The Sun.
London, England, 1859-06-04 00:00:00

BURNING OF THE EASTERN
MONARCH.

[A summary of the following appeared in our
paper of yesterday] :--

PORTSMOUTH, Friday.
The Eastern Monarch left Kurrachee on the 29d
of February last, with the following officers and
troops on board, for Gravesend :—Col. Allan, of the
81st Regiment, in command; Capt. Molesworth,
27th Regiment, lady, and two children; Capt.
Usher, 87th Foot, lady, and three children ; Capt.
Manning, 24th Regiment ; and Capt. Stopford, of
the 52d Regiment; Lieuts. Clive, of 52d, and Gres-
ham, 27th Regiment; Quartermaster Neville, 70th
Foot ; and Assist.- Surgeon Kidd, 27th Regiment,
in medical charge ; 352 men, invalids from various
regiments in the North-Western Provinces of India;
30 women, and 53 children. Fifteen deaths oc-
curred on the passage home. Lieut.-Col. Muter, of
the 60th Rifles, and lady ; Lieut. Whish, of the
Bombay Artillery, also came passengers by the ship.
She had light baffling winds down to the Line,
touched at St. Helena, and after leaving the "trades"
met with easterly winds. In consequence, the pro-
visions ran short, and Capt. Morris, the commander
of the ship, decided upon calling at Spithead to
obtain a supply of fresh meat and vegetables for
the people on,.board, where the ship anchored at
about 1.30 a.m. yesterday morning. The chief mate,
Mr. Narracott, about an hour after the ship had
brought up, was walking the poop, the crew being
employed aloft furling the sails, and had just com-
pleted the topsails, and were about to commence
furling the courses, when the explosion took place,
blowing out the middy skylights on the poop, and
carrying away the poop ladders. Inside the cuddy
was a mass of ruin—decks torn up and bulkheads
and glass shattered and mixed up in a thousand frag-
ments, the whole cuddy and decks being filled with a
choking sulphurous vapour. Officers and ladies
rushed on -deck in their night dresses, the troops
below leaping from their hammocks, and barely
escaping the flames ; with such rapidity did these
spread along the deck. The whole of the ship's
ports being open for ventilation, the current of air,
of course, urged them along in their fury. Captain
Morris despatched a boat to the men-of-war at
Spithead for assistance, and ordered the fire enoine
and pumps to be rigged to endeavour to subdue The
fire, but by this time it was beyond human control.
The boats (four) were lowered, and the ladies,
women, and children were being passed over the.
side. The troops were paraded by Col. Allan's orders,
and were under the most perfect command; every
man obeyed his orders most implicitly. By this
time the boats from the men-of-war Falcon and
Flying Fish were alongside, and the men lowered
themselves by ropes foom the fore part of the ship
and bowsprit, the after part being a mass of flame. .
The remaining women and children were lowered
down to the boats at the same time by those on
board the ship. Every possible means seems to have
been used for the saving of life, and as fast as the
people were taken off the ship they were conveyed
on board the Falcon and Flying Fish, and some
small craft near at the time. Two ballast barges
deserve particular attention. They bore down to the
burning ship under canvas, and, by Capt. Morris's
directions, dropped their anchors under the ship's
bows to enable the boats to reach them quickly with
their' living freights from the ship. The barges,
however, dropped so close to the vessel that num-
bers of men and women dropped on to their decks
from the ship's bowsprit and bows, the fore p in of
the ship being clearest from fire. The conduct of
the men in these barges (the Providence and the
Petrel) is stated by the captain of the ship and the
officers in command of the troops to have been be-
yond all praise. In half an hour from the
time of the explosion every one that could be found
was got out of the ship, and as the last boats left
her sides the flaming masts fell by the board. At
this time Mr. Smith, gunner of the Falcon, rendered
essential service by his exertions in towing the two
barges laden with people from the ship out of the
way of the falling spars. Lieut. H. Bagge, of her Ma-
jesty's ship Falcon, was everyvvhereconspicuous by
his exertions and judicious arrangements in saving
lives ; and many others were equally zealous, but,
from the excitement which prevailed, were not per-
haps equally noted. The after part of the troop
deck felt the greatest effect of the explosion. The
women and children were berthed in this part of
the ship, and here occurred almost the only loss of
life, one woman and five children being killed or
suffocated by the explosion, This, with one soldier,
who died soon after reaching the shore of exhaus-
tion from being in the water, and one child, is, we
believe, the only loss of life ; allarge number have
received contusions and burns. The pilot is missing,
but whether he has Fot ashore at Ryde, as he be-
longs to the Isle•of NA, ight, is not yet known. The
whole of the officers, ladies, men, women, and chil-
dren who were landed at Portsmouth from the un-
fortunate vessel were, of course, in the state they
jumped out of their beds in—ladies and women in
their night clothes, officers and men in a pair of
trousers and shirt, and many of the men without
the latter—all, of course, without shoes or stock-
ings. The officers, both those belonging to the ship
and the military, have lost their property, which
amounts with many of the latter to something con-
siderable. Col. Allan speaks in the highest terms of
the conduct of the men nnder his.command, and
says of his own officers and Capt. Morris and the
officers of the ship, " nothing could exceed their
coolness, spirit, and gallantry."
The troops, women, and children have been quar-
tered in the various barracks and hospitals in the
town, where their wants have been supplied by the
authorities. At the hotels, and in many cases in the
private dwellings of the inhabitants, every one
seemed to vie -with the other in rendering the
promptest assistance to the sufferers as they landed.
The Quebec was literally crammed in a very short
time, and coffee, brandy, &c., served out ad libitum.
The appearance of the burning ship from Ports-
mouth ramparts and the beach from about 3 until 6
a.m. was magnificent in the extreme. The excitement'
among the crowd assembled was intense, as with a
glasi; human beings could be discerned jumping
from the ship's sides into the sea, from which, of
course, they were picked up by the boats. After the
whole of the people had been taken out of the ship,
the Falcon stood towards her, and fired several shot
into her to endeavour to sink her. but without
effect. The hull of the ship continued burning
fiercely until about midday, when the greater body
of the flames was subdued, but immense bodies of
smoke continued to ascend from the ship. About
9 a.in. a body of flame burst out from the after part
of the ship, reaching to an immense height in the
A dense smoke now (6 p.m.) hangs over the
remains of the burnt ship. Several Government
steamers have been in attendance by her the whole
day. The following letter has been addressed to
Captain Morris by the military officers in charge of
the troops :

air.

" Portsmouth, June 3.
cc sir—The officer commanding the invalids, the officers
under his command, and the passengers who arrived this
morning at Portsmouth by the ship Eastern Monarch, from
Kurrachee, cannot take leave of you without expressing' the
deep sympathy they all feel for you on the frightful loss of
your ship, which occurred at Spithcad when at anchor.
This has been generated by the invariable kindness and
attention to them on the voyage, and the gallant efforts
made by you to save life when the ship was so suddenly
destroyed by fire this morning at Spithead. They all feel
deeply grateful, and it must be some satisfaction to you to
know that no human forethought could have prevented this
sad calamity; and they desire to express this in as public a
manner as possible.
"They beg of Captain Morris to convey their thanks to