The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-21 00:00:00

FATAL BOAT ACCIDENT.

4.

SCARBOROUGH, Tuesday Morning, Aug. 20.—The
gay and fashionable watering place of Scarborough
has this morning been thrown into gloom and sor-
row by a melancholy catastrophe that occurred
yesterday evening, whereby the lives of ten gentle-
men, all visitors to Scarborough, were unfortunately
lost. Yesterday morning a miscellaneous party as-
sembled on the sands, determined to take a boat to
Flamborough for a shooting excursion. The party
in the boat comprised 13 persons—viz., the master
and a boy and 11 gentlemen. The wind at the time
they embarked (about half-past 10 in the morning)
was blowing very strongly from the west, in fitful
squalls or gusts. The boatman, however, did not
think he was overcrowding or overweighting his
boat, which was one of 18 feet keel, and the party
accordingly set off. All went well in the voyage up,
and though the wind blew smartly the boatman
saw no danger. Having arrived at Flamborough,
the party landed and proceeded to the Star Inn,
where they stayed some time. They re-embarked for
Scarborough about 5 o'clock in the afternoon, and
the boatman, who is one of the threessurvivors, was
of opinion that some of the party were rather un-
duly excited after leaving Flamborough, partly in
consequence of which, and partly owing to the in-
creasing strength of the wind, he determined *hen
about three-quarters of a mile from Flamborough to
stand in more under the cliffs. About this time
they were passed by two Flamborough fishing ves-
sels, the master of one of which states that he saw
nothing particu!arly dangerous in the condition or
appearance of the boat, while the other says he
thought she was overcrowded, but did not seem
to be in any danger. We should have said
that on the return voyage there were only 12 people
in the boat—Mr. George Wike, of Barnsley, having
purposely remained at Flamborough, in order to
return to Scarborough by rail. His motives were
partly a nervous dislike to the strong weather, and
partly a slight incisposition tinder which he was
labouring, which he thought might be increased if
he took cold by getting wet in the boat—the water
occasionally having splashed over ber in spray.
About five minutes after the fishing vessels passed
the boat the attention of the men on board one of
them was casually directed to it, and to their horror
they saw her lying with her sail half under water,
and in an instant she filled and went down. The
fishermen hastened to the spot, where they arrived
in time only to save the master and the boy, who
were both expert swimmers. They beckoned the
other fishing vessel to theif aid, and its crew picked
up two bodies, which preyed to be Mr. John Brad-
shaw and Mr. James Street, both of Ashton-under-
Lyne. They waited about for a considerable-time,
but nothing came to the surface bat a few walking-
sticks. The bodies of the drowned men were life-
less when picked up, and the master and boy were
much exhausted. They were brought to Scar-
borough by the fishermen. The boatman states that
when he determined to come nearer the shore it was
necessary to turn the boat, previously to doing
which he gave notice to his passengers. A strong
squall took her while the foresail was yet hauled to
windward, the boat not being sufficiently turned,
and the slight lurch she then gave was fatally in-
creased by several of the party, who, utterly re-
gardless of the boatman's previous request to be
careful and to stand on the high side of the boat,
actually in their extremity seized the gunwale
over which the water was running, and thus by
their weight added to the danger. The boat im-
mediately filled, and ten of the party, comprising
all the visitors, except Mr. Wike, were drowned.
A coroner's inquest on the bodies that were reco-
vered has been held at the. Old Town-hall this
morning. The bodies were at once identified by a
gentleman who had been acquainted with the
deceased. Mr. Wike stated that he was one of
the party ; that they had a little shooting while off
Flamborough ; that they landed and went to the Star
Inn ; that while there he feared some of them had
drunk rather too freely, so as to be a little excited,
but not intoxicated ; that, observing this, seeing the
increasing strength of the wind, and feeling rather
unwell, he decided on returning by rail ; that he en-
deavoured to persuade a friend (Mr. John Asquith)
to remain with him, but failed ; that he did not see
the boatman take more than a glass of ale, and that,
he appeared a very competent person in the manage-
ment of the boat; that in his opinion the boat was
rather crowded, but while they were shooting, and
sitting in an orderly manner on the voyage up, there
appeared to be room enough, and that the boat
shipped very little water while he was in her.
Robert Major and Moses Smith deposed to seeing
the boat (as above stated), and to picking up the
bodies, together with the boatman and boy. Smith
stated that as they passed the boat no signal was
made to them (the fishermen), and nothing appeared,
wrong further than that in his opinion there were
too many in the boat. They brought the bodies to
Scarborough. Edward Heselton, the boy saved,
said that when about three-quarters of a mile from
Flamborough, and out at sea, he heard the master
say he was going about. -Witness was then in the
forecastle, when a sudden squall caught the boat,
and he felt the passengers rush to the wrong side,
and she instantly swamped. The boy says he went
down to the bottom with the boat, as he thought he
felt her touch the rocks before he could float out of
the hole in which he was at fhe time. This was
thought to be improbable, as the water was very-
deep. He described the scene as a very fearful one
when he came to the surface. He saw the drown-
ing men convulsively clutching at each other, and
beard them screaming for help. He pulled off part
of his clothes while he floated on his back. Wit-
ness is 12 years of age. The evidence of the
boatman, George Hewitson, is embodied above.
He stated that shortly after embarking to return
he ordered all the guns to be discharged,
and requested everybody to keep still, see-
ing they were rather unruly, and the weather
was become more squally. When the squall took
the boat he did his best to recover her, but failed.
The jury returned a verdict of accidental death.
They acquitted the boatman of blame, but remon-
strated with him for overcrowding his boat. The
names of the gentlemen lost
Bradshaw,
James-stieet, Ashton-under-Lyne;
John Asquith,
J. Ogden and A. Ogden, jun., Dewsnop, Duckin-
field, Manchester ; J. Hobson, Hyde, Cheshire ; J.
Batty, Ashton-under-Lyne-
The other three had
not been ascertained when our parcel left.

