i under contract with the Government of the
Netherlands to open regular steam commemication be-
tween Holland and Java. She was of 3,000 tons measure-
ment, and had but quite recently been handed over to
the company by her builders, the Messrs. Elder, of
Glasgow. She hada general Amsterdam cargo for Bata-
via on board, with 1.100 tone of coal, at the time of her
leaving Nieuwe-1 Eers, and, having troops on board,
the master of the Mary was naturally afraid of an
explosion from the magazines. Some of the passengers
could speak to eight barrels of powder or ammunition
having been thrown overboard by the captain's order,
but no one could say what the total amount of ammu-
nition shiprsed on board actually was, not even the
ship's officers pr sent. Under these circumstances,
the cutter was kept as near to the burning ship as was
consistent with the Safety of those on board, to wait
resulta and see if more life could he saved.
. .

A French schooner and the Scorpio steamship after-
wards joined the Mary. Another pilot cutter was also
in company, the Alarm, ready to give any required
assistance in saving the people, and a pilot was after-
wards put on board the Scorpio from her, and piloted
her into Spithead. The Cambria. London steam-tug,
which had also run down to the 'Valiant 111, from the
look-oht station off St. Catherine's Point, took the
unfortunate vessel in tow, and arrived with her at
Spithead, which she reached about noon on Saturday.
As the tire was still burning In a large mass in the
interior of the ship, all decks being now burnt through,
and meets clean gone, the ship was towed upon the
highest part of the shoals between Spithead and
the entrance to Portsmouth harbour, and there
scuttled. Port Admiral Sir James Hope was soon
alongside the 'Valiant 111., and superintending ener-
getically the measures being taken for the suppression
of the tire. Staff Captain Moriarty, C. It., the Master
Attendant of Portsmouth Harbour and Dockyard was
acting under Sir James Hope's directions, with the
Cared and Pdier steam tugs and dockyard fire floats,
and from the latter a cent:mums stream of water (vas
Poured into the ship np to noon on Sunday.
As the ship lies now on the Spit ahoale she presents
a most extraordinary appearance. Iler Iron sides above
the water line are bent out of all their original lines by
the intense heat to which they have been subjected.
On board the general view is still more extraordinary.
All, forward and aft, from the stem to the taffrail rail,
La one confused forint of tangled Iron. Evetlthing
combuetible is burnt right out ; the iron deck beams
are twisted out of their places, broken, and bent down-
wards as from some vast voloanic effect.
After the passengers and troops had been landed at
Portsmouth on Saturday, the latter were mustered
opposite the office of the Dutch Consul, the Chevalier
Van den Bergh. They were only partly dressed, as
they escaped from the skip; but all were cheerful, and
their hunahs rang out again and again as their officers
came to the front, or a party of women and children,
half-clad like themselves, paesed by on landing from
the vowel which had brought them to shore. By direc-
tion of Lieutenant-General Lord Templetown the
soldiers have been allotted quarters in the Anglesea
Barracks, Portsea. The general appearance and con-
duct of the soldiers and their officers at the muster.
place wore highly creditable to their training and dis-
cipline.
The fire appears to have been first diecovered on
board the ship in one of the state cabins. A child is
said to have first seen fLmes, and some other person
found smoke in a large volume between decks. A
hole was cut through the timber planking of the deck
over the state room, and water in large quantities
poured down; but (rem the moment of discovery the
fire kept the mastery, and spread with satcnishing
rapidity through all parts of the ship. Some of the
pweengers speak of " pipes" connected with the
engine room passing through one of the state rooms
uncovered and giving out great heat, and pointing to
this by inference as the causeof the fire, this, however,
cannot be accepted as anything more than mere
surmise. The actual cause of the fire and the ship's
low can only be anived at from the results of the usual
official inquiry.

