The Sun.
London, England, 1847-05-06 00:00:00

N•

MAY 6, 1847.

The effort, however, was an ineffectual one ; the ship
soon got amongst the broken water, and at half-past
twelve on Wednesday morning was dashed amongst
the rocks. If the above be a correct version of
the impression on the captain's mind as to his
position—and it is distiuetly spoken to by two
of the survivors—the result shows that he must
have been fully a hundred miles out of his reckon-
ing ; but perhaps it could not well be otherwise. The
sun was obscured during all the time by black clouds ;
the moon was only seen through a heavy haze at inter-
vals, and from these causes it was impossible that any
observation could be taken. The light seen was in
reality that of Oransa or Oversay, on the point of the
Rhinos or Runs of Islay, to the north-west of the
entrance of Lochindaul ; and the land seen, and on
which the brig eventually struck, was the western part
of the iron-bound coast of the island. She went ashore,
and after striking once was dashed broadside on alongside
the rocks, which rose to the height of the mast head. She
struck violently against the rocks three times, and at the
fourth stroke the mainmast went by the board, and
fell into a chasm of the rock. Captain Booth had
previously taken his station in the maintop, that he
might personally keep a look out; and as soon as the
brig struck, John Cleat, the mate, and all the seamen,
eight in number, joined the captain in the maintop,
leaving the captain's son, a youth of about fifteen years
of age, asleep in his cot below. After remaining in the
maintop about three minutes, five of the crew went down
for the purpose of asscending the foretop thinking that
they would have a better chance of gaining the shore
from that part of the ship. At the same time, one of
the crew, named John Scott, went out upon the main-
yard with a life buoy on his person; thus leaving in the
maintop the captain and three seamen, whose names
are John Stevens, William Coulthard, and Geore Light-
ford, all belonging to South Shields. When the main-
top, along with the wreck of the mast, veasAhrown
into a rift of the rock, Coulthard, then Lightford,
and finally Stevens, scrambled up the rigging, and
obtained a -footing oh the crags. . The captain was
*beat to.4olloir- the men; when a wave -dashed ever
'their btads. as - they clung to the rock, but they were
enabled to maintain their position; and when they looked
round, after the sea had retired, they found that the
captain and all were gone. The mainmast had
been broken into splinters by the fourth collision
with the rocks, and this recoiling wave had not only
dragged the ship, but the fragments of the mast, which
adhered to her by the rigging, further into the sea,
and thus cut off from the dense mass of human
beings on board every chance of escape. Had the
wreck remained in the chasm where it was originally
thrown, and from which the three survivors escaped, it
might have been used as a bridge by the others ; but,
unhappily, this last possibility of relief was taken away.
The same wave which effected this fearful havoc must also
have prevented the five seamen from reaching the fore-
top, from which they might have had a chance of escap-
ing. A quarter of an hoar elapsed from the time of the
br
ig first
Atthe
striking,
momentuntil
shethe
struck,thre and a littleprevious
to upon the
rock.
to it, about half-a-dozen of the male passengers were
standing on the deck, occasionally asking the mate if
there was in reality any danger. Of the three young
ladies who were cabin passengers, one of the sisters had
been confined to bed by sea-sickness from the moment
of leaving Derry ; but at ten o'clock the other two took
their position on the companion-way, and were seen
there when the survivors last looked on the deck. The
ship was ground and crunched so frightfully amongst
the rocks, that she must have broken up almost instane-
ously. There was no cry from the multitude cooped up
within the hull of the ill-fated brig; or at least it was
unheard, for the commotion of the elements was so
furious that the men on the top could scarcely hear each
other at the top of their voices. The emigrants, there-
fore, must have perished in their berths, and the rocks
rapidly thumped the bottom out of the vessel.
The three men who had escaped. to the rock, so soon
as the ship entirely disappeared, searched anxiously for
some outlet by which they might reach the mainland,
but none could be found; and they finally took shelter
in a crevice, which however did not shield them from
the rain, which fell heavily all night, and here they re-
mained until grey daylight. They then discovered an
opening, through which they scrambled to the summit,
and after day had fairly broken they observed a farm
house about half a mile distant. Thither they proceeded,
and were most hospitably nourished and put to bed.
They were thoroughly worn out by exhaustion, not one
of the crew having been in bed from the moment the
ship left Derry. They were at the same time nearly
naked, from having divested themselves of their heavy
clothing when the Exmouth struck, and lost part of that
which remained when scrambling on the rigging and
amongst the rocks. The hospitable farmer (whose name
we have not learned), and others who had been apprised
by him, went to the scene of the catastrophe, but of
course too late to help, and only to gaze on the desola-
tion. Mr. Chiene, Islay's factor, soon heard of the
event, and kindly furnished the men with a passage to
Glasgow by the Modern Athens steamer, where, as
already stated, they arrived on Saturday last. Here
they were consigned to the care of Mr. Fildee, of the
Naval Rendezvous, and assistant to Lieutenant Forest,
agent for the Shipwrecked Mariner'e Society, and by
him they have been clothed and comfortably boarded in
the meantime.

