The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-05-07 00:00:00

THE MYSTERY EXPLAINED.

The St. Petersburg correspondent of the Daily
News writes :—" The mine said to have been dis-
covered near the Soltikoff Porch of the Winter
Palace is now explained. In the course of investi-
gations in consequence of underground noises heard
by watchers, it was discovered that a canal
formerly passing in front of the Horse Guards Bar-
racks, filled up some forty years ago and now forming
a boulevard was continued towards and beneath the
Winter Palace without being filled in under the build-
ing, whence there was an outlet to the Neva. The
noises heard were caused by ice grating against the
sides of the canal. Investigations are being also made
at the Annitchkoff Palace. Three canals or tunnels
were found sufficiently large for several men to stand
abreast. Of course these tunnels could have had no
political significance, although in these times such a
character is readily given to incidents having no such
possible connection."

Writing on Monday, the St. Petersburg corre-
spondent of The Times says :—" Yesterday in St.
Petemburg renewed search was made for mines near
the Sernenovski bridge, though nothing of the kind
suspected seems to have been discovered. But the
social and political air of the Russian capital appears
to be again growing thicker and thicker, and fraught
even as with the omens of another approaching
storm. In a private letter which reached me this morn-
ing from St. Petersburg, the writer describes the
City as a sort of gloomy prison-houses where little is
heard of the outside world, and where every one lives
in a constant state of painful s ispense.
" A long and elaborate official account of the catas-
trophe of March 13, drawn up from the evidence of
138 eye-witnesses has now been published • but it
adds few details to'those yon have already placed before
'our readers. While being driven in a sledge to the
Winter Palace from the scene of the fatal explosion,
the mangled Czar is represented to have complained
of cold, and to have repeatedly inquired whether his
Heir- Heir-Apparent wasthe
momentalive,buot e f re
l sn:i
beingain remained wholly l
ac
ed
o
his
un-
consciousA ppre
couch up to his death. A post-mortem examination
proved that his heart and veins had been almost
wholly drained of blood."

DISASTER TO HER MAJESTY'S
SHIP " DOTEREL."

On Tuesday evening the Secretary of the Admiralty
forwarded to the papers the following telegram, which
had been received from Montevideo :
"Doterel blown up April 26—Sandy Point, Straits
of Magellan. Cause unknown.
" Lieutenant Stokes stays at scene of disaster to
ascertain cause, with divers.
"Commander, paymaster, Engineer 'Walker, car-
penter, and seven seamen saved.
"Survivors returning borne in mail steamer
Britannia.
"The names of all survivors have been telegraphed
for."

Admiralty, May 3.

The news of the terrible disaster to her Majesty's
sloop-of-war Doterel reached the Admiralty on Tues-
day evening at ten minutes past five, having been
despatched only two hours previously from Monte-
video, whither it had been conveyed from the scene of
the accident in the Straits of Magellan.
The officers and crew of the Doterel number, all told,
156, and all have perished except 17.
The names of the officers 3n board were Lieu-
tenants William C. Forrest, Arthur R. M. Creagle,
John M. Stokes, Staff-Surgeon Septimus Evans, Pay-
master John N. Colborne, Chief Engineer William
Read, Engineer W. Ord, Gunner Jeremiah Driscoll,
Carpenter W. B. Baird, Clerk C. M. Irving. It is
believed the disaster occurred on the 26th of April but
on this and other points the Admiralty has telegraphed
for information.

The Doterel was a sloop carrying six guns; she was
of 1,137 tons and 900-horse power. She was commis-
sioned at Chatham on the 7th of December last, and
was on ller passage out to relieve the Penguin on the
Pacific Station.

She left _Chatham in January, and finally quitted
Sheerness:on her voyage on the 17th of January, when
she encountered the terrible gale of the 18th, as she
was proceeding to Portsmouth.

The Doterel VMS quite a new vessel, this being her
first commission. She was built and fitted out at
Chatham, and was one of the best vessels of her class
in the Navy.
The news of the disaster caused a most painfnl
sensation at Chatham, many of those on boa—id
belonging to that port.
A Plymouth Correspondent telegraphs :—"The
Doterel is similar in construction to the Mutine and
several other vessels built at Devonpoit. She was
launched at Chatham on March :3, 1880. The
Doterel put into Plymouth Sound on her way
down Channel, through stress of weather. At
Plymouth she remained a few days, making good
defects. She left on February 12 and arrived at
Madeira on the 23rd. On the following day she
sailed to St. Vincent, to which place she had been
ordered, as it was deemed likely that she would be
wanted on the Gold Coast in consequence of the
threatened hostilities with the Ashantees. On the
6th April she arrived at Montevideo from Cape de
Verdes. Of her officers §everal are well known in
Plymouth, the commander among the number.
Lieutenant Stokes, the officer left in charge of the
wreck, is a son of Captain Stokes, of King's Kerswell,
near Torquay, who formerly served on board the
Britannia. Her medical officer, Staff Surgeon Evans,
was, it is stated, a Plymouth man, and his father still
resides here."

The Secretary of the Admiralty sent to the papers the fol-
lowing copy of a further telegram received on Wednesday
morning from Monte Video :

" Doterel totally destroyed and sunk by explosion of
fore magazine at Sandy Point, 10 a.m. April 26.
" Cause unknown. Supposed boiler burst and ex-
ploded magazine. Twelve survivors, all well, pro-
ceeding in Britannia for Liverpool. Stokes remains
Sandy Point awaiting orders. Have telegraphed
Pacific and Admiral Jones.

The telegram also gives the names of the survivors
(17), amongst whom were—Evans, Commander;
Stokes, Lieutenant; Colborne, Paymaster; Walker,
Engineer, Garnet; Baird, Carpenter ; Pengelly,
Gunner's Mate ; Trout, Quartermaster ; Ford,
Caulker's Mate; Walker, Shipwright. The re-
mainder were ordinary seamen, one stoker, a marine,
and a clerk.
Eight officers dead, and 135 men.

Sandy Point, where this sad calamity has happened,
is over 1,200 miles from the nearest telegraph station,
which is Beunos Ayres, or Montevidoe, so that those
who have survived the catastrophe, which took place
only six days before their arrival at Montevidoe, must
have been brought away immediately.