The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-24 00:00:00

FRIGHTFUL ACCIDENT ON THE MEDWAY.

and Second Masters being continually employed with
their divisions in the dockyard at all times and in all
Weather; and are almost invariably refused the Admiralty
constituted allowance for working out of their own ship.
The Commander alone, we are informed, was minus
about 601. or 701. by his trip to the ice in the Barracouta
last year.

----
INQUEST ON THE BODIES.
TUNBRIDGE, SATURDAY EVENING.—On Thursday, a
most awful catastrophe occurred at Hadlow, which has
hurried to an untimely grave no less than 32 human
beings, men, women, and children. The circumstances
PLYMOUTH, OCT. 22.
of this terrible calamity are briefly as follows :
For some little time past, Mr. Cox, an extensive far- Her Grace the Duchess of Hamilton accompanied her
mer and hop-grower, of Hadlow, has had a number ofa.
Imperial Highnfersosmth4torGrandtoDwohveesrs
oMna;e.dof Russia
persons, principally from the counties of Surrey and , onltieer juarjneseyy,
t s serew-slheiapy Agamemnon, 91, ydaptain
Berl:a, in his employ picking hops, in addition to Sir Thomas Maitland, is ordered to go out of harbour
the resident labourers. it is customary when the on the Ist of November. Her foreyards and topmasts
picking has been finished for the day, and the I were go head.tup
I Friday, and the rigging carried over the
hops measured, to convey the people home to the vii- topmastThesteam frigate Leopard, 12,Captain
i George Gif-
lage in waggons. Accordingly, on Thursday evening 1 fard, from Portsmouth, with a large
number of beds for
last, between six and seven o'clock, a waggon filled with 1 soldiers, put in here through stress of weather on Fri-
and day, and sailed again to-day for Queenstown and the
Fri-
ths home dwellers, left the Hadlow hop-grounds,
proceeded towards Tadely, crossing the Upper Great i Mediterranean.f
cLreowweo,
struck
eeflkaship Impregnable, 104, Captain
Hartlake-bridge, over the River Medway, in safety. Arthure topmasts and lower yards on Fri-
This bridge is very old, and is built principally of wood ; day for the winter.
it has a descent on either side of about eight feet in forty, Colours have been exhibited half-mast high at all the
with a close boarded fence, between two and three feet coast guard stations in this district ever since the death
of C aptain Ellice, Controller-General, who was univer-
in height ; and on the Tudely side the road curves a
sII a vhe respectedpldde wheel l and esteemed by the service.
little to the left, oak slabs, in a rotten state, supporting t
steamer
Terrible, 21, Captain J.
it for some distance. At this spot there is a depth front M'Cleverty, is expected herehourly
ofromsw
i will proceed dii
Queenstown.rooee 1
the road of about eight feet, which is generally dry, but On arrival, Rear-Admiral Sir E. L
now, owing to the recent rains, it is covered with water, her to the Mediterranean as secondyn in command to
and thus the width as well as the depth of the river is Vice-Admiral Deans Dundas. When the Agamemnon
considerably increased. The bridge is forty-two feet ieservee-etqueipped she will go to the Mediterranean to re-
flaghwhoofnowmT
Admiraleo Lyons. Captain . Captain Sir Thomas
Maitland,i
across, and nine feet three inches wide. The first wag-
gon-load of hoppers having been safely conveyed to its been appointed to theVeatnory, theft
flagship
gsi p Agamemnon,a
at
Portsmouth,
t s n
ah aovuitnhg,
destination, the second waggon, containing forty, if not will be succeeded by Captain Mends, who it is under-
more, persons, followed (the unfortunate creatures sing- stood, will give her up, on arriving in thel Mediter-
ranean, to Captain -Symonds, of the Arethusa, and
ing merrily, as usual), at the rate of two to three miles Captain Mends will bring the Arethusa to England.
an hour. At the ascent to the bridge the waggoner de- merchant bark Geelong, of Glasgow, Captain
sired the hoppers to discontinue singing, as it might Bowers
wers from London for Shanghai, put in here to-
frighten the horses, which was immediately complied day with loss of three of her crew, who fell from the
with. The fore-horse had crossed the crown of the jibboom on the passage down.
The Camilla steamer, Captain Elward, belonging to
Y
bridge, and was descending on the Tudely side, when it
had its the Waterford Steam Ship Company, spoke a large ship,
foot slipped, from the pieces of iron placed o
gave pa
sddnent fun e
roaster totally d
refusedi sma s t etdo, off
give
herthe
name Tusk aorr,
destination,
Thursday.
l n
dTdhee
way to give a sure footing ; it
horse at the same time leaning a little to the right, had She appeared to be full of cargo. There was not a
stitch of canvas on her.
the effect of forcing the hind part of the waggon against
the
fence on the off-side, which immediately gave way,
and the waggon with its contents was precipitated into
the river beneath. The scene that presented itself at
this moment is beyond description—men, women, and
children, all huddled together, in frantic terror, were
striving to escape destruction, but their efforts only

