The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-03-23 00:00:00

DREADFUL LOSS OF LIFE AT SEA.

We have received from the Admiralty the following
correspondence:—
.

-
" Her Majesty's ship A rieulne, Gibraltar, March 11.
" Sir,—lt is my painful duty to report the very large and
lamentable loss of life which occurred on the morning of
Friday, the Bth lost , in lat. 40 15 N., long. 12 10 W., 130 miles
distant from the coast of F,rtugal, between Oporto and
Lisbon, when Mr. Jukes, sub-lieutenant, and Mr. Talbot,
sub-lieutenant, and eight seamen perished in the gallant but
unsuccessful attempt to save the life of a seaman who had
fallen overboard, making the total loss two sub-lieutenants
and nine seamen—in all, 11 lives.
" I have also to report the loss of both quarter boats, with
all their gear. I will endeavour to give in detail an exact
account of what happened.
"Oil the morning of the Sth Inst., about six o'clock. the
foot-ropes of the niaintopsail (a half-worn sail) carried away,
and the sail split, and it was then shifted by the watch,
which was completed about 7.15. 00011 afterward:, In re-
setting the maintopgallant sail, Felix Richardson ',ordinary.)
fell overboard Irvin the maintopmast crosstrees. The ship
was then running under single-reef topsails and foresail,
with a strong breeze from W.N.W. on the starboard quarter,
; with along heavy following swell, c_a.us.ing.:.he
ship to roll
heavily ; the force of wind 6 to 7; the speed of ship 9I to 10
knots.

'The ship was immediately brought to the wind on the
starboard tack and hove to, and the cutter was lowered and
pulled in the direction of the man. When the boat was
clear of the ship she behaved well, as; made good way
against the wind and sea, and I apprehended no danger to
her.

" icon after 8 o'clock, finding that the ship was drifting
considerably to leeward of the boat, and the wind increas-
ing, with heavy squalls, I hoisted the cutter ' recall,' and
ordered full steam te be raised with all despatch, and, having
lowered the screw and furled esilF, was enabled to com-
mence steaming to windward in the direction of the cutter
at 9.50 um. After steaming for a few moments she was
observed to have borne up before the wind and to be pulling
towards us.
- •

"On nearing the boat and in rounding the ship to in order
to place her under our lee. I saw the crest of a heavy sea
take her broadside on as she was endeavouring to turn head
to wind which instantly capsized her and completely
swamped her.
" Having rounded the ship close to windward of the
swamped boat, to which several of the crew were clinging, as
well as to the scattered boat's gear, an attempt was made to
lower the starboard cutter (now the lee one), hut, unfortn-
nately, owing to the after-fall fouling on the boat touching
the water, she was immediately swamped, and her crew and
officers placed in great peril, all of whom were picked, up
with the exception of one man, William Heaney, ordinary
seaman, who was lost.
" It now only remained to place the ship in such a position
as to drift over the wreck of the first boat, and to save life
as best we could by throwing ropes and gratings, Ain., to
the men in Vie water. This was done under considerable
difficulty, owing to the heavy swell, the strong wind, and the
great length of the ship, and we succeeded in saving four
men.
The ship was kept under steam among and around the
Wbris of the wrecked boat for a very considerable time,
until all possible hope of any survivors had vanished, and,
finalrY, we bore up under sail for Gibraltar.
"The four men saved from the secone cutter all agree '
that the boat behaved admirably, without shipping any water
of any consequence till the moment she was swamped by the
sea breaking and taking her on the broadside in the un-
fortunate attempt of bringing her head to wind ; they all say
that Mr. Jukes and Mr. Talbot were among the first to lie
washed away. While deeply lamenting the loss of these
young officers, one of whom seas a near relative of mine, it
is a sad pleasure and consolation to he able to speak to the
high merits of both of them, who have always shown zeal in
the performance of their duty, and were over foremost in
cases of &lager and saving life, and had gained the respect
and affection of all who knew them.
"The bright side remains to this sad narrative—namely,
the promptness and alacrity in executing orders on the part
of officers and ship's company in a moment of great anxiety
and excitement, when it was necessary to work the yards,
head and after sails, in conjunction with the strain, to lay
the ship in exact position for rescuing life, in which service I
was ably assisted by Staff-Commander Pounds.
"I think it only my duty to bring to notice, for the favour-
able consideration of my Lords Commissioners of the Ad-
miralty, the conduct of Lieutenant Bromley, Mr. Egerton,
midshipman, and the crew of the first cutter, who, having
Aeen the other boat swamped, willingly risked their lives in
"Order to help their shipmates, with the unfortunate result
already stated.
" It is also my desire to especially report the gallant con-
duct of Mr. Ellis, boatswain, second class, borne for the
instruction of cadeta (a survivor from the late ller Majesty's
ship Captain), and George Loram, quartermaster, who, at great
peril of their lives, went down with slip-ropes under the
port-quarter of the slim to attempt rescuing a droivning
man ; hilt the heavy swell and rolling of the ship rendered it
Impossible, and Mr. Ellis narrowly escaped with his life.
I have the honour to append a nominal list of the
gallant officers and men who were lost on the occasion, as
well as a list of the four men saved from the second cutter,
" I have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient ser-
vant, "W. C. CARPENTER, Captain.
"To the Secretary to the Admiralty."

