The Sun.
London, England, 1862-10-27 00:00:00

FEARFUL GALES ON THE SOU7II-EAST

COAST .

PERILOUS POSITION OF THE MAID OF KENT,
WITH FIFTY LIVES ON BOARD.

DOVER, SUNDAY, 6.30 P.M.

Throughout the whole of yesterday and this
morning a succession of strong gales, and heavy seas
have been raging ; indeed, since the wreck of the
ill-fated Violet (Imperial mail packet) on the Good-
win Sands in 1857, such rough weather cannot be
well remembered. During the whole of last night
the piers and harbour approaches have been kept
in a continuous state of excitement, and fears for
the safety of that magnificent new iron steamer
the Maid of Kent, Captain Bennett, belonging
to the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway Com-
pany, which had been telegraphed as leaving Calais
harbour at four o'clock in the afternoon. As night
closed in the storm increased in fury, and vessels
(signalling for pilots) drifted past the harbour with
frightful rapidity; but though it blew a hurricane
and poured a deluge until mid-day on Saturday,
there were women, the wives and daughters of men
on board the steamer, who were hardy enough to
brave the violence of the elements throughout the
entire night, and daybreak found them wet and
shivering on the piers, with the same anxious look
seaward as when darkness set in ; but there were
no tidings of the missing vessel.
Shortly before midnight, the steam tug Resolute
(No. 1, Liverpool', having the electric coil on board,
got her steam up, and proceeded in search of the
Maid of Kent, it being supposed that her peculiarly
constructed engines had been found inadequate to
the " green seas" which prevail during the equinoc-
tial gales ; but 11.10 this morning the Resolute
returned to harbour without tidings.

Telegraphic communications from point to point
of the coast had in the meantime been resorted to,
and at 11.20 a telegram from Deal announced a
large steamer with yellow funnels had been seen in
the vieinity of the Downs and near to the Goodwin
Sands. At 11.30 the Vivid, Imperial mail packet,
steamed out of harbour. At this moment a large
steamer, with her foremast and bowsprit gone, was
observed struggling in a tremendous sea ; with some
difficulty she was boarded by a Trinity pilot (Moon)
and brought safely into harbour ; she proved to be
the Jovellanos, bound from London for Lisbon. The
schooner Petrel, which sailed from Dover last week,
also put back, and the Mary Stuart, Liverpool
steam tug, with jury masts, got in with her funnel
red hot, after beating off and on for thirty minutes.
At four o'clock the Vivid, Captain Hammond,
returned to Dover with 35 passengers and luggage
from the decks of the Maid of Kent. He had fallen
in with her on the outside of the Downs and near
to the Gull stream ; both anchors were down and
the chains entangled, so that it is impossible to get
her off until the morning tide; her windlass was
also gone, A number of carpenters and sailors hav-
ing been procured, the Vivid again started for the
spot, where the Maid of Kent has been anchored
from 2 a.m.

The shipping casualties on the Dover coast have
been but few during the week, although a serious
encroachment of the sea has swept away half a mile
of shingle, destroyed the Marine-parade, and laid
bare faggot groins that have been buried in beach
and sand 15 years. Two pilots are missing, but
hope has not abated for their safety.

7HE GALES.

MORE FATAL LOSSES.

