The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-13 00:00:00

GAETA.

A correspondent of La Presse writes as follows,
under date of Castellone, Feb. 7 :
" Already the other day a powder magazine burst at the
south extremity of the Philippstadt Battery, causing con-
siderable loss to the enemy ; but I have now to record a far
more terrible explosion. Yesterday, about 5 o'clock in the
afternoon, a shell from the Piedmcntese lines on the right
penetrated into one of the powder magazines, which blew
up and set fire to the great reserve store of projectiles,
which blew up likewise.
" The explosion was so terrible that the report was re-
echoed from the moat distant valleys for a long time. A
French vessel, klthough six miles from Gaeta, felt the
shock.

" I had left the village about 4 o'clock to take a stroll
through the mountains leading to Castello Onorato, when,
reaching the summit of a small hill which commands a v'ew
of the gulf and the whole neighbourhood, I was almost
thrown to the ground by the effect of the explosion which
had just taken place to my left. T turned my gaze towards
Gaeta, and was horrified at the immense masses of ruin,
some pieces high in the air, amidst a black smoke and
tongues of flame which lighted up the spires of the town.
" It was something horrible, and reminded me of Pliny
the Younger's description of an eruption of Mount Vesuvius
in a letter to Tacitus, narrating the destruction of Hercu-
laneum and Pompeii.
" I hastily descended into the valley, and on reaching
Castellone I was informed that the explosion had not only
caused the death of some hundred Neapolitan soldiers, but
that also a considerable number of living beings were still
under the ruins.

" During the stillness of the night we could discern the
stifled cries of those unfortunate men, as General Cialdini
had humanely ordered all firing to cease.
" A Neapolitan messenger arrived requesting an armis-
tice of 48 hours. He asked for it in the name of humanity,
for, he said, it was impossible to ascertain the number of
victims buried in the ruins caused by the explosion. You
will easily agree with me that cool reason of interest might
have advised Cialdini to refuse the request of the military
Governor of Gaeta. For a bold and daring General like
Cialdini, it was an admirable opportunity to attempt a
coup .4-main, which probably Night have succeeded.

"Not listiening to the voicrof interest; the Piedmontese
General did not hesitate for a moment to granta suspension
of hostilities, on the sole condition that the besieged should
not work at repairing the breach made recently by the
Piedmontese. We shall thus have an armistice, which will
terminate to-morrow morning, and in 48 hours T may have
great results to recold. Ido not believe, as is reported here,
that Francis, 11. has made proposals fora capitulation,
which must follow sooner or later.
" The battery on the sea side hakbeelEumuch damaged by
the fire from the Sardinian frigate Garibaldi. Her daring
captain took up a position only 1,000 metres from the cur-
tain, and kept up a continual fire for an hour-and-a-half."

211 E GALE.

HARTLEPOOL, FEB. 11.

Names of vessels on shore and wrecked on Satur-
day, Feb. 9:—The brig Duncombe, of Seaton Sluice,
the ship Rimswell, Hull ; the brig Richard Foley,
the schooners Yacht, Seaham, and Chalonge, St.
Malo ; the brigs Hull, Maldon ; the William, South
Shields; the Belina, Aberdeen ; and the Express
and the Laing, Londurt ; the scooner Spring, Al-
chester ; the barks Ellen Oliver, Newcastle, the
Bosphorus, Shields ; and the Manlovice, London ; a
French schooner; the brig Sicily, Southampton ;
the Una, Newcastle ; the Integrity and the William
and Mary, Guernsey; the bark Atalanta, Sunder-
land; the brigs Barbara, Sunderland, and the Dr.
Winterbottom, South Shields • the schooner Sarah
Ann, Ipswich the brig Tanerta, Whitby ; the
schooner Eliza and Ellen, Port Madoc ; the brigs
Legatus, Weardale, and Eleanor, South Shields ;
the Union, Newcastle, and the William George
Sunderland; the Plenty, the Province, the Aibert,
and the Isis, and the schooner Patriot, Port Madoc.
A ship from Sunderland sunk near Longscar rock,
bound for Hongkong, cargo said to be worth
£50,000; crew, 20 in number, all saved, except a
boy, who was washed overboard before she struck.

