The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-10-22 00:00:00

...40"' • •

TIIE STOIMBrItIDGE 013SERVEIL

of coals is estimated at 20,484 tons. The majority of
the vessels wrecked have been coal-laden; but the
general cargoes, incluling produce of all kinds, as well
as stone, bricks, petroleum, herrings, tar, and oilcake,
figure for 13,257 tons. About 824 tons of salt were
lost. Manufactured iron, ore, and mineral amounted
to 4,312 tons, and timber of various kinds, 5,000 tons.

On Monday Mr. George Collier opened an inquiry
rt Bow as to the death of Henry Charles West, aged
nine years, who was killed on the 14th. Robert
Barnes, a postman, said on Friday morning, while the
storm was raging, he was in Harley-street looking at a
tree which had just beex uprooted. The deceased and
another boy were playing under a brick wail. Sud-
denly the wall fell, burying the two boys. A number
of persons cleared away the ruins, and the boy who
was with the deceased was quickly extricated. But it
was upwards of a quarter of an hour before the deceased
could be got out, and then life was found to be extinct.
Dr. Carman said the deceased had sustained a severe
fracture of the skull, besides being terribly crushed.
A verdict of "Accidental death" was recorded.

An inquest has been held on the body of Miss
Alicia Webb, governess in the family of Mr. Piers
Watt Boulton, of Great Tew Park, near Chipping
Norton. It appeared from the evidence that the un-
fortunate lady had been governess in Mr. Boulton's
family for upwards of twelve months. Miss Webb
arranged to go over to Chipping Norton, and left the
mansion, choosing to walk rather than have a pony-
chaise which was at her command. When she had
proceeded about a quarter of a mile, and just as she
was passing through a wicket-gate into the road, a
large elm tree fell, the boughs of which struck her,
dislocating her neck, and also fracturing three ribs on
the right side. Shortly after she was found in a pool
of blood, quite dead. A verdict of "Accidental
death" was returned.

An inquest has been held at Bewdley on the body
of Alfred Jackson, who, the evidence showed, had
been killed during the gale on Friday. He was carry-
ing some wood when a tree was blown down near him.
He threw the wood away, and tried to escape, but the
tree caught him and crushed him to death. A verdict
of Accidental Death was returned.

Two inquests were held on Saturday before Mr.
Jotcham, one of the Coroners for Berks, one at
\Vantage, on the body of a little girl, named Crane,
aged nine, and the other at Watchfield, near Faringdon,
on the body of a fine boy, aged ten, named Wyatt,
both of whom had been killed by falling trees on the
previous day. In both cases the children were gather-
ing wood when the trees fell on them and killed them.
The verdict in each case was Accidental Death.

Mr. W. Carter has held an inquest at Balham-hill on
the body of Charles Scholes, aged 19. It appeared
that on Friday morning last, the deceased, who was a
plumber, was walking along the maip road at Balham-
hill at the time the gale was raging furiously. A tree
was blown down, breaking a telegraph post, which fell
on the deceased and knocked him down. He died
from injuries to the head soon afterwards. The jury
returned a verdict of "Accidental death."

Mr. S. F. Langham, the deputy coroner for West-
minster, opened an inquiry i the dining-room of No.
4, Pall Mall-place, London, touching the death of
Edith Mary Simpson, aged four years, daughter of
parents residing at the above address, who was killed
by the fall of a tree in St. James's-park during the gale
of Friday.—Mr. James Simpson, manager of chambers,
said the deceased was his daughter. He last saw her alive
on Friday morning, when she went out with her nurse
and a little brother, in perfect health.—Edward Dupp
deposed that on Friday, shortly before midday,
he was passing through the Mall of St. James's-park
when the gale was blowing. He suddenly heard a
tree snap off, and as it was followed by screams, he
ran to the stump of the tree and found a girl there
with the deceased and another child. The deceased
was on the ground, and the bough of the tree was
resting on her thigh. When the bough was raised
sufficiently the nurse pulled the child out, and she was
placed in a cab and conveyed to the hespital.—lt was
an elm tree that fell.—Mr. J. R. Fuller, house sur-
geon at St. George's Hospital, said the deceased was in
a state of collapse, and suffering from a compound frac-
ture of the left leg and a compound double fracture of
the left thigh. These injuries necessitated an opera-
tion, and the limb was successfully amputated, but the
unfortunate child sank and expired three hours and a
half later, the cause of death being shock to the system
consequent upon the injuries.—The Coroner having
summed up the facts the jury returned a verdict of
"Accidental death," and expressed their deep sym-
pathy with the parents of the deceased, an expression
of feeling in which the coroner heartily joined.—lt
was incidentally mentioned that her Majesty had sent
a message of condolence to Mr. Simpson in his sad
bereavement; and that wreaths and immortelles had
been received from noblemen from all parts of the
country. Mr. Simpson is very well known and highly
respected. The case is a peculiarly sad one, inasmuch
as the deceased was a favomite child, and on the even-
ing of the day of her death was to have attended a
party at the Grosvenor Hotel.