The most disastrous accounts of the effects of the
late heavy gales continue to be received. In addi-
tion to the sad havoc which has been caused on the
shores of the United Kingdom, a long catalogue of
disasters has come in from the north coast of
Europe, and up to Saturday upwards of 100 wrecks
and more than 500 casualties, attended with great
great sacrifice of life, had been reported on Lloyd's
books during the week. There was a lull in the
violence of the weather in the course of Thursday,
but late on Saturday evening the wind again came
on to blow strong, and it is feared must have told
with serious effect upon the shipping which had
ventured out of port. Several homeward-bound
ships which have succeeded in reaching Falmouth
and other western ports report the moat terrific
weather in the chops of the Channel, and some of
the vessels, to escape foundering, had to throw
their cargo overboard. By the Speenlant, which
arrived at Falmouth on Saturday, intelligence has
been received of the abandonment of the brig Token,
of Dartmouth, bound from Belize, with a cargo of
mahogany, to Queenstown, and melancholy to re-
late, the captain and twelve of the crew are reported
to have been drowned. The remainder of the hands
were rescued by the Speculant, which has brought
them to England.
Of the crew of the large ship Bencoolen, from
Liverpool to Bombay, which was driven ashore at
Bade Haven on the Cornish coast, only six were
saved, the captain and two mates being amongst
those who perished. The ill-fated vessel was dis-
masted when she struck, and within an hour after-
wards she went to pieces. The captain went into
his cabin to get something when the ship struck, and
a heavy sea washing away the companion he was
drowned in his cabin. The lifeboat was soon on the
spot, but the sea that was running rendered her
going off most difficult. A rocket-line was fired
over the wreck, and a man in trying to get hold of
it was washed overboard and perished. The survivors
got ashore on pieces of spars, and the greatest kind-
ness was shown them by the inhabitants. The coast
was strewed with wreck. The names of the survivors
are Ands ew Hollman, Thomas Smith, Wm. Stran-
ger, John Whiteside, Thomas Aspinal, and George
Welsh. Several of the bodies have been picked up.
The B:ncoolen was nearly 1,500 tons, and was laden
with machinery, railway iron, &c.
Later telegrams speak of considerable damage
amongst the colliers and other coasters navigating
the North Sea. A large barque called the Atlantic,
belonging t 3 Weymouth, bound to Sunderland from
Honfleur, was driven ashore at Thirsted. The
Dutch and Danish ports furnish a long list of disas-
ters, the gale having raged on that line of coast
with great fury, accompanied in some parts by
thunder and lightning. Some of the cattle steamers
had to put back with a considerable loss of
their live cargo. The timber-laden ships ap
pear to have been particularly unfortunate
in weathering the gale, an 4 a fleet of vessels from
the Baltic have had to put 'into Christiansand and
other ports all more or less damaged.
The barque Black Eagle, laden with wheat, from
New York to Glasgow, foundered 15 miles from the
Calf of Man, and the mate and second mate pe-
rished. The masts were cut away to righten the
Ship, when she went down. The mates were washed
overboard with lifebuoya round them, and after
floating about a quarter of an hour they sank. The
remainder of the crew were picked up by the
schooner Gardner and landed at Fleetwood.
Great fears were entertained fur the safety of
the steamers trading from London and Hull to the
northern continental ports; but it appears that
they all have beenvearcyconuanrtreodwfoers,caaplteh.ough some of
them have Ihada

MELOcii.
Friday morninOLY LOSS OF LIFE.
smacks belonging to ioxn:lecident happened to several
Pin Mill, which hZtrwich, to Colchester, and to
ulted in the drowning of
ten men. It appears that
four smacks—the Rnh_i_n°at low tide the crews of
Cyrene and Ranger, both bof
4"ei:' Harwich ; the
small village inhabited by nabtng to Pin Mill (a
Viers, and others engaged
on theeZte, atone dred-
miles up the Orwell), and a. smack r, about six
Colchester were engaged in strippinotekioefnogunindgerteod
of the brig C. S. M., of London, whiephthe Wreck
in Gold wer's Gatway, by the West ite
nesday. Almost all the men were on thr:red.
only one or two having been left in charge
o
each of the smacks, when suddenly, without the
f
least warning, the wreck turned completely over,
carrying the 13 men who were on board with her,
and immersing them in the water. The men who
had been left on board the smacks did their best:to
rescue their comrades, but they were start handed,
and their comrades in the water were hampered
with the wreck, and only three were got on board
the smacks, and these in a very exhausted state, the
remaining ten being drowned. Two of the men, be-
tonging to Harwich, leave large families,