The Express.
London, England, 1852-01-09 00:00:00

STATEMENTS OF SURVIVORS.

Among the crew of the Amazon who was saved (writes
our Southampton correspondent) is an able seaman, named
James Maylin. lie arrived at Southampton on Wednesday
night. lie belongs to Wiebeaah, in Cambridgeshire. lie
is an intelligent and apparently a trustworthy men. lie
states that soon after the ship left the Needles they stopped
two houn off Portland to throw water on the engines ; the
captain at this time was walking the bridge. Maylin was
on watch on Saturday night on the look-out at the port
bow. Mowatt, another man who was raved, wa, looking
out on the starboard bow. The second officer had chug.
of the watch. At a quarter to one on Sun Inv morning he
heard the tire-tell, which was rung by Pasinnore, ann.
thee of those saved. On turning round and see-
ing whereabouts the ship was on fire, he imme-
diately rushed tee get at the wet swab., which had
been made ready the night before to clean the decks fur
Saud ly prayers, and threw them on the foregrating close to
the fore funnel. lie then. with another man, hove two
blames of hay overhnsrd, which had taken tire. At that
moment the captain V 11111; on deck in his shirt and trouser:,
and will t shoes or stocking*, and Maylin assisted hint in
thrusting water down the forecahin. The captain was per-
reedy calm and collected, and, thou th working laboriously,
was giving orders to the *lselin. persons who were near him .
Ai scene of indiairribable terror and confusion ensued; and
Maylin step that the despairing and agonised screams of
the people, together with the cries of the Mortared animals

