The Sun.
London, England, 1861-07-16 00:00:00

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It was ycsterday announced o lc oc__-
g, .0#
yard that, by a new regulation about to take effect,
the Admiralty receiving-ship Crocodile, of 8 ping, •
\• 4, '4;;' • 'ate% , e / -17:;CA 1-U ,; ROIT • Commander Wm. Greet, many years stationed off
•

the Tower, is to be removed, and the station to be
abolished; in lieu of which a branch office apper-
taining to the flagship Fisgard, at Woolwich, will
be appointed in London, in charge of a Master,
R.N.

PRICE 4d
STAMPED sd

AN ESCAPE AND QUICK REC•APTURJ

The Royal Alfred, building at Portsmouth, and
with her timbers all in position as a 90 gun screw,
has a gang of shipwrights employed upon hertaking
the preliminary measures for her alteration to a 50
gun plated frigate. Her keel " scarphs" have been
separated amidships, where she will be lengthened
18 feet, and a number of her upper timbers have
been removed. It is expected that she will be
taken to pieces as low as her fifth futtock, to all.Riw
the necessary alterations to her ports, which are: to
he rendered similar to the Warrior's. Her stern •was
taken out yesterday, as in her new form of a-plated
frigate it will fall in at its upper part, instead of
projecting outwards, and will also be divestf:d of
any "head," with its rails and accompanying crip-
pling weights, resembling, when complete, the
Defence more than the Warrior.
The Euryalus, 51, screw, in the first-class reserve
at Portsmouth, steamed out of Portsmouth harbour
yesterday, and officially tested her machinery,
under the charge of Capt. Breadheed and the officers
of the dockyard. She has been fitted with a poop,
for service as a flagship, and is now ready for im-
mediate commission, and with her armament on:
board.

The following curious narrative of the escape of
two convicts from Milbank Penitentiary on Sun-
day night and their recapture within three hours
afterwards by the officers, who were instantly
sent on their track, is such a striking proof of
the efficiency and vigilance of the police as to
well deserve recording. It is very seldom indeed
that any escape ever takes place from the great,
prisons where convicts undergo the first instal-
ment of their sentences to penal servitude.. As
a matter of course, among such hardened inmates
half of whom are skilled in housebreaking, and all
are more or less proficient in
" dodges" of every
kind, attempts to break their bounds are fre-
quent. But long experience of these ventures aids
the restrictive measures of the prison authorities
to such a degree that, as a rule, they are always
equal to their task, and a successful or unsuccess-
ful attempt to escape becomes a mere question of
superior strategy and cunning on both sides.
The immense strength of Newgate, Dartmoor, and
other new prisons, renders efforts to escape from
them almost utterly hopeless. Not so, however,
with the Penitentiary, which, intended for a bar-
rack, was built of brick, and was afterwards with
difficulty converted into a prison, and, probably,
now holds within its walls more desperate cha-
racters than could be found in the same circum-
ferenceoton
a y s
them again
in any other part of the globe. The clas-
sification of these, therefore, is important to the
warders, who soon see the men who are likely to
is
endeavour to get away, and who at once take mea-
suresell knownn tot frustratehe m
a n htihmesiel attempts,himself.
ke e
she but
e
tocapture
of
Sunday
w a s
planned
by
f
haunt of every felon likely to break his bounds is as
w
threeu
convicts.,
oe successful
iet.s Thusand
two
succeeded. From the way in which it was effected
it must have been an affair carried on for many
weeks. The three men were confined in one of the
basement cells, from which an iron ventilator in the
wall communicated with a cellar beyond. At a
quarter to nine the hammocks in the cells are let
down, and by nine all the convicts are in bed, and
an open grating in the door of each cell allows the
sentry to see that every man is sleeping, while once
or twice in each night the cells themselves are
entered and examined. The first care, therefore, of
the three convicts was to make a perfect dummy
with a regular nightcap, which was put in the
hammock in place of the one at work. The next
move was to get out the bricks round the ventilator.
This must have been a long operation, for their
tools were bad and the walls very thick, and, what
was more, in order to enable the sentries to detect
a

The Marlborough, 131, screw, Capt. W. H.
Stewart, C. 8., at Spithead, is under sailing orders,
and no one leaves the ship except on duty. She is
expected to leave for the Mediterranean this even-
ing or to-morrow morning after a concluding trial
of her machinery in Stokes Bay to-day.
The Accountant-General of the Navy, Sir Richard
Madox Bromley, K.C.8., accompanied by Mr. IL.
W. R. Walker, first-class clerk in Somerset-house,
is now engaged in an official visit to the Devonpoit
dockyard and the other naval departments in the
port of Plymouth.
The crew- -of llNguardship of sailing ordinary
`Wellington, 72, Commander Cannon, flag of Admi-
ral Superintendent Sir Thomas Pasley, were paid
off at Plymouth yesterday.
The following appointments were made on Satur-
day at the Admiralty :—Capt. T. F. Birch to the
Amphion, vice Capt. Cochran, invalided; John
Robson, promoted to chief engineer; Wm. F. Cap,
engineer, to the Icarus; and Wm. Powell, first-citlsa
assistant-engineer, to the Marlborough.

