The Sun.
London, England, 1840-03-23 00:00:00

FATAL ACCID 'ENT ON THE RIVER.

THREE LIVES LOST.

On Friday evening last, an accident, which we regret
to say was attended with the sacrifice of three lives, °c-
ern-led off Putney, and plugged that place and the
neighbourhood of Fulham into a state of the greatest
anxiety and distress. About six o'clock on the above
evening a four-oared cutter arrived at the Six Bells
Tovrrn, Putney, a house situated on the south side of
Putney-bridge, well known by the amateur watermen
of the Thames, and kept by a person named Avis.
The party, six in number, alighted; partook of some
refreshment, consisting of half-and-halt and biscuits,
and after taking a short stroll through the town re-
turned to their boat, took their stations, and pushed
off. At this time all the occupants of the boat were
perfectly sober ; in fact. they might be said to have been
peculiarly abstemious. The time of embarkation was about
ten minutes to seven, when it was twilight. The boat left
her moorings sate, and had reached the central pier of
Putney-bridge, when the strokesman, we are gvea to
understand, "caught a crab," that is, improperly im-
mersed his oar in the water, the consequence of which
was to throw him on one side of the boat. In falling he
struck a fellow oarsman, who fell on the same side, and
this action caused the boat to careen, and immediately
• turn bottom upwards. A girl passing over Putney-
bridge saw the gentleman alluded to meet with the ac-
cident, and very naturally ran to the other side of the
bridge to see whether he had righted himself. When
she got there, however, she beheld the boat bottom up-
wards, and its six previous occupants clinging to it. In
less than half a minute (as the girl judged) three out of
the six let go their hold and sank. The girl then im-
mediately ran to Mr. Cheescman, the toll-collector, on
the Fulham side of Putney-bridge, and he very promptly
procured the assistance of two watermen named
Freeman and Kelley, who, having unlocked their boat
,which had been moored for the night, put off and came
up with the capsized hoot about a quarter of a mile,
on the London side of Putney•bridge ; the tide, which
was running down very strong at the rime, hating drifted
her thus far. Upon their coming up with the boat,
they found three gentlemen holding on, and these they
immediately took into their boat. They were all, as
might well be imagined, much exhausted, and at that
time incapable of saving anything. The watermen con-
‘eycc ' 1 them to the Six Bells tavern, where they were
attended to in the kindest manner by Mrs. Avis ; and,
:n the course of a short time two of them became stiff'
Hentiv recovered to return the same night to town.

The other gentleman remained till yesterday, and the
account he gave was, that Mr. Abbott, one of the missing
gentlemen, a Proctor, Mr. Pratt, a Lieutenant in the
Navy, and who had just returned from the East
Indies ; together with himself, the two surviving gen-
tlemen, and the other missing gentleman (whose
name he did not know, he being only a casual
acquaintance), left Lyon's, the boatbuiider's, at
Lambeth, early on the above-mentioned evening, and
proceeded to the Six Bells tavern. . Two of the miss-
ing gentlemen rowed, the third was coxs;i.ain. The ac-
count given by the gentlemen of the starting of the
boat, and the melancholy accident that resulted, are the
same as before detailed.
Yesterday the friends of Mr. Abbott came to the
Six Bells, with the hope of seeing the body of their re-
lative ; in that hope, however, they were disappointed,
for up to that time none of the bodies had been found.
From them we learnt that Mr. Abbott had only been
married a twelvemonth ; he had a child ; and Satur-
day, the anniversary of the wedding, was to
have been celebrated at the deceased father-in-law's.
The grief that this sad affair has created amongst his
friends may be imagined, but not described. Up to
the time of our informant leaving Putney (four o'clock)
the relatives of the others deceased had not been there,
nor had either of the bodies been recovered, though Mr.
Avis had kept six men continually dragging during the
whole of Friday night and Saturday.