There were 130 British and foreign wrecks, of which
105 were British, reported during the past week,
making a total of 1,364 for the present year, or an
increase of 364 as c..empared with the corresponding
period of last year. The increase on the week was
104. The approximate value of property lost was
£8,000,000, including British £6,000,000. Eighty-five
vessels, chiefly British, were lost off the coasts of the
Umted Kingdom during the gale, only 20 being
wrecked in the early part of the week in different
parts of the world. The number of persons reported
lost and missing is about 138.

The Shipping and Mercantile Gazette says :—" The
list of maritime casualties resulting from the gales of
Thursday night and Friday last, published in our impres-
sion of yesterday, is the heaviest record of the kind
which has ever appeared in the columns of this journal.
It comprises nearly six columns of clos _ly-printe
matter, containing reports, necessarily brief, of mari-
time disasters along the shores of these islands, and
the adjacent continental coasts. It is impossible, in
the absence of further and more particular details, to
estimate the amount of loss of property and of life
occasioned by these late gales."

men trona the rigging of the smack Neath Trower. The boat
was injured in returning.
The Boys of England lifeboat of Southend saved four men
from a small vessel in a sinking condition.

The Holyhead lifeboat saved a crew of four men from a
schooner in a sinking condition.

The Newbiggiu lifeboat saved the crew of the steamer
Northumberland.
The Torquay lifeboat Mary Brundret rescued the crew of
two men from the fishing smack Black Cat, and afterwards
towed the smack into Brixham Harbour.
The Deal lifeboat saved 17 men from the ship Gange,s,
wrecked on the Goodwin Sands. The Ramsgate lifeboat also
saved 15 men from the same ship.
At Winterton, Norfolk, the Winterton No. 2 lifeboat
.rescued the crew of four men belonging to a ketch which
was exhibiting signals of distress, and which soon afterwards
foundered.
At Porthdinllaen, North Wales, the George Moore lifeboat
saved the crew of four men belonging to a screw flat named
the Tal-y-fan.
The Groomsport (Co. Down) lifeboat rescued the crew of
fifteen men belonging to the barque Margaret, of Belfast,
which was driven ashore in Bangor Bay.

The Lady Vivian lifeboat, of Aloelfre, Anglesey, rescued
four fishermen, the crew of a fishing-boat belonging to Red
Wharf.
The lifeboat belonging to Port Madoc, Carnarvonshira,
rescued the crew of the schooner Brenton, of Fowey.
The Penarth (South Wales) lifeboat rescued the crew of 14
men belonging to the barque Febo, of Genoa.
The Buckle (N.B ) lifeboat saved the craw of four men
from the schooner Equestrian, of Banff, which drifted
shore at Port Gordon.