SHIELDS, MONDAY NIGHT.

The weather is wild to-night, with showers of
sleet and snow. The clouds were banked up in the
eastward, and the sky had a dirty appearance before
nightfall; the wind is E., and likely to draw to
S.E. ; the sea on the bar rising. In fact, there ap-
pears to be a very poor prospect of getting many of
the wrecked vessels off the rocks and sands, except
in pieces, if this weather continues. The following
is a list of Shields vessels stranded, according to
intelligence that has reached the clubs. Some of
them are full-rigged ships, and of very consider-
able value :—The Weardale, Promise, Integrity,
Orbit, Roman Emperor, Una, Kelso, Juno, Magna
Charta, Ruby, Indus, Koh-i-noor, Ellen Oliver,
Albert, Rambler, Bosphorus, Jones, Dr. Winter-
bottom, Plenty, Princess, Sarah Ann, Duncombe,
and Memnon. The crews of all these vessels
are saved, but the larger proportion of the
vessels have been broken up almost to
match-wood. The losses sustained by the
Tyne insurance clubs through the gale are likely
to turn out ' very severe. There can be no
doubt but that several vessels not yet reported have
sunk bodily in the North Sea, and taken every
soul on board down with them. The master of the
Una, before his vessel ran ashore at Hartlepool on
Saturday, saw three vessels founder with all hands,
and it seems to be almost certain that the brig
Wansbeck, of North Shields, foundered on Satur-
day morning, and that all her crew were drowned.
This gale will be another terrible blow to the sea-
men's benefit societies. They had sustained great
losses by the gales of the winter, and these disasters
will weaken them sadly. The frightful effects of
the late gale will furnish a strong argument for the
advocates of a harbour of refuge on the north-east
coast. The vessels, light and laden, were caught
in a trap by the gale on Friday night, and were
embayed and driven into land ; but if there had
been a harbour of refuge open to them at the Tyne,
Hartlepool, or Filey, very few of the terrible dis-
asters which are crowding the columns of the
papers, in all human probability, would have
occurred.
TUESDAY AFTERNOON.

The county of Northumberland has resumed its
wintry mantle. The snow has covered the ground,
and is falling in showers. The sea is high, and has
an angry appearance; the wind blowing from the
north-east, a fresh breeze. The prospects of the
vessels ashore on the coast have not. improved during
the night. What remains of the Indus, the Fow-
ler, the Minerva, and the Mariner—vessels wrecked
and broken up at our harbour mouth--has been
sold by auction to-day. The impression has been
confirmed this morning that the great force of the
gale was spent upon the line of coast ranging from
Berwick to Flamborough Head ; and that the fright-
ful calamities that have arisen by shipwreck origi-
nated to a large extent through fleets of laden
vessels having injudiciously sailed from the north-
east ports on the Friday afternoon, notwithstand-
ing there was every appearance of a gale of
wind. The ships that sailed from the Tyne on
Thursday have reached the Thames. The melan-
choly loss of the lifeboat's crew a t Whitby is
causing very profound sympathy in the north-
east ports. Some of the finest fellows in Whitby,
we are informed by private letters, are gone, and 40
poor children are left orphans. Mr. Armstrong, the
agent for the Shipwrecked Mariners' Society at
Hartlepool, has had upwards of 300 applicants either
for bread or money from shipwrecked men. The loss
of life at that place is calculated at 50 men and lads;
and the value of shipping destroyed, £lOO,OOO.

FRANCIS 11. IN GAETA.—A Paris letter in the
Independence of Brussels, says :—I have received from a
sure source some details relative to the interior of Gaeta.
An Envoy of the Count de Chambord succeeded, by means
of a boat, in getting into the place. On arriving before a
battery, he addressed himself to a man having on a soldier's
grey greatcoat, and asked him to call his officer, as he
wished to speak to him. Now this person was the King
himself, to whom the messenger, in the end, delivered
despatches, addressed to the Minister of the Interior of
Francis 11. The King is said to have avowed to this
messenger that, fearing treason of all kinds and from every
quarter, he and the Queen came every day to take their
meals at the soldier's canteen. For the honour of hu-
manity, it is to be hoped that those apprehensions of the
courneoUli)3lut olotinate monarch are completely imaguarY,