The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-19 00:00:00

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A daring and snecessfal
v.
;mae a„ atham on Thursday
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; ) ; John Maeallum, who was und,i
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tempt at escape was
by a convict, named
ee was undergoing a sentence of
aht years' penal servitude at the Chatham con-
vict establishment. From what has transpired
since the plan of escape was so successfully carried
out it would seem that Macallum, who, although
only 18 years of age. is described as being an adept
in crime, was employed at the extreme end of
Chatham dockyard near the river with a few ether
prisoners, their work being that of removing mud
and earth on the bank of the river. Only a short
time ago Macallum attempted to make his escape
while employed in Chatham dockyard, and
actually succeeded in baffling the officers for sousetime, until afterwards discovered not far from the
he a
spot wd
where he
t h eh untilhadh is dress,
'a weekdisalpeared. Since that time
b ou rt
thistw two
since,period working in
of pan ish -
chains
inent having expired they were removed, and he
was allowed to work the same as the other con v
On Thursday Mavilum determined on Again at-
admittedtempting his escape, and there is little doubt hail
some of his fellow-prisoners into the secret
of his intentions. During the instant that the vigi-
lance of the convict guard in charge was relaxed,
by his attention being diverted to some of the
other convicts, Macallum slipped away from his
gang, passing round by a barge, near which he was
at work, and beneath a small landing jetty. Here
he contrived to change his convict dress, but how
he succeeded in obtaining a fresh supply of clothes
is one of those mysteries which would appear to be
insoluble except to convicts themselves. That he
bad procured some fresh clothes, however, is cer-
tain, as some portion of his convict dress were left
behind. The prisoner then crawled near some
timber, of which there is an immense quantity at
that part of the dockyard, and before the convict
warder would appear to have become aware of his
spacebe i
i missing
the dockyard,
he had traversed a considerable
passed through a door in the masthouse, scarcely
ntsineg dockyard, and is believed to have
t
ever used, as this was afterwards found open. He
ascended a pile of timbers, one of which he
raised against the boundary wall, by which means
he reached the top. Although the part of the
wall on which he now was almost faced the con-
vict prison, he does not appear to have been per-
ceived by any of the officials of that establishment,
and, unmolested, he dropped from the wall to the
ground. As he was running away, near the sol-
diers' rifle-ground, in the direction of Brompton, he
was seen by a girl, who had observed him let him-
self down by the wall. The convict, however,
immediately disarmed her suspicions by asking
her who was tie nearest doctor, as a policeman
had met with a dreadful accident in the dock-
yard and was nearly killed, and he had been
directed to get over the wall and run the nearest
way for a surgeon. :Macallum then run off towards
Gillingham, but was immediately afterwards missed.
A search was then made for him, and Sergeant
Langstone, of the detective force, and several of the
warders turned out to scour the neighbourhood to
effect his capture, After tracking him as far as
Gillingham, all traces of him were lost, and,
although the officers remained in the neighbour-
hoo;l all day, searching the orchards, brickfields,
and hedges, no tidings of him could be obtained.
Intelligence of the convict'e escape, with a descrip-
tion of his appearance, was directly telegraphed to
every principal town in the kingdom, and a reward
of £5 offered for his capture. Late on Friday
night the escaped convict was seen entering the town
of Dartford by Sergeant Claddish, of the Kc;nt
county police, who immediately arresed him, feel-
ing satisfied he was the man for whom search was
being made. When ruptured Macallum had on the
trousers in which he escaped, being made out of the
blankets supplied to the prisoners tor their bedding.
I te. was in his shirtsleeves, the latter garment being
worn as a frock. He stated that since his escape
he had swam across the Medway three times to
avoid been seen. On Saturday he was again safely
lodged in St. Mary's prison, and placed in irons to
await his punishment for being at large. He eas
spent almost the whole of his life in prison, and
before his present sentence had undergone four
years' penal servitude. His present term of penal
servitude was awarded him for two burglaries com-
mitted by him in Scotland.

DREADFUL BOILER EXPLOSION AND

LOSS OF _LIFE 1N IVEIVINGTOIc':

An explosion of a terrible nature happened on
Saturday afternoon, which was attended with fatal
consequences to two persons, a father and his son,
serious injuries to several other persons, and great
loss of property.
The premises where this happened belonged to
Messrs. Groves, and were termed the Newington
Slw Mills. They were about 80 feet long and 40
feet wide. They stood in lk,.verell-street, Do,.er-
roA, and were surrounded by several public
thorough fares and bye streets. Amongst the latter
was Charles-street, George-street, Theobald-street,
and the stabling belonging to Mr. Holliman nearly
adjoined the mills.
. . . . . _

Th• interior of the mill contained a vast quantity
of timber, some of which had been cut into boards
and joistings, and a great quantity was piled in the
place to undergo the same operation, while three
loads of wood were also standing outside the gates
ready to be taken to be sawn up.

Tfie machinery on the premises was always con-
sidered by the proprietor to be of first-rate manu-
facture, and consisted of a pair of engines in the
mill, and a boiler in the boiler shed. The boiler,
it was understood, would safely stand a pressure of
from 121bs. to 201bs. on the square inch, and on
Saturday afternoon the men declare that there was
only between 151bs. and 161bs. pressure on, as in;
dicated by the guage.
Whilst all hands were busily engaged, and some
had gone out to assist in unloading the timber from
the carriages, the boiler exploded with a noise re-
sembling a clap of thunder. Flagstones of great
weight, pieces of iron, and steam pipes were pro-
jected through the roofs of the mill and boiler-
house, and after being hurled a long distance and
severing the branches from trees, demolishing
chimney-pots many yards away, either crushed in
the roofs or greatly. damaged them.
The instant the explosion was hoard some hun-
dreds of pantiles rose into the air, and the whole
neighbourhood became obscured with dust. For a
few moments no ono outside the building could tell
what had occurred, but when the other workmen
commenced
nature r
of h
u s b
the
oge out,ta s
catastrophe.
.made known the
fearful
At that time Mr. Superintendent Branford and
the Bricklayers'
Sweden Arms,andsuite.
Mr. Inspector Reid, of the M division, were stand-
awaiting the arrival
at
lug
of the King of Upon proceeding
along the road they were informed of what had
taken place, and on entering the ill-fated premises
they found that a man named Thomas Knowles,
aged 46, who acted as stoker, and his
son, a lad of
12 years, were in the ruins amidst the timber, which
was then burning with great vigour.
One of the fire brigade and a bricklayer went to
work,managed and after some short time they to
.
dig out of the smoking debris the poor lad, who was
completely scalped as if by some surgical instru-
ment. His unfortunate father had evidently, from
the marks of blood on the rafters and beams, been
forced at least a dozen feet towards the roof. One
side of his head and face was cut off, and was miss-
ing at the time.
The firemen soon got the flames extinguished.
The damage done, however, is very considerable ;
but fortunately the contents and machinery were
insured in the Phoenix Fire-office, and the build-
ings were insured in the Law-office.
Several other persons were more or less injured,
and one man named Laws so seriously that his re-
covery is extremely doubtful. Three females pass-
ing along Charles-street were also badly h art.
The disaster is stated to have arisen from the
boiler not being properly charged with water, or
from some part of the ironwork giving way.