loa board, sewn yet to ring in his ears. He sew numbers of
persons rush on deck, stricken with terror, many of them
terribly burnt. Some dropped down dead immediately, or
swooned with fright mid suffering. He remembers seeing •
boy rush on deck iu • Guernsey frock, with his face fear-
fully burnt. While getting the boat ready in which
he escaped, • lean do passenger rushed on deck.
She had on only her night gown, the bottom of which and
her legs were much burnt. Three times she was placed in
the boat that was saved—once by Quartermaster Dunford—
but she refused to remain. He beard several hurriedly say
to her that they would soon give her plenty of clothing
when she got away from the ship, but modesty prevailed
over the love of life, and she remained behind to perish.
The boat words Maylin heard Captain Symons say were,
" It's all up with us—there is no hope, my men—get
your boats ready." lle then saw bon for the last
time as ho went alt towards the wheel. Maylin
then almost immediately fell through the deck
and received • flesh wound in hie knee. What added
much to the disastrous cen-equences of the fire was the not
being able to stop the engines on account of the terrible
Brat in the cngine•roo n. The speed at which she was
golug through the sea rendered it almost impossible to
launch the beats without their being swamped. The boat
in which the 21 were saved must fortunately and singularly
escaped swamping. After leaving the ship he saw no
living thing on hoard—he thinks that all but himself and
companions must have perished in the waves in attempting
to escape, or must have been disabled or killed by the
games. It was break of day before the Amason went down.
Ile saw her distinctly when her magazine blew up. A
large number of rockets mounted up in the air at the time.
The boat in which the twenty-one were saved was
rowed about twenty-five or thirty unites when they
saw a barque. They hailed her with their united voices,
when she was certainly not more than a quarter of a mile
off. Wylie is confident some one on board the barque
answered. lle distinctly saw a lantern held outside the
barque, as if to distinguish whereabouts the hail came from.
As well as he could see the barque, she hail close reefed
fore-topsail, double reefed main•topsail, whole foresail, fore-
topsail staysail. Thu barque, however, did not attempt to
render the boat any assistance, although the captain of her
must have seen the burning Amason, and must have con-
jectured that the persons who hailed hiip were some of Ler
crew or passengers.
Another of the survivors, William Forster, an table sea-
man, on board the unfortunate ship, given the following
narrative of the occurrences which succeeded the cry of
fire:—For a mood air two I took nu notice, as 1 haul so
often been disappointed at different sound.; but all at once
I heard the four strokes un the fire-bell. I immediately
joinisil up, and looking up caw the flames protruding up
one of the hatchways tit the engine-room, which was by the
foremost funnel. I elan alt, and up the foremost win-
panion, followed by Mr. Roberts, the chief officer, in his
shirt. He immediately flew to some wit mate that were
lying an the foremost venison singiug out for me at decimate
tame to assist him, which 1 did till he had used them all,
about ten in numb. r. Ile then ran through the flames to
the after end of the ship. I may observe that the swabs we
threw on the tire made no more Impression un it than a cup,
full of water would. I then proceeded over the p.iddle-
hoz on the starboard side, the flames then being a. high as
the highest point of them, and when I C 41.120 to descend I
found that 1 had to throw myself on my stomach to succe.d.
' As soon as I was down, I found there were some men trying
to clear the foremost lite-boat, when I staid and assisted
them; but the flames increased so rapidly on us that we
were obliged to leave her and commenced on the ni at. I
hail no idea at the time this second boat was a lite-boat. 1
(tumid we had Is dial of trouble to get this Wet clear, as she
Was placed in iron crutches, and in the confusion we
found it very hard to get the boat clear of them; but
during the time, which was only a short space, I repeatedly
cast my eyes on the quarterdeck, which was then all on
tire, to see what was going on, but I saw nothing but Capt. I
Symons and a manlier of the passengers surrounding him,
as if to crave Ids advice what was best to be done. I heard I
him shout out, " Never mind the boats," when by this
time the boat was partly down. I jumped off the rail into
her. The man that lowered the boat then came atdieg i
I down the tackelo into the boat, and butte were saved. The I
vessel at this time hail much way on her, and was going
through the water so rapidly, I should thank at the rate of
t 2 or 13 knum ea hour, that we found it impossible to hold
by her any longer, we therefore let go, and dropping astern
we left the next boat hanging by one end in her tackles
that was unhoused. As soon as we were astern, I
we heard nothiug ant death screeches all around us. I
We immediately set to to clear away the oars.
' and succeeded in saving five lives in the dingy, and then
Rooked her astern in case we should pick up more than '
our own boat would tarry, we should have her in re-
serve, providing she would live ; but we had scarcely done
so, w lieu a very heavy sea followed, sunk the dingy, and
hall filled our own boat with water. We then laid by
until the ship sunk, but wu did not save any more lives.
About a quarter of an hour before the ship sunk, the
magaztoe burst. We stopped then until daylight to see '
if there were any boats besides ourselves, or any vessel
that might pick us up, but we saw nothing. Wu then
pulled away to the eastward, which we had a very good '
idea of lay the sea miming that way ; but we saw nothing
until 12 at noon, when we sighted the brig Marsden, who
took us on board.

Mr. Angus, the chief engineer of the Amazon, was the
oldest chief engineer in the West India Company's service.
The following notice has been issued by the Postmaster-
General In consequence of the Am mon, which sailed
on the 2nd inst., having been totally destroyed by fire, with
all the mails on board, it is intended. to despatch the Avon
from Southampton, no an extra packet for the West Indies,
on Sunday morning next, the 11th inst., for the purpose of
bringing to England the homeward mails, in place of the
Amazon."

Tne %Vest India Mail Company has been the most unfor-
tunate of all the great steam packet associations in the loss
of their steam ships. Since the establishment of the
company in 1841, no less than eight of their fleet of
steamers have been destroyed by casualties on the sea. We
neapitulate their names—the Med.na, wrecked on the 12th
of May, GM, on • coral reef, near Turk's Island ; the
Isis, on the Bth of October, 1842, sunk off Bermuda,
having previously struck on • reef • the Solway,
wrecked off Corunna, on the B'h of April, 1813 ;
the Tweed, on the 12th of February, 1847, on the
Aleranes rocks, Gulf of Mexico; the Forth, likewise lost on
the same rocks on the 15th of January, 1819 ; the Actaeon,
lost in 1811 in the Nesrellus, near Carthagena ; and the
new steamer Demerara, stranded in the river Avon, near
Bristol, not long since. The wrecks of the Tweed and
Solway were attended with peculiarly distressing circum-
stances, involving the loss of 1.0 lives ; and in the case of
the survivors of the Tweed with an extent of hardship and
suffering which has rarely found a parallel in the records
of disasters at sea. The catalogue is closed by the burning
of the Amason, and by the harrowing oceurrences which
it has been our painful duty to mount, in connexion with
her destruction.