HEALTH OF LONDON DURING THE WEEK.

J`- -

(From the Registrar-Genersl's Weekly Return.)
The improvement in the public health which was
noticed in the last return has not been maintained,
the deaths, which were then 1,172, having risen to
1,257 in the week ending last Saturday. The high
temperature during the first days of the week,
reaching a maximum of 89.3 deg in the shade on
Monday, was perhaps the cause of the increase.
The mean temperature of the air during the week
was 65.3 deg., being the highest recorded during
the present year.
If the deaths from cholera in the 33d week of the
epidemic year 1854 are excluded, it will be found
that the average number of deaths in the week cor-
responding with last week was 1,107, which cor-
rected for increase of population will become 1,218.
Hence it appears that the deaths of last week ex-
ceeded the corrected average by 39.
Diarrhoea was fatal in 208 cases, including 184
children, 129 of whom wereunder one year. Cholera.
or choleraic diarrheea caused 15 deaths, 14 were
those of children under 10 years of age. A pen-
sioner,
aged 62 years, in the East Indian army,
died at 8, Risbies-ropewalk, Limehouse, of " exhaus-
tion from choleraic diarrhoea." Scarlatina and
diphtheria caused 57 deaths, whooping-cough 45,
typhus, 34, phthisis 130, and violence 56. Old age
carried off 43 persons, of whom three were widows,
aged 90, and one a male, aged 96. The registrar
of the City-road sub-district of St. Luke's calls at-
tention to a house (No. 29, George's-row) which is
let out in lodgings, and was recently occupied by
Leven adults and 24 children ; four of the children
died during the last month, three by scarlatina, and
one by teething and diarrhoea.
Last week the births of 889 boys and 810 girls,
in all 1,699 children, were registered in London.
In the ten corresponding
weeks of the years 1851-
60 the average number was 1,621.
At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the mean
height of the barometer in the week was
29.762 in. The barometrical readings rose to
29.97 in. on Saturday, and fell to 29.60 in. on
Monday.
.
The mean temperature of the air in the
week was 65 3 deg., which is 3 8 deg. above the
average of the same week in 43 years'(as determined
by Mr. Glaisher). The mean daily temperature was
above the average on the first five days of the week,
and rose to 67.7 deg. on Sunday, and 72.9 deg. on
iv ely 6
dego
pon -3 deg.
i atnd attainedll in
abloonvdeatyh,ebaverages.The
pt
highestthe week by the thermometer in the shade was
89'3 deg. on Monday ; the lowest night temperature
was 49.8 deg. on Saturday. The range of tempera-
ture was 32.3 deg. on Monday, and only 8.2 deg. on
Friiay. The mean daily range was 21.2 dreg. The
greatest heat in the sun was 138.8 deg. on Henday.
The mean temperature of the water of the Thames
was 66.5 deg., there being only 1 deg. of difference
between the highest and lowest mean readings of
the week. The difference between the mo an dew-
point temperature and air temperature was 7.3 deg.
The mean degree of humidity of the air • was 79,
complete saturation bein rppresented by 101 ). The
g general direction of the wind was south-wee. t. Rain
fell on three days tothe aggregate amount of 0.17 in.