The Press.
London, England, 1854-10-14 00:00:00

DREADFUL FIRE AND LOSS OF LIFE AT

NEWCASTLE.

A most fearful calamity has befallen the town of
Newcastle-on-Tyne awl the adjoining borough of
Gateshead. Between twelve and one o'clock on the
morning of yesterday week a fire broke out in the
worsted-manufactory of Mr. James Wilson, of Gates-
head, and, after raging with great fury for about two
hours, an adjoining warehouse in the occupation of
Mr. Sissons, containing vast quantities of sulphur,
nitre, and, it is said, about seven tons of gunpowder,
blew up with a terrific explosion, and with de-
structive consequences which ►t is awful to contem-
plate, and the full extent of which has even
yet not been fully ascertained. Houses were
thrown down, many persons buried in the ruins,
and others were suffocated with the fumes
of the exploded combustibles. A large build-
ing, us3d as a Methodist chapel, near the scene
of the conflagration, was occupied by a body of the
Cameronians, who are stationed at Newcastle Bar-
racks. They were engaged with their fine-engine
operating on the flames, when the explosion blew
down the greater part of the building, and buried
several of the poor gallant fellows in its ruins. Lieut.
Paynter, the commander of the force, is amongst the
victims. Mr. Robert Pattinson, a member of the
Newcastle corporation, who had sallied out to wit-
ness the fire, was suffocated by the fumes, and eight
other persons perished, including Mr. Davison, jun.,
miller, a barber named Hamilton, a sergeant of the
Cameronians, Scott, a Gateshead policeman ; the rest
burnt and mutilated so as scarcely to be recognised.
Several more were missing when the accounts left.
Fifty or sixty persons, more or less injured, have
been conveyed to the infirmary, and the hospital at
the barracks is full of wounded soldiers. The loss
of property i 3 incalculable. It has been roughly
estimated at more than a million. There is scarcely
a house, office, or public building, within a radius of
a hundred yards of the explosion, which has not
been injured, either unroofed or its windows broken.
The subsequent progress of the fire itself was most
alarming and destructive. At the moment of the
explosion large masses of blazing material flew over
the Tyne like cannon balls, and set fire to several
buildings on the Newcastle side. There was happily
no want of water, the Tyne being so close at hand,
and the water of the Whittle Dean Company, which
is always at a high pressure, was served with admi-
rable effect. The flames were gradually suudued.
Several thousand quarters of corn in bonded ware-
houses on the quay side have been destroyed, toge-

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ther with some thousand barrels of tar. Nearly
fifty places of business have been totally destroyed.

In Gateshead itself the fire broke out again in the
course of the afternoon with great fury. Mtssrs.
Davison's large steam-mill was among the buildings
destroyed.
The Newcastle corporation have held several meet-
ings, and appointed a committee to provide help for the
sufferers by the fire and lodgings for the destitute,
scores of whom had encamped in the streets. The
members subscribed 000 guineas for the same object.
The Gateshead town council likewise originated mea-
measures of relief. More than 3,0001. has been con-
tributed to provide aid for the sufferers.
Some of the streets where the cholera was so fatal

last year are destroyed. The Home-otilce has been
applied to for a commissioner to assist the local
authorities in investigating the cause of this frightful
catastrophe. For several days after the fire the en-
gines were still constantly at work, pouring water
upon the smouldering ruins. All approach to the
principal seat of the tire was, however, long impos-
sible or highly dangerous, owing to the poisonous
vapours exhaled from many thousand tons of wetted
and inflamed sulphur, aided, it is reported, by the
fumes from a large quantity of arsenic stored in the
warehouse. The number who perished by this cala-
mity has not been precisely ascertained : it is sup-
posed to exceed forty. Many persons are missing;
and the human remains are found by the workmen
engaged in removing the debris so shattered and con-
sumed that identification is often impossible. In-
quests have been sitting during several days on the
bodies of some of the victims, and the investigations
still stand adjourned. It is denied that any gun-
powder was kept in the burnt premises, and the ex-
plosion has been attributed to the circumstance of
water having penetrated to a vast mass of incandes-
cent nitre.

THE splendid mail.steamer Arctic has been totally
lost under melancholy circumstances and with a
deplorable sacrifice of life. She left Liverpo9l
for New York on the 20th ult., and on the 25th,
when not far from Cape Race, came into colli-
sion with the French steamer Vesta, and was
so much injured that she sunk very shortly after
wards. Only the second officer and forty-five
persons (fourteen passengers and thirty one of
the crew) are known to have been saved. The
fate of the remainder of the crew (130) and pas-
sengers (185 first class and seventy five second class)
is unknown, but it is feared they perished. The
collision took place during a thick fog, and it is still
hoped to be possible that some other persons were
enabled to effect their escape in the boats. Tho
Vesta steamer put into St. John's with damage, and
with fourteen passengers and crew missing. They
had left the vessel in one of the boats. This accident
appears in some measure due to the over-anxiety of
the masters of steam-vessels to shorten the passage
by some risk to the ships under their command and
the lives of the people on board.
AN ExpLosloN of fatal character took place on
Thursday at the caoutchouc-factory at Tottenham
belonging to Messrs. Warne and Co. The second
engineer was killed, the first engineer was severely
wounded, and the stoker removed to one of the London
hospitals seriously if not mortally injured.
- -

THE "Dauntless affair" has been undergoing a
third scrutiny during the week, Lieuts. Knight,
Seymour, and Elphinstone having undergone their
trial by court martial at Portsmouth, for the parts
they respectively took in the unhappy transaction.
Lieutenant Knight, by whom the deceased woman
and companion were invited on board and supplied
with wine and brandy, has been sentenced by the
court to be reprimanded and placed at the bottom of
the list of first lieutenants of marines. Lieutenant
Seymour, who was merely a guest on board the
Dauntless, is acquitted. Lieutenant Elphinstone
was charged with neglect of duty in not interfering
to stop the scandalous scene that was going on, and
at the time when he was actually senior officer of the
ship. This charge was considered as "partly proved,"
inasmuch as Lieutenant Elphinstone merely remon-
strated against the disgraceful proceedings, and was
ordered to be " admonished" accordingly.

M. JULLIEN, who has returned from America, will
commence his usual series of " Concerts Monstres "
at Drury Lane on the 30th instant.

AUSTRALIAN MERPHANTS who have long been in
the trade appear to consider that the last advicea
received from the colonies were not quite so bad as
they anticipated. Although many goods were selling
at a loss, and others were unsaleable, yet selections
appropriate to the season, made by merchants well
acquainted with the requirements of the colonies at
each season, are returned as having realised a fair
profit. From the number of vessels loading, both in
London and in Liverpool, it is evident that a much
larger amount of business is doing than might ba
anticipated.