THE HIGHGATE EXPLORION.—A coroner's inquest,
to ascertain the cause of the death of John Wynne'
Edwards, supposed to have been produced by the accident
narrated in the Express of last Tuesday, commenced
yesterday evening at the Woodman, Highgate. Mr. Wak-
I ley, the coroner, stated that he and the jury were sum•
mooed that evening in compliance with a request from the I
family, who desired to have the body removed to Wales
on the following morning. It would, however, be neces-
sary to postpone the examination of the witnesses. The
jury then proceeded to view the body, which lay
at the residence of the deceased, opposite the
Woodman. On their return, the lamp—the imme-
diate cause of the accident—was plated on the
table for examination. It was a complete wreck, said, as
was remarked by the coroner, it must have been a very
violent explosion which had so shattered it. The following
words were found stamped upon it : " Holliday's Patent
Peerless Gas Lamp, 128, Holborn-hill." The spirit with
which it was fed was termed " mineral spirit," being in
feet, coal naptha.—Mr. Browne, of the firm of COod,
Browne end Company, solicitors, Moorgate-street, who at-
tended on behalf of the family, and whose pupil the de-
ceased was for five years, said the deceased's relatives
were desirous that the inquiry should be so conducted as to
elicit the facts and to promote the public benefit. It
was with that view that he should put all his questions.-
1 The Coroner thought it necessary that the buyer and the
seller of the lamp should both appear as witnesses. It was
intimated that the lamp was bought at the patentee's shop
by Mr. Foster himself.—ln reply to questions from the
Coroner, Mr. Brendon, the surgeon, who attended both
the deceased and Mr. Foster, said he thought that gentle-
man would in a fortnight have sufficiently recovered to
attend and give evidence of all that occurred.—The
Coroner observed that the matter must, for the rake of the
public, be thoroughly investigated, in order, if possible, to
prevent the recurrence of such an secident. The inquiry
was then adjourned till the 22nd inst.
FATAL ACCIDENT AT ELLIOTT AND Co.'s BREW-
zaT.—Yeaterday morning, between six and seven o'clock, a
painful excitement prevailed at the brewery of Messrs.
Elliott and Co., Pimlico, in consequence of the disappear-
ance of John Noakes, who for some years had the manage-
ment of the store rooms. Shortly after five o'clock he pro-
ceeded to gauge the vats in the store rooms, which he did
without being accompanied by any one. Between six and
seven o'clock, as he was not to be seen anywhere, a search
was made for him. As a rule, with other tools he was in
the habit of using, were observed by the side of an empty
vat, adjoining which was an aperture in the lid, which was
opened to allow the escape of the carbonic acid gas that
always collects after a vat is emptied of the liquid, this was
ordered to be examined. The unfortunate man was then
discovered at the bottom of the vat, which is about 22 feet
in depth. He was brought up, and was:promptly attended
to, a surgeon baying arrived, under whose direction every
means were resorted to, in order to restore animation. It is
supposed his death must have been instantaneous, from the
power of the gas. The deceased had to cross this vat to
gauge another, and the opinion is that his foot slipped,
which caused him to fall through the aperture, and which
had been opened by himself. lie was a steady man, and
had been 72 years in the service of the firm.
LONDON, TILBURY, AND SOUTHEND RAILWAY.—
The subscription centred for this proposed line in exten-
sion of the Eastern Conntieri and London end Blackwell
Railway is sitmed to the extent of 321,74 W., of whit&
411,2171. is alleged to be paid up.
WORCEATER AND iintr.Font) ItAtt.w4.T.—Tllo pre.
liminaries for going to parliament have been duly accom-
plished, and scarcely any degree of doubt can now rest
upon the ultimate passing of an act fir cooatructi;.g this
railway. It is intended ei erect the Worcester station on
the left-hand side of Clap.gige, about 200 jests front Silver-
; and t neb approach will biopened up from the corn
market to the station.— Worcester CArettiek.