1 attempts of the kind the bricks were white-
washed. But the convicts imitated this whitewash,

and when they replaced the inner wall of bricks
each morning made a composition to resemble mor-
tar and whitened it all over with the whitening
they are supplied with for cleaning their tins, se
that the most careful scrutiny in the day failed to
detect the aperture. With such exquisite nicety
was this done that even after the men were gone
and everyone was marvelling how they could have
escaped the opening was not discovered. As soon
as the cellar 'beyond was gained the men only
worked from one in the morning till about four.
In this cellar was another ventilator leading out
into the prison grounds, though still within the
walls. The convict working at removing the
bricks round this ventilator had a string
fastened to his waist, the other end of which

was held by his companions in the cell.
Whenever they heard anything unusual, or
thought the sentry was coming to enter
the cells, they pulled the string and the convict at
work instantly returned through the narrow hole
in the wall, replaced the ventilator and piece of
brickwork, and was in his hammock again in a
.minute. At last all was ready for getting through
the walls. The three men being employed during
the day in making up Eoldiers' greatcoats for the
Government had contrived, by little and little, to
get together a great quantity of string, which they
pl.atted into a long rope ladder, and hid in the cel-
lar. They also managed, though how no one knows,
to get three of the soldiers' greatcoats there also,
and Sunday night last was fixed for the attempt.
The time chosen was between half-past 8 and 9,
when the men are sent to their cells for the night.
After 9 sentries are posted all round the outer walls,
so that the men knew they must be away before
that hour or not at all. They accordingly went to
their cell, let down the hammocks, and two of them
put in their dummies with nightcaps on under the
clothes. But at this point the heart of the third,
who had only a three years' sentence, failed him,
and he refused to go. Of the other two one was a
very desperate character, who had been transported
before, and was then under sentence of 15 years'
penal servitude. The other, though not so bad, was
bad enough, for he also was a returned transport,
and was again convicted last autmn, and sentenced
to 15 years'. These two therefore were determined
to risk everything to escape, and they accordingly
got through the wall into the cellar, where they put
on their soldiers' greatcoats. With the aid of their
twine ladder they quickly scaled the inner high
prison wall, then the outer, and running across the
grass enclosure near Vauxhall-bridge, climbed the
railings, and ran away. Just, however, as they
cleared the railings a gentleman saw them and re-
cognised their partly convict dress as they made off.
He at once gave information at the gate of the pri-
son. An alarm was sounded, the cells were searched,
and dummies found in the hammocks of the two
runaways. Instantly the case was put into the
hands of four warders most skilful in tracing con-
victs. An examination of their previous notes about
the men showed conclusively that there were two
thieves' haunts to one of which they were certain to
go, and with this to guide them, they started in.
pursuit. Inquiries in the neighbourhood of the pri-
soon ascertained that the fugitives had taken a
Hansom cab, telling the driver to go as fast as he
could, as their sister had met with an accident, and
been taken to an hospital at the east end of the town.
This direction quite corroborated the conjectures of
the warders and they accordingly started in a cab
to the first of the two places the convicts were likely
to make for. Here distributing themselves, a series
of observations and cautious "Inspector Bucket"
like inquiries were made, the general result of which
soon convinced them that the fugitives were not
there. Two warders, however, remained to lounge
about and watch, while the other two proceeded to
draw the next thieves' covert in the purlieus of St.
Luke's. Ten minutes sufficed to convince these ex-
perienced runners that the men were thereabouts.
As, however, the neighbourhood was a very bad
one, and the convicts were not likely to return for
the asking, the warders got the assistance of four
constables of the G division in plain clothes. With
this accession to their strength and detective sagacity
the track was quickly and cautiously followed up,
and the runaways traced to a public house. A few
careless inquiries and a little lounging in and out
and the police felt certain that the men had been
there, and that, though they were not there then,
they had, nevertheless, not been seen to leave.
This enigma was at once understood by the detec-
tives. The convicts had been there, changed their
clothes, and gone away without being recognised
again, and this proved, actually to be the case.
With this slight clue to show them that they must no
longer attempt to follow their track by their dress,
another way was tried, and the fugitives' steps so
closely followed that at last the detectives got posi-
tive information that both the convicts, very respect-
ably dressed in their new clothes, would pass down
Britannia-street at 11 o'clock. Here, accordingly,the
six pursuers concealed themselves, and waited. But
11 o'clock came, and five and ten minutes, and then
a quarter past, but still no convicts. At last the
warders and police issued out to try back upon the
tracks, and, as they were in the act of turning the
corner of Britannia-street, came full upon the
walking
of anything two
men, who, a little behind their time, were
but their
quickly arm-in-arm, thinkingand
recapture. There was an instant
recognition,
as instantly a desperate struggle,
the warders and.
which taxed the
strength and determination of
police, for the men fought, andkicked,
off h
bit
tferaoteia-
ously. One, indeed, was so near getting
policeman had to use his staff. As soon as they
were fairly overpowered cabs were brought up be-
fore an alarm could spread or a rescue be attempted,
and before 12 o'clock both men were ironed ani'
back in their cells at Alillbank. Thus they trade
their escape at 9, before half-past 9 the warders
and detectives were in pursuit of them ; an hour
afterwards the police were Gil a certala track, and
soon after 114 in spite of all disguise, the men were
retaken, and before rnidnightwere restored to their
prison again. Fouche's annals contain nothing
more cleverly managed on both sides than this escape
and quick recapture. •

TUE LATE TERRIFIC BOILER EXPLOSION AT
HACKNEY WICK.--Yesterday afternoon Mr. John Hum-
phreys, the coroner for East Middlesex, held an inquest at
the London Hospital respecting the death of Andrew Luck-
man, aged 29, who lost his life by the explosion on the pre-
mises of Mrs. Landon, a bone button manufacturer, at
Hackney Wick, on Wednesday morning last. The jury
returned a verdict of accidental death.