The Standard of Saturday noticed the effects of the gale
in a leader, from which we make the following extr act
To the resident in the tropics familiar with the
fierce hurricanes that at intervals devastate extensive
tracts of country, the storm of yesterday may seem a
mere trifle. It would, of course, be gratuitous exag-
geration to compare it with the terrible tornadoes
which even in Europe have been known to carry masses
of stone more than six hundred and fifty pounds in
weight over the the top of houses, and deposit them on
the other side one hundred and fifty paces distant.
The totaado which desolated part of the United
States and Canada nineteen months ago must be still
so fresh in memory as to require no detailed account
of its effects. The typhoons of the northern part of
the Indian Ocean and Chinese sea, with the
sudden barometric changes that accompany them, are,
fortunately, unknown in these latitudes, nor, though
some of our storms are of an intensity almost approach-
ing those common in more outhern regions, are they
at all comparable with the West Indian hurricanes,
which, like the East Indian typhoons, are charac-
terised by the winds blowing in and upon the centre.
Yet the meteorological annals of Great Britain have
preserved the records of storms quite deserving the
name of hurricanes. The "Windy Wednesday "of the
December of 1872 is not likely to be forgotten, nor is the
gust which, concentrated as in a funnel, overthrew the
Tay Bridge two winters ago. The old chroniclers are so
notoriously fond of exaggeration that when they assure
us that fifteen hundred houses were destroyed in Lon-
don in the year 944, and five hundred by another storm
on the sth of October, 1091, we-are not bound to im-
plicitly believe their Aatements. Yet it sounds more
like history to learn from the accurate Holinshed that
in 1233 Hugh de Beauvais and several thousand mer-
cenaries who were accompanying him to the help of
King John against the Barons perished in a tempest
which swept the coast of the Channel for fifteen con-
secutive days. On the night that Cromwell died a
hurricane roared through Europe —an " omen "
which Royalists and Roundheads interpreted in ways
not equally complimentary to the Lord Protector.
A few years later two hundred coasters and
their crews foundered in a storm on the east
coast. But the greatest hurricane of wind which
is ever recorded as having passed over England was
the one known' par emphasis, as the "Great Storm"
of November 26-27, 1703. In London alone two
million pounds sterling of damage was done, and along
the coasts over eight thousand seamen were drowned.
Twelve war-ships were sunk, with their crews, and the
county of Kent was strewn with thousands of uprooted
trees. The Bishop of Bath and Wells was killed in
his bed, and amongst other tragic incidents of the
storm was the destruction of the Eddystone Light-
house, with Winstanley, its builder, who, over-con.
fident in the stability of his handiwork, had deter-
mined to live or perish with it.
The data of this great storm have however, added
little to our scientific knowledge of hurricanes, and,
indeed, it is mainly remembered nowadays owing to
the incidents mentioned, and for the fact that it sup-
plied Addison with that famous simile in which he
compares the Duke of Marlborough directing the
Battle of Blenheim to the Spirit of the Tempest
"such as of late o'er pale Britannia past "—an inflated
compliment that in time landed the lucky poet in the
Secretary of State's Office.
Again and again there have been fearful storms
in England, but it was not until that of the 28th
October,, 1838, which did such damage to London,
that any attempt was made to calculate their course
and the laws governing their movements. The
most memorable of those of the last forty years
was that of the 25th of October, 1859, in which
the Royal Charter was lost, and the one of the 28th
of May, 1861, in which there were one hundred
and forty-three wrecks. In the autumn, winter, and
spring 0- of 1862, 1865, 1867, and 1869, there were many
noted gales, and in 1872, 1874, and 1877 London and
the provinces were swept by tempests almost equal in
intensity to that of yesterday.
These hurricanes having been carefully studied have
materially aided us in deducing certain facts regarding
the laws regulating them. The present gale has been
accompanied by a north-westerly wind, and was
expected, from the rapid fall of the barometer in the
west, increasing until, on Thursday evening a large
and deep depression lay over the north and west of
Ireland, and the mercury was reported to be falling
in all parts of these islands. It has, indeed, been
noted that the most striking difference between Ame-
rican and European storms is the north-west winds
which accompany them. in America the barometer
rises more quickly and uniformly to the north-west,
north-north-west, or north, and at the same time
the temperature falls much lower than usually
happens in Europe. In Britain a stormy
winter is proverbially a mild winter. For in-
stance, through the period from the 26th of
October to the close of December, 1863, was a season
of gales, it was equally remarkable from the almost
entire absence of frost during the continuance of the
storms. Until more exact data are accumulated it
would, however, be useless speculating on the extent
of yesterday's hurricane, or the force of the wind at
different points. At no place can we learn that it has
reached a maximum- of more than forty-two pounds
to the square foot, and it has been often affirmed that
this pressure has been exceeded in exceptional gusts of
recent years.

bridge the whole of he time, told the crew that they
must prepare to save their lives, and that it was each
man for himself. All were now on deck, and could
see the steamer rapidly and surely drifting towards
the land.

All the time the Cyprian had been out she had only
got a little way beyond Holyhead. The men for the
most part seemed panic-stricken, and tried to obtain
whatever they could to enable them to keep them-
selves above the surface of the water. The steamer
was driven nearer and nearer the land, and when
about two miles off Nevin she struck on a rock with
considerable force. When the perilous position of
the vessel was realised by those on board the distress
signals were exhibited. There were a couple of
hundred people on the beach, but the flag was
blown in the direction of the crowd, so that they
could not see that the flag was intended as a distress
signal. It was just about five o'clock when the
ship struck. Most of the men jumped from the
steamer into the sea, in many instances having life
buoys round their waists. It was thought that the
whole of the crew, with the exception of two firemen,
jumped from the steamer into the sea. These two, it
appeared, became unnerved, and went down with the
vessel. It was stated that the captain had a lifebuoy,
but, seeing a boy who had stowed himself away, on
board the ship at Liverpool without one, he told him
to take his (the captain's) as he could swim the dis-
tance to the shore. The captain, chief officer, and
boatswain were seen afterwards struggling in the water,
the boatswain endeavouring to catch hold of the captain
to sustain himself, but the whole three perished. It was
impossible even for the best swimmer to battle suc-
cessfully against such a surf, and those who were saved
were pitched on to the beach by the waves. In every
case the survivors had lifebuoys. The engineers
boy reached shore holding an oar whilst a life-buoy
encircled his waist. At one time the men were in the
trough of the sea, whilst at another they were on the
crest of a large wave. In these latter moments they
could see their comrades struggling desperately to
sustain themselves. The water was bitterly cold.
About ten minutes after the vessel struck, and while
the survivors were still in the water, a peculiar noise
was heard as if a piece of calico was being torn just by
their ears. It was the steamer breaking in two. She
broke apparently amidship, one half sinking on one
side the rock and the other half on the other side. The
cook, who perished, was n the galley just before the
crew left the steamer; he was also accompanied by a
boy. The seas which had come over had proved so
disastrous to the galley that the doors could not be
opened, so that both the cook and the boy had to be
hauled through the roof. There were also many other
narrow escapes before the ship struck. When the
survivors reached the share they were received by the
people. Some of the poor fellows seemed to be suffer-
ing keenly from the immersion, which had only lasted
about a quarter of an hour. When they came near
the shore they were caught by the people on the beach,
and taken eventually to three farmhouses, where they
were kindly treated.