A RATHER CURIOUS ADVENTURE!
I hail a rather curious adventure two or three nights
ago which I will relate to you as giving a good idea of
life in Paris under the present order of things (writes
the Special Correspondent of the Dail it News). I
happened to be walking on the Boulevard des Cepu-
chits with a friend about half-past eleven at night. As
we reamed by a well-known cafe there which gees by
the name of Peter's, about half a dozen Guards sud-
denly Mopped before one of the doors, went upstairs,
leaving one of their number outside, and the officer in
command gave the order aloud, in an angry tone of
voice, that whoever attempted to escape from the house
was to be shot. "Draw on him ; you have my ordera." I
congratulated myself that I was not in the cisf, and that
I could go home e;nietly to rest. After looking on for a
few momenta at the perplexity of the captives, who
were peering wistfully out of the doors behind
sentinels, I imagined that there was nothing more
to be seen. I have seen scores of arrests in this fair
city of Paris, and it did not seem worth one's while to
spend the night in looking out for another. My friend
and I turned on our heels to go home. We had gone
but a few steps when we were stopped by sentinels,
who cried out lustily, "On ne passe pas." We drew
back, and took the opposite direction. Again a line
of sentinels—and again, "On ne passe pas l" The
Boulevard was lined with sentinels, who were taking
ponseseion of all passengers, and driving them into the
cafi;, which was surrounded. The sentinels came up
to me, and told me that I must go into the caf I told
them as blandly eel could thatl preferred to go home.
The answer I received was. " I will blow your brains
out if you do not go in at once." I walked in at once,
and saw a very curious sight.
Peter's was in these Communal times about the
most convenient café on the Boulevards. In the first
place it kept open till twelve o'clook. The Grand
Café, the CaU de Is Paix, and nearly all the call-s
that are most distinguished and frequented in ordinary
times, closed about eleven o'clock, and so lost nearly
all their custom. Then at Peter's you could always
get an addition to Viennese and English beer, to
syrups and hot gsrogs, those iced American drinks for
which men seem to have a weakness when midnight
approaches, and which the ingenious Milldfl of France
just now have begun to dimly with a good deal of
interest. Furthermore, at Peter's you could get
supper—nothing very great, and something very dear
- but still supper. It was the only known house in
Paris where this privilege was enjoyed. The doors
were closed at midnight, and then all the world went
upstairs to public or private supper rooms, wherethey
ate and drank, and chatted and played cards till three or
four in the morning. Why this extraordinary privilege
was accorded to Peter's I do not know. Perhaps it
was suppos. ii that Paris would be too unendurable if
there was not even one place where the officers of the
staff, or any one else, after a hard day's work, might
find food and amusement after midnight. With these
advantsgoi, however, Peter's had a source of weakness
in the fair sex. Of course the Eoglish reader is much
horrified ta bear that women are allowed to go to a
cafe by themselves ; but they have free entrance into
nearly every haft, in Paris, and the only peculiarity of
Peter's was to be fri uented by the most select of the
cocottes. It was estrange society this of Peter's. If the
café was a convenient rendezvous for us 133.30 who wanted
to chat with each other, or to have a glass of beer
before going to bed, it was also convenient for the
idlers. Whenever you went there jou saw always the
same faces as at a club.
When at the orders of the sentinels I entered the
cafe, I did not know half what I know, or I should
have been completely at my ease ; hut AS it was, I had
a great advantage over most of those with whom I
found myself mixed, first in being a foreigner, next in
having been forcel into the café, and laity in knowing
that I had friends among the Commune who weuld
release me the moment I let them know of my position.
So r could regard with equanimity and cheerfulness
the excitement around me. Those who were most ex-
cited were certain persons who were thrust into the
heti'. from the Boulevards. There was a little fair-
haired English girl, who was coming from the Gymnase
Theatre with her sweetheart, and who was the
amusement of all the French by the freahnese of
her beauty and the simplicity of her manners.
There was another sweet-faced girl- sweet seven-
, teen—who bad just lost her father, and who was
passing aleng with her godfather. The good fish
and the bad alike were taken on the Boulevard
in one net. There was a young creature who
was in tears for her children at home. The co.
cottes were anxious in their eyes, but—se their wont
is—sufficiently calm and collected in manner. With
them were groups of elegant dandies officers,
colonels, majors, eaptalns—and the usual undistim
guished mob of a calif. Misfortune made us all won.
drone kind to each other. Everybody spoke to every.
body. In ordinary times a man of sense would no more
think of talking to a lady sitting at the next table to
his—even if he knew her—than he would thinkof talk-
ing to the table at which she sat. Now, by a strange
accident, we were all one family; and as, for the
reasons I have given, I was very much at my
ease, I managed to get a good many confidences.
I must say, however, that I was selfish, and

wanted to get away. The commandant of the bat-
talion, wEu had aeizFel upon us all, was in
the café, and had installed himself at a table
with his companions. He and the prettiest woman
in the room sat down to drink beer. He was
called away fcr a few minutes, and I seized the
opportunity to open a conversation with the lady. I
suppose my audacity took her by surprise, for she at
once consented to do what I asked, which was to make
the commandant let me out; I retired while waiting
for the return of the commandant. He did not stay
long, Lot returned to his place, when he was constantly
assaulted by the lady. I had the satisfaction of geeing
him come to me, of accepting the arm which he offered
to me, and of hearing him say that I should be free in
a minute. He led me to the door, hut there we were
stopped by a small gentleman of the name of Foreatier,
who was the commissary of police charged with the
arrest, and who declared that no one whatever should
leave the café. I was forced to remain.
. _

At half.past three in th;;;;;.nin.g-,;;; were marched
out into the Boulevards, and then marched off to the
Hotel de Vine ; while, under pretence of some horrid
plot which had been discovered, the officer in command
cried out, "Whoever destroys a scrap of paper will he
instantly ehot—these are my orders." Reaching the
Hotel de Ville we were incateerated in the splendid
saloons where the late Prefect of the Seine gave his
belle. In those gorgeous apartments, with all their
fine furniture swathed in calico, all the cocotterie
of Parts were imprivoned, with about a hundrcil
of in.inkind. The Ceminietary Forestier announced
that all foreignera would be released in a few
minute,. The few minutes proved to be an
hour, and in the meantime it was deemed ad.
visable to separate us. The ladies' were left in one
ballroom, and the men were put into another. Ido
not koow much more, for after sleeping for an hour on
a sofa, and watching the cold morning light brightening
about the Seine and Notre Paine, I wile sent for to be
interrogated, and got released at Once. The nest COM-
inimary of Police, Citizen La Chapelle, behaved with
the greatest courtesy to me and to all.