The Sun.
London, England, 1847-02-01 00:00:00

HER MAJESTY'S STEAMER

SPHYNX.
PORTSMOUTH, JAN. 31.—The Porcupine and Echo
steamers went down to Yarmouth yesterday with a great
variety of stores, and some mooring lighters, and the two
camels which have been prepared, to endeavour to float this
steamer off the beach. The camels are large flat-bottomed
mud barges, covered over, and securely cauled in, and are to
be fixed under the paddles. The mooring lighters will be
anchored pretty close to the vessel, and cables passed from
them and secured, and then hove taut, and it is fully expected,
considering how light the Sphynx is, that she will be dragged
out to sea. The Retribution steamer, manned by the officers
and crew of the Sidoc, who have Wen turned over this after-
noon, and the Myrtle steamer, go down to-morrow morning.
The Retribution will be kept ready to assist the vessels off
the coast should the wind ehange, or the rollers set in dan-
gerously. The Myrtle is a light steamer, drawing little
water, and will be used as a dispatch boat. The
wind is now moderate and favourable for the ope-
rations, being from north and off the land. The tides
to-morrow and Tuesday are expected to be very high, and
therefore the most sanguine expectations are entertained of
the Sphynx being preserved. Captain Austen, R.N., Mr.
Murray, chief engineer, Mr. Watts, builder's assistant, Mr.
Bellamy, second master attendant, the commander and crew
of the Sphynx, and a great number of experienced and in-
telligent men from the dockyard, used to operations of this
nature, with at least 250 others, are to be employed. Some
remarks have been made by naval people, that the same
measures should have been adopted as were used to get the
Gorgon afloat in the Brazils, but the positions of the two
ships are quite different : the Gorgon was driven in a gale of
wind on a bed of sand, during a very high tide, and there
left high and dry; the officers and crew could and did get to
work on her nearly every day, they were able to raise sheers
to take out her engines, they had to clear away 9,000 tons of
sand from under her, and by downright hard heaving at the
capstan got her into the water, and then with camels floated
her into deeper water. The Sphynx is exposed to the open
sea, and only at certain periods can be approached, and the
atflooaavtail themselves of the slightest
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DETERMINED SUICIDE OF TWO
LOVERS.
A most lamentable affair took place in Wakefield during
bai created a great sensation
two respectable families
the night of Friday last,
in the neighbourhood, and h
a state o the deepest distress. A
whwichereh
have been thrown idnto
Georg
G e Hampson, 'about twenty-five
young man,
named
his addresses to a young woman of the
years of age, had p
Morton for about three years. Both the par-
name of Susan Morton for about three years. Both the par-
in Wakefield,
the young man being a whitesmith,
ties resided in Wak
e Hampson, also a whitesmith, ikc., in
and son of Mr. Georg
On the evening of Friday last, Hampson went
that town.
he house of his lover and at that time it would
as usual to t
well, for she sent for her younger
appear the girl was not very
sister, Fanny, Susan, who came to her, but when she arrived Susan
was better.however, had, a fainting fit during the
evening, but it appears she had been subject to them for some
time.
About ten o'clock, Susan feeling better, was persuaded
by her sister to go out walking for a short time, and advised
her to go and see her mother, who was in a different part
a the town. They all three went together, and
after walking round St. John's, and afterwards
into the town, Fanny left them, as she slept at the house of a
friend. It seems Hampson and Susan returned to the house
of the latter, and Susan's brother left them in the house to-
gether when he went to bed. Nothing more was seen or
heard of them until the following (Saturday) morning, when
two coats and a hat, and a bonnet, shawl, and boa, were
found on the banks of the Barnsley Canal, near the bridge
which crosses it in some fields near Heath Wood, about a
mile and a half from Miss Morton's home. Search was af-
terwards made in the water, and the bodies of Hampson and
his lover Susan were found near the place where the clothes
had been discovered. The suicidal determination must have
been strong in each, for their bodies were firmly tied toge-
ther with four handkerchiefs, which must have been fastened
by Hampson, as the knots were tied behind the young
woman. In his pocket was found a pistol loaded with ball,
and two bullets, some powder, caps, &c. ; and in her pockets
was found a soft substance, like paste, which has not yet
been analysed, but which is supposed to be poison. What
tends to make the affair more mysterious is the total inabi-
lity of any one to find a reason for the commission of such a
rash act. There were no marks of violence on either of the
bodies, or anything to lead to the belief that either of them
had come to their death by unfair means.
The deceased young woman was about 21 years of age, a
fine figure, and very pretty.
An inquest was held on the bodies on Saturday, before
Thomas Lee, Esq., Coroner, when the jury returned the fol-
lowing verdict:—" Found drowned, without any marks of
violence; but how, or by what means, they got into the
canal, there is no evidence to show."