The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-26 00:00:00

Dreadful Accident at Gibraltar.

It is our painful duty to record a dreadful accident which
occurred in the neighbourhood of Gibraltar yesterday, by
which five parsons lost their lives, three of them officers of
the garrison and the t eio others natives of this city. An
Irish jaunting car, with four officers, the driver, and a
postilion on the leading horse, were carried away by the
current when crossing the mouth of the stream at the
Orange-grove, and of the whole party one only, Capt. Hop-
kins, 15th Regiment, escaped with life, all the others having
perishe J. The circumstances of this deplorable event are
as follows :—Capt. Hopkins and Lieut. Boultbee, of the 15th,
left the garrison in a boat yesterday morning for the pur
pose of shooting between the rivers. The threatening
aspect of the weather led them to return by land instead
of by sea, as they originally had intended. On their way
back they overtook at the first river Ensigns Vernon and
Blunt, of the 9th Regiment, who had also gone
into Skein for the purpose of shooting, and were re-
turning in a jaunting car. Tae latter invited the officers
of the 15th to take a seat in their conveyance, which they
did, and the whole party proceeded along the beach on their
way to the rock. No apprehensions seem to have been felt
that the scream which runs into the sea at the Orange-grove
was rendered, dangerous by the rain which hac been falling
all day, and the horses took the ford at the usual place at
the mouth. But this ordinarily insignificant stream had
been swollen by the rain, and was rushing with the force
of a torrent, and when near the centre, the horses were
carried off their legs, the car upset, and the party on it left
struggling in the water. Captain Hopkins and Lieutenant
Boultbee were on the side of the car facing seawards, and
Ensigns Vernon and Blunt on the land site. Captain Hop-
kins occppied on his side the seat nearest the shafts, and to
this circumstance he attributes his escape. When the cur-
rent was carrying horses and car into the sea he sprang for-
ward as far as he could, in order to clear the plunging and
struggling horses. The leap carried him from near the
centre to close to the edge of the main current, and after
being whirled about for a minute or two, he was cast by an
eddy, and the breakers coming in from the sea into slack
water, recovered his footing and got to land with the assist-
ance of a Spaniard from the Orange-grove, who rushed into
the water to his assistance. Lieut. Boultbee, who sprang
out at the back of the car, and consequently leaped into
the strong central current, was swept into the sea, the
rapidity of the stream preventing his recovering his foot-
ing. Ensigns Vernon and Blunt were carried off in the
same way. Captain Hopkins is a good swimmer, but was
whirled and tossed about like a straw upon the current, and
utterly powerless to extricate himself until he was carried,
as above stated, into still water. As soon as the accident
was observed at the village at the Orange-grove, a boat was
launched and manned and went to the rescue, but did not
succeed in saving any of the party. The body of Lieu-
tenant Boultbee, after the space of half an hour, was
washed up on the beach close to the stream, and that of
Ensign Blunt was cast up on nearly the same spot about a
qaarter of an hour afterwards. Lieutenant Boultbee'e
body was taken at once to a neighbouring hut, and Captain
Hopkins endeavoured by friction and other means to re-
store animation, but all the efforts of himself and those
who assisted him were fruitless. The bodies of Ensign
Vernon and also the driver of the car, Daniel Sullivan, a
youth of about 30 years of age, and of Rafael Berea, the
postilion, a boy of 12, have not yet been found. The car
floated out to sea, the shaft horse was drowned, being en-
cumbered by the car, but the leader was still alive and
striking out for the shore, when the boat took him in tow
and brought him to land, with the dead horse and car to
which he was harnessed. Captain Hopkins reports that
the lieutenant commanding the post of Carabinercs at the
Orange-grove and another Spanish official, were, were on
the spot and rendered every assistance in their power to-
wards recovering the bodies, besides courteously and
kindly making offers of personal assistance to himself."—
Gibraltar Chronicle, Dec, 14.

King Louis of Bavaria is still at Rtnne, where he
COtaltltirs to visit the nou,,utris and il,trerttil monu-
ments. His 'Vl:leafy was recently present at fete
given by M. Sehnotz, director of the French
Academy.