The Sun.
London, England, 1867-11-30 00:00:00

THE EXPLOSION IN THE MERSEY.

The Greek Government recently purchased two
steamers built for and employed for a short time
in running the American blockade. These vessels,
christened by them the Amphitrite, late the Pen-
guin, and the Bubulina, late the Colonel Lamb, were
lying in the Mersey, opposite the extreme south
end of Liverpool, outward bound for Piraeus, the
port of Athens. Yesterday morning, shortly after
four o'clock, Captain Sactouris, `of the Bubulina,
gave orders to be ready to sail at half-past six. Steam
was got up accordingly. All went well until a few
minutes past six, when a terrible boiler explosion
occurred, blowing the vessel completely asunder,
and leaving bow and stern afloat, some hundreds of
feet apart. There was at this time on board a crew
of 73, consisting of 32 firemen, chiefly English, 7
or 8 officers, and the rest Greek seamen ; and also
one passenger. The captain was in the house on
deck, and he states that he felt a concussion, and
the next thing he knew was that be was in the water,
being picked up by a boat. The chief eiigiiiver,
Mr. Elliott, also had a narrow escape. In the stern
of the ship were the chief officer? second and third
officers, and the passenger, who were all rescued.
A number of the crew and firemen were in the
forecastle, and they, too, were taken off. Many.of
them had received severe cuts and bruises. The
centre part of the vessel appears to have sunk at
once, and the whole of the persons in that part of
her appear to have been killed, including the second
and third engineers. Immediately after the ex-
plosion the Rock Ferry steamer Ant, Captain
Joseph Kay, arrived on the spot and took off be-
tween 20 and 30 firemen and seamen, and the
fourth engineer, Mr. O'Hara. Other boats put off
from the Amphitrite, and also from her Majesty's
ship Donegal and the Great Eastern, and took off
the officers and some of the crew. The estimates
of the number missing vary considerably. Some
reports place the killed at 40 and others as low as
11. The number rescued, however, as far as our
correspondent could trace, did not exceed 40 to 50.
No bodies have been recovered, and it is supposed
that they are still inside the central part of the
steamer. The stern part continued to float for
about two hours and then sank. The bow remains
floating end up, with her forward funnel just above
the level of the water. The captain of the Ant
states that he was just about to raise anchor
to commence running when he was startled
by hearing a heavy triple explosion, each
report following close upon the other. The
morning was just breaking, and he observed
a heavy bank of steam :rise some little distance
up the river. At the same moment he heard piercing
shrieks and cries coming from the same direction,
and at once steered for the spot. On approaching
he found the two ends of the vessel floating some
distance apart, and each was covered with men •
and there were others in their boats. These he took
on board, and the boat afterwards brought away
the others who were in the bow. He would have
gone alongside, but was warned not to do so, as the
magazine was in the bow. The men he rescued
were taken to Liverpool, and those among them who
were injured were taken to the Northern Hospital
It is somewhat remarkable that the Ant was the
same boat which rescued the crew of the Lotty
Sleigh some years ago. _

SHOW OF DOGS AT BIRIIIIIGHAM.—The arrange-
ments for this exhibition are progressing in a satisfactory
manner, and the comforts of the company and the dogs
will be materially increased this year.' Owing to the very
large number of specimens sent for exhibition on previous
occasions and the limited space, the room for each dog was
necessarily small, and the avenue being reduced in width
made the progress of the visitors difficult and inconvenient.
To obviate this the committee have for the last two years
increased the scale of entrance fees, which has had the
desired effect of reducing the number of entries about a
hundred without materially influencing the exchequer,
and we hope it will also be the means of keeping out
many of those useless animals which never ought to have
been entered in a show at all. Another minor improve-
ment is that the cooking apparatus will be away from the
hall ; for, although the viands were composed of un-
questionably fresh and nice sheep's heads and mutton
broth, yet even they may be looked upon more in the light
of an addition than an advantage. The company of
gentlemen composing the Curzon Hall Company, not con-
tented with their really commodious and beautiful build-
ing, have again bees making some extensive alterations,
and when complete the hall pro.aises to be very pleasing.
The whole of what may be termed the back-yard is
now roofed to the same height as the body of the build-
ing, and a raised stage or platform placed there for the
accommodation of the dogs will afford additional avail-
able space for the exhibition. Extensive vaults beneath
will contain all the paraphernalia for a show of this sort
and will not offend the eye of the visitor.—Land and
Water.
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