SUNDAY EVENING.

tended to increase the hopelessness of their position.
Assistance was promptly obtained, and by the aid of
lanterns, the face of the river was examined, but it was too
late ; the mass of human beings, with the exception of'
eight, had sank to the bottom. For upwards of half an
hour after the occurrence, cries for help were heard, but
the unhappy creatures could not be discovered. One littie
Irish lad was found about twenty rods down the stream.
with a piece offence, which he had clung to in his agony,.
still fixed in his hand. He was up to his middle in water, and
was speedily rescued from his agonising position. The:
poor fellow's garments were torn to shreds by the unfor-
tunate creatures clinging to them for support ; and there.
is no doubt, bad his clothes consisted of a less fragile
material, his life would also have been sacrificed. The
waggoner's mate was sitting on the side of the waggon,
talking to his little boy, just as the accident happened;
and, although he attempted to snatch his child from the
waggon, he was unable to do so, owing to the close man-
ner in which it was packed ; and he only 'escaped by
throwing himself in the opposite direction. The bailiff's.
life was saved in a similar manner. During Thursday
night and Friday the river was searched in all directions,
and six bodies were recovered—five females and one
man.

Yesterday Sergeant Charles Hooper, Royal Marines,
left the ship La Hogue, 60, Captain William Ramsay,
in the Sound, and came ashore for a deserter, James
Smith, a private of the Marines of the 33d
company, whom he captured and conveyed to Mut-
ton Cove. Here they got into a boat belong-
ing to Thomas Jago, of Millbrook, and manned by the
owner and another boatman named Roger Harris,
also of Millbrook. The party left Mutton Cove about
half-past 6 in the evening, and nothing has been heard
of them since. This morning the boat was found by the
Coast Guard drifted ashore under the Hoe, and near it
was Jago's straw hat ; the mizenmast was standing and
the sails spritted up, the mainsail, with the sprit in it,
and other gear were found to the eastward, near the
Citadel. It is thus evident that she was under can ,'ass at
the time. The wind was blowing strong from south-
south-west, and the tide setting in. From the position
of the boat and gear, the probability is that they had
got well out into the Sound, between the bridge and La
Hogue, which is one of the most weatherly ships in the
Admiralty anchorage ; at this part the wind and tide
would create a dangerous sea.

WOOLWICH, OCT. 22.
APPOINTMENTS.

