The Sun.
London, England, 1854-01-19 00:00:00

TIIE, COAL TRADE.

NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE, Wednesday.—The large fleet
of coal-laden vessels which had been accumulating in
the northern ports during the recent bad weather,
have nearly all put to sea. We have had too heavy
sea tides during the past 24 hours, and next tide will
about clear the harbour. The vessels that were blown
down to Leith-roads are also getting up. Several
laden vessels passed Shields-bar yesterday from the
north for London. These vessels were Newcastle colliers.
Coal freights on Newcastle quay are 13s.- per ton to Lon-
don. If they only could procure coals and decent
Passages, there are an immense number of vessels in
the trade. In former times, about this season of the
Year, a considerable quantity of tonnage employed in the
American and Baltic trades during the summer months
was laid up in the harbours on the north-east coast ; but
now, on account of the high rate of freights, they are all
fa employment. The losses occasioned by the late gale
Will fall heavily upon the underwriters, though vessels
belonging to the southern ports have suffered more in
proportion than north country colliers. A considerable
proportion of those wrecked at the mouth of the Tyne
Were strange vessels. Foreigners have suffered most
severely in the late gale. The principal part of the-crews
drowned during the storm were foreigners. The Break-
, Water, Conference, and Mountaineer colliers and the
Auroca barque have been got off the Hurd Sand.

GREAT FLOOD AT DONCASTER.

Owing to the rapid thawing of the snow, the inhabi-
tants of the lower part of Doncaster, lying in the valley
of the river Don, were yesterday (Wednesday) surprised
with one of the greatest floods that has occurred in that
town tor the last 60 years. In previous inundations in
this locality as great a weight of water has probably
Overflowed the banks of the river, but it has never
before been concentrated in such a narr•w space, and
consequently has never been felt so severely by the poor
People whose domiciles are exposed to its ravages. For-
merly the flood water was allowed to escape through
the fields on each • side of the river from Isabel Wath,
about a mile above the town, to Sanda,ll-outfall, about
two miles below it. The extra course on the left side of
the river has, however, been stopped within the last
year or two by extensive embankments erected by the
River Don Company, while that on the right side
has been considerably contracted by the elevated line
of the great Northern Railway Company. On the
other hand, a new flood drain has been opened as
an additional outfall below the town, but owing
to the water being held up by a wear in con-
nection with a millrace and by the circumscribed area
of the bridge above it, the new drain cannot receive the
surplus water on these occasions in time to prevent a
general submerging of the locality adjacent to it. The
water in the river began to rise on Tuesday night, but
it was not until Wednesday morning, at about 4 o'clock,
that it began to encroach on the houses in Marshgate,
which extends at a right angle to the course of the
stream. The inhabitants of that street, mostly water-
ram and labourers, then found it necessary to take
measures for the safety of their household goods, while
the owners of horses and cattle in sheds and pastures
in the neighbourhood as promptly removed them.
By 11. a.m. every house in the street was flooded—a
circumstance which has not occurred at any previous
inundation within recollection. The water in some of
the cottages was between two and three feet deep. All
the inhabitants were in their upper chambers. Their
furniture was floating about in the rooms below, or in
the street, and communications could only be kept up by
carts and waggons and ladders. At 2 p.m. the water
Was still rising ; it rushed though the courts and alleys
in the street with great impetu3sity. It also overflowed
the canal lock, against which a large mass of ice was
lodged, and it was only prevented from rising above the
north bank of the river by a number of labourers piling
up sods as fast as it rose. Mr. Carr, the resident en-
gineer of the Great Northern Railway Company, also
had a staff of "navviea employed in filling up the an-
gles of tho pilc-bridge of the line over the flood-dike, to
prevent the water washing down the railway. At 3
P.m, the flood had not begun to abate, though it was
the falling of the fill tide which held up the stream
at Sandal' would admit of its abating in the course
of two or three hours. The weight of water above
the town, however, was very considerable. In the
field in Marshgate it was seven or eight feet
deep at the least, and was bursting through the wall
next the pavement in countless streams. A strolling
players' booth in the middle of the field was half sub-
merged in the flood, and the proprietor and his family
found it necessary to remove to their caravan on the
canal bridge. Several women and children were taken
out of the houses in Marshgate in the afternoon, and
found shelter among their friends and relatives in other
parts of the town. One poor creature, who bad been
confined only the night before, lay in a room not many
feet above the water, without any fireplace in it. Al-
though no lives have been lost, and no personal injuries
sustained, this calamity, even if it should end here, will
•be seriously felt for some months to come by those who
are the principal sufferers by it. It is expected the
town authorities will take some steps to prevent the re-
currence of such a flood for the future. At 5 p.m. the
water was as high as ever, and was believed to be rising.