" Nominal List of Oftleerii and yen Lost and Saved on the

-ffila Of March, 1872.
"Officers and Men Lost in Second Cutter.,—William A.
Jukes, Sub-Lieutenant; William J. Talbot, Sub-lieutenant;
William Renouf, ordinary ; Richard H. Thomas, ordinary,
second clam; Richard Bailey, cotwain of cutter ; John S.
Squires, ordinary ; James G. Hewson, ordinary; Frederick
Holland, ordinary; Samuel Blackburn, ordinary.
"Lost at Swamping of First Cutter.—William Heaney,

ordinary. -
" Fell Overboard—Folio Richardzon, ordinary.
Men Saved--Samuel Merchant, ordinary ; Stephen
Hazleton, ordinary; Henry Lybbey, ordinary ; John Mar-
shall, ordinary.
W. C. CARPENTER, Captain."

The followinkare extracts from private letters from
Her Majesty's ship Ariadne
"March 12, 1872.
"I cannot add anything to my official report about this
most unhappy disaster. The boat had not shipped a pint of
water heirs the accident although ele had been afloat for
over two hours), IN hich was caused by allowing the Iffiat to
get broadside on to the sea. It was most unfortunate the
pluming of the after fall of the second teat, as it not only
placed her crew in great danger by the swampin„,,, of the boat,
but deprived us of the means of rescuing the others. I
trust that I may never see such a painful scene again; but
I know that eVerythillZ WAS done that could be done, and
that no mistakes were made. Poor Talbot and Jokes ap.
pear to have acted splendidly; the first hassled a man
(among the survivors) from under the beat, and poor Jukes
kept on encouraging them all till the time he went down."

.41

" March, 3, 1872.
"People say Friday is an unlucky day. To-day I witnessed
the most awful accident that you can well imagine. At
half-past seven this morning an ordinary seaman, named
Felix Richards' fell overboard from the maintopgallant-
yard. The lifelmoys were thrown to him, and also the
large lifebuoy that hangs at the stern was let, go, but we
do not think that he reached them. He was seen to rise
after he fell and strike out, but I think he must have
been insensible, as he fell on his back in the sea, and his
fall must have been over 200 feet. The ship was going 12
knots before a gale of wind, and rolling very heavily at the
time. The second cutter was manned, two sub-lieutenants
(Mr. Jukes, who hail charge of the cadets, and Mr. Talbot,
the son of the clergyman and Captain Carpenter's cousin)
volunteered to go in charge. The boat was lowered with
great difficulty, but managed to get away. They pulled to the
place where the men fell—the ship meantime had hove-to ;
they pulled away till at last we hot sight of them. We began
to get very anxious for their return ; we thought that they
might have been swamped, so at 8 40 a.m. we got up steam
under six boilers with all possible spec thand commenced steam-
ing to windward at SilOs. m. We at last sighted the boat on idle
starboard beam pulling before the wind, and we were trying to
get as near to the boat as possible to pick her up, when a
tremendous sea caught her anil swamped her. It was now
about 11.1 n a ni. Immediately we saw the accident the first
cutter was manned, Lieutenant Bromley and a midshipman
named Egerton, got into her, but in lowering the boat it went
down bows first into the sea, owing te the after fall jamming
and the foremost becoming unhooked. Some of the boats crew
managed to climb up the boat'a falls to the davita, but neat of
them were thrown into the sea and went to leeward. Every-
thing that wash:B.ly was throe n overboard that we could lay
hands ou—life belts, cork jackets, gratims, Ac. ; ropes-ends
were thrown to them, and all the first cutter's crew were
saved but one man, who was crushed under the counter of
the ship and was not seen again.
While all this was going on the second cutter WAS capsized
by another heavy sea, and the crew were hanging on to the
bottom of the boat two or three were clinging to oars. I
counted thirteen hands in the boat when she left the ship ;
after she had been capsized I counted ten—three had been
washed oft I think Mr Jukes was one of the three. I then
law three more poor fellows washed off, and there were
only seven left on the boat. We at last managed to get
to windward of the boat and to drift down on her
broadside on, but we could not get nearer than 200 yards
and now there were only five men on the boat and one
man clinging to an oar. A boatswain named Ellis, who
had been saved from the Captain, secured himself to a
rope and jumped after him, seeing he waa exhausted. The
man at last was brought to the ship and managed to
clutch at a rope's-end hanging from the davits, hut when
the ship r. died the other way he was lifted out of the water,
and, having no strength left in him, he let go, and was
crushed against the ship and went down directly. Ellis was
hauled on board nearly drowned. Meanwhile we had been
doing everything in our power to rescue the men clinging
to the boat; one was embed away, the other f our we

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