On Thursday afternoon, the latest date of our advices
from Islay, about twenty of the bodies had come ashore,
They were principally females, with one little boy
amongst them i and as many of them were in their eight
clothes, the probability is that they were those who had
rushed upon deck at the first alarm caused by the striking
of the ship. They were fearfially mangled by being
dashed amongst the rocks, and being jammed within the
crevices along with pieces of the wreck, few of which
were above two feet in length. Other bodies were still
floating in the surf, but the sea was still too high to per-
mit any boat venturing out to bring them in. The belief
is, however, that the great mass of the poor emigrants
went down with the " between decks" of the ship, so
that their bodies will not be recovered till this part of
the vessel breaks up.
The Exmouth had nothing on board but ballast, and
the provisions and little stocks of goods of the emi-
grants. She is the property of Mr. John Eden, of South
Shields, and, though old, is stated, by the survivors, to
have been well found in every respect. All the crew
and passengers were perfectly sober during this fearful
time, and the three seamen state that they never saw
drink on board at all. The captain was in the prime of
life, and has left a widow and family. All the rest of
the seamen were unmarried, with the exception of a
man named George Russ, who is amongst those that
perished. According to the above estimate, the number
who have been thus suddenly called to their account
amounts to 248; but even leaving room for misinforma-
tion or exaggeration, the loss of life has unquestionably
been frightful.

EFFECTS OF LIGHTNING IN THE

ROYAL NAVY.

The Hazard, 16, Commander Egerton, fitted with light-
ning conductors of Smith's wire rope, after a method re-
commended by the Surveyor's chief draughtsman, Mr.
J. Edye, was twice struck by lightning during her late
service in China. On the first occasion, May, 1846, off
Diamond Point, on the north end of Sumatra, the elec-
tric fluid divided between the small wire rope and the
mast and chain sheets ; part of it came into the ship
with explosion, and split the topsail sheet hots ; the
rest of the charge went over the wire rope into the
seas and tore some of the copper off the bottom. The wire
conductor was cripplied and bulged out by the force of
the electric shock. The second time, June 12, 1846,
when lying off Cape Po, at anchor, on the coast of
Borneo, the electrical discharge again struck the ship.
In this case the effects were more destructive ; the dis-
charge again divided between the rope and mast; the
maintopgallant mast was splintered and carried away,
also the main topmast, part of which fell through
the quarter deck into the gun-room. The other
part of the discharge passed down over the wire
conductor into the water. The officers on board the
Hazard state that conductors of this kind are totally
unfit for carrying off the heavy strokes of liAtningex-
ex-
perienced in this part of the world. These are very itn
portant facts. They are the results of experiments on
the great scale of nature, deduced by means of the
gigantic electrical machinery of the thunderstorm, and
which go directly to show that nothing short of a general
and extended system of conduction throughout the masts
and hull of a ship will ever afford 'perfect security
from' lightning. It will be remembered that about
seven years since a naval commission, appointed by the
Admiralty, inquired and reported to the House of Com-
mons on the merits of various plans of lightning con-
ductors, and they terminated their report by earnestly
and unanimously recommending the system proposed
by Mr. (now Sir William) Harris, to be carried out
fully in the Royal Navy. Notwithstanding, how-
ever, that this recommendation stood supported
by the most profound men in this department of
science, such as the late Dr. Wollaston, Sir H. Davy,
Daniell, Wheatstone, and others, yet, in the very teeth
of all this, the Navy office " sub," through Sir W. Sy-
mond's interest with the First Lord of the Admiralty,
contrived to have these wire ropes introduced into the
navy, which the Commission had declared not only an
inadequate defence, but absolutely dangerous. Of
course the Surveyor's draughtsman was better authority
than fhe best scientific and naval men in the country, he
possessing the usual requisite qualification for the
Somerset House officials—viz., that of being totally
ignorant of the subject he was professing to
understand. These small wire ropes were served
into the dockyards in considerable quantities
at a very great cost, and several ships were
supplied with them. Now behold the consequence.
Here is a ship struck by lightning, and the predicted
inefficiency of these small wires is completely Verified.
It must be admitted that the result is at least favourable
to the view Mr. Harris took of this most interesting
question, and we do not hesitate to avow that had any of
the ship's company lost their lives from the inefficiency
of this thcomplete plan of lightning conductors, in direct
opposition to the opinions, of the best talent of the
country, the party who ordered, and the authorities who
sanctioned, its application, would be guilty of nothing
less than the crime of manslaughter.

WANDSWORTH POLICE-COURT.--Mr. Alfred Taylor,
late second clerk at Southwark Police-court, was on Tuesday
appointed chief clerk to this and Hammersmith Police-courts,
in the room of ➢ir. G. Fletcher, who has accepted the chief
clerkship of the Southwark County-court.