The Sun.
London, England, 1865-11-24 00:00:00

The Late Gale.

On Wednesday morning at an early.hour a ter-
rific storm swept along the Humber from the S.W.
Shortly before noon, while the storm was about
at its height, the passenger steamer plying between
Hull and London left the Humber dock for
the last-named port. As she passed between
the piers, which also serve as breakwaters for the
dock basin, she was driven by the force of the wind
and the waves on the pier at the eastern side. She
was very much shaken, but it was not supposed that
any material injury had been sustained. When the
steamer had got abreast of Billingholme, about 20
miles down the river, a rumour spread on board
that the ship was making water. The pumps were
sounded, and several inches of water found in the
hold. The captain, therefore, determined to put
about and return to Hull. It was with eliffi-

culty that the steamer worked her way up against
the ebb tide and almost head wind, and when she

arrived at Hull it was found that there was about

two feet water in the hold. The passengers -were

therefore landed, and it is thought that a portion,
if not the whole,of the cargo will have to be landed.

It was supposed that some of her plates were sprung
when she drove on the pier. Several small vessels
drove from their moorings, and were more or less
injured. The Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincoln-
shire Railway Company's ferry steamer was very
considerably injured, her starboard paddlebox and
a great length of the bulwarks on the same side be-
ing carried away. This damage was caused by the
boat being blown broadside on to a tugboat belong-
ing to the same company, and which was also
seriously injured. In the town a good deal of da-
mage was done. From one house the greater part
of the roof was blown away. A telegram was sent
from the Meteorological-office to hoist south drum,
but this could not be done, as the haulyards had
blown away from the mast.
At Elm, near Wisbeach, on Wednesday, at 12.10
p.m., the barometer stood at 2&27, the thermometer
at 54. A furious gale from the south was then
raging.

It began from S.E. and bad gradually

veered full S. On Tuesday night at 6 o'clock a bril-
liant meteor floated across the sky from within 5
deg. of the Pleiades. Its direction was full south,
and its path inclined at about 15 deg. to the hori-
zon. Its length of course was estimated at 30 deg.
It left a trail of sparks behind it, was of a brilliant
blue, spear-headed, but not sharp, and for the last
four or Rye degrees appeared to dive obliquely
downwards and vanished. The trail of light and

sparks was white. The size was about twice that of

Venus.

At Shields on Wednesday the -weather was very
stormy. The barometer stood very low. At noon
the wind blew half a gale from the S.E., but about
two o'clock in the afternoon it flew round to the

N.W., and on Wednesday night it had settled down
to a violent gale from the W. The rain was fall-
ing in torrents, and the night was extremely dark.
Only one laden screw collier sailed at tide time, on
Wednesday afternoon—the Fire Fly, for London,
and she is likely to have had a rough night of it off
the Yorkshire coast. The -wind was off shore, and
was not, thefefore, so dangerous to shipping as it
otherwise would have been had it been from the
eastward. This morning about 5 o'clock a new
clipper ship, the Persian Empire, did considerable
damage to the 'West Hartlepool Dock-quay. At the
time a gale of wind was blowing from the south-
ward. She was being towed into the harbour in
charge of Mr. Leighton, a North Sea pilot, when,
having got too much headway, she ran with tremen-
dous force into the quay near to the dock entrance,
making the building thereon shake with the concus-
sion. She cut into the solid masonry work, crushing
it six or eight feet in breadth, and smashing granite
blocks to pieces. The ship, an iron one, does not
appear to have sustained much damage. If she had
burst open the dock gates, which at one time she
was likely to do, the-consequences would in all pro-
bability have been very serious. A storm-warning
from the Board of Trade has been hoisted to-night
that a gale may be expected from the southward.
On Wednesday morning the weather was very
stormy in the West Bay of Portland. About 10
a.m. a brig was seen in distress, which proved after-
wards to be the Emmanuel, of Auray. After vainly
endeavouring to weather the Bill of Portland, the
captain found himself completely embayed, and
baying exhaused every effort to save his ship he pre-
pared in the most seamanlike manner to run her on
1---3 each in the midst of a tremendous surf, an
almost hopeless task. The inhabitants had by this
time flocked down to the beach, and seeing that the
spot the captain had selected was a most dangerous
one, they, by waving flags and other signals,
directed him to one about a mile further south,
close to where Portland is joined by the beach.
The captain understood the signals, and putting his
ship's head to the wind kept her off until opposite
the spot indicated.' He then proceeded once more
to beach his ship, and ordered his crew to lash them-
selves on, and put his ship before the wind. Nothing
could have exceeded the complete success with
which the operation was performed, for she came
in on the top of a tremendous rolling surf, and, as
the tide was falling, she was left in about an hour's
time almost high and dry. As soon as she struck
one poor fellow was seen to clamber out on to the
bowspiit, and, in spite of the remonstrances, shout-
ings, and wavings of those on shore to cling to the
ship, he threw himself into the breakers, in the vain
hope of being -washed up on the beach. He was
never seen again ; the rest, by waiting until the
tide receded, were all saved. The brig is laden
with timber, and was expected to go to pieces with
the following tide.
At Plymouth yesterday morning, at high water,
two Government tugs and a merchant steamer
started the emigrant ship Amoor about half her
length ahead, when the tide ebbed, and she grounded
again. She has been further lightened, and this
morning another effort will be made to get her off.
The tides are, however, increasing.
In addition to the particulars from Bristol and
the neighbourhood given in The Sun of yesterday,
we learn that one of the pontoons connected with
the landing pier of the Bristol Port and Pier Rail-
way at Avonmouth was lifted by the force of the
tide and carried away. An iron vessel named the
Curlew, engaged in the service of the British and
Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company in repairing a
three-wire cable which connects Newport, Cardiff,
and Swansea with Bristol, had to be abandoned at
Aust-head and went ashore at Oldbury. The crew
escaped in a boat, and after being driven up the
Severn a distance of 13 miles they succeeded in
effecting a landing. At Weston-super-Mare con-
siderable damage was done, particularly to the
boats of the local fishermen, several of which be-
came total wrecks, and scarcely one escaped unin-
jured. The sloop Despatch was driven from her
moorings against the sea wall on the Knightstone-
road, a portion of which was knocked down by the
collision, and a hole stove in the vessel's stern. Se-
rious injury was likewise done to a new vessel, of
peculiar construction, belonging to Mr. J. Elwin.
It was a kind of double canoe, and had been some
time in progress, and was nearly completed. She
dragged heranchor, and was also carried by the force
of_ the gale against the wall on Knightstone-road.
One of her sides was stove in, and some large holes
made in herbottom. At Lundy three pilotboats were
driven away, and one, No. 9, lost a man overboard.
On Wednesday one of the most terrific storms that
has been remembered for the last 20 years, passed
over Monmouthshire. The sea-wall at Loughor was
completely swept away for some distance, and the
Great Western line, which for several miles runs
within a few yards of the wall, was also swept away.
The trains from below this point were in consequence
delayed about ten hours. At the Dowlais works
the damage was great. The roofs of costly new
buildings being uncovered, and two or three stacks
Iva° party blown down. The Prince of WIN,
a vessel of 1,100 tons, laden with coal:
was wrecked on Aberavon Sands; cargo and shipvalued at £20,000. A Tqssel laying at the Risco
vilia.rf on the Usk was carried by the force of the
tide to the adjoining bank, and numerous other
vessels were more or less damaged.
At Barmout, Carnarvon, on Tuesday, about noon,
a smack was observed in this bay under low can-
vas, the -wind at the time blowing a strong gale
from the southwest, and the sea running high. She