To-day, Mr. Dadlow, the coroner for the district,
held an inquest on the bodies of the deceased persons, at
the Bell Inn, Golden-green, in the parish of Hadlow•
Mr. Thomas Kebble was appointed foreman. The de.
ceased parties were Charlotte Leatherland, Comfort
Leatherland, Nora Donovan, James Mancey, Selina
Hearne, and Kitty Roach.
Fanny Leatherland stated—l live at Westow-hill, in
the county of Surrey. Charlotte Leatherland was my
mother. She was about 55 years of age. Comfort
Leatherland is my sister, and was 24 years of age. I
should say there were about 40 persons in the waggon.
Ido not know the driver's name. He was sober, and
was riding on the first horse. He might have walked
over the bridge if he had liked, as there was no water
on it, although it was over the road on each side of it
The water was up to the horses' knees at the foot of the'
bridge. The waggoner could not have walked on this
side of the bridge, for the water. When we had got
nearly over the bridge the hind horse slipped and the
driver turned to pull his head round to the other side of
the road, but before he could do so, or get down from
the horse's back, the waggon came against the side of
the bridge and broke it, turning us all into the water.
It was no fault of the driver's ; he could not help it.
He saved my life, by telling a person to lay hold of me.
The horses seemed to be quiet enough. When I was in
the water the people came tumbling on me like hailstones
I caught hold of the rein of the inner horse, as I was
falling. I was sitting in front of the waggon. I could
see perfectly well how the accident happened.
Mr. Gorham, solicitor to the Medway Company, at-
tended the inquest in their behalf, and stated that no
complaint had been made to the company of the bridge
requiring repair. Had any such complaint been made,
it would have been entered on the minutes and received
immediate attention.

Captain William Honeyman Henderson, C.B. (1838)
to be Controller-General of the Coast Guard, vice Cap-
tain Alexander Ellice, deceased.
Second Master Henry G. Thomsett (1847), from the
Blenheim, 60, screw steam guardship, at Portsmouth,
to be acting master to the Madagascar receiving ship,
for Rio.
Paymasters—Joseph Lewis (1848) to the Diamond,
28, at Sheerness ; James Biggs (1849) to ithe Juno 26,
at Chatham.
Clerks—Frank Ramsden (1850), to the Diamond ;
Frederick Burne (1852), from the Cumberland, 70, flag-
ship on the North America and West India station, to
the Juno.

Mr. John Bowles, carpenter and builder, of Tudely,
although not sworn, stated that he had known the bridge
in question for a great many years. The last eight or
ten years it had been out of repair—particularly for the
last three years. It was so much out of repair that a
friend of his, a Mr. Johnson, of Mereworth, in preference
to passing over it, as he considered it dangerous, went
round by Tunbridge, at a considerable disadvantage.
He (Mr. Bowles) looked upon the bridge not only as in-
secure, but dangerous to persons passing over it. He
also spoke of the difficulty he had to contend with in
getting the company to repair a bridge at Chatfield ; at
first they treated his application with contempt.
The Coroner, in summing up, recommended the sub-
stitution of a stone or brick bridge for the present one,
with stone coppings.
The jury consulted together for a short time, and then
returned a verdict of " accidental death, with a recom-
mendation to the River Medway Company to erect a new
bridge."
The following is a list of persons who are now mis-
sing :—Samuel Leatherland and five children, Mrs.
Bruslington, Mary Mahony, Mary Bruslington, Sarah
Taylor, Mrs. Howard, Jeremiah Murphy, Catherine
Donovan, Mary Quin, Bridget King, Matthew King,
Ellen Collins, Catherine Roach, Harry Donovan, Stephen
Taylor, Taylor (child), William Elsley, Mary Elsley
(wife), Ellen Donovan, Knight (child) ; man, woman,
and child unknown.
It is estimated that the weight of the waggon, with
its contents, was about two tons. The waggoner says
he had passed over the bridge with four tons.

Midshipman L. B. Jolly, to the Juno.
Naval Cadets—J. H. Vidal, to the Juno ; W. W.
Smyth and M. J. Dunlop, to the Ajax, 53, screw
steamship, at Devonport ; Richard Evans, to the Dia-
mond ; E. Austin, to the President, 50, flagship of
Rear-Admiral David Price, for the Pacific station ; J.
G. L. Leacock and F. P..Camilleri, to the Queen, 116,
at Devonport.
Gunner Philip Turner, to the Porcupine paddlewheel
steam-vessel, employed on particular service.