The Sun.
London, England, 1868-08-24 00:00:00

THE ACCIDENT TO THE IRISH LIMITED

MAIL.

The Marquis of Hamilton (who was in the Irish mail
train when the collision took place) writes thus to the
Times :—" An account of the fearful accident which
befel the Irish mail from one who was a passenger in the
illfated train and a witness of the catastrophe may not
be uninteresting. We had left Abergele about a mile
and a half, and were about the same distance from
the Llandulas station, when we were startled by a
collision and shock which, though not very severe, were
sufficient to throw every one against his opposite neigh-
bour. I immediately jumped out of the carriage, when
a fearful sight met my view. Already the whole of the
three passenger carriages in front of ours, the van
and the engine, were enveloped in dense sheets of flame
and smoke, rising fully twenty feet high, and spreading
out in every direction ; it was the work of an instant.
No words can convey the instantaneous nature of the
explosion and conflagration. I had actually got out
almost before the shock of the collision was over, and this
was the spectacle which already presented itself. Not
a sound, not a scream, not a struggle to escape, or a
movement of any sort was apparent in the doomed
carriages. It was as though an electric flash had at once
paralysed and stricken every one of their occupants,
So complete was the absence of any presence of living or
struggling life in them, that as soon as the passengers
from the other parts of the train were in some degree
recovered from their first shock and consternation, it was
imagined that the burning carriages were destitute of
passengers—a hope soon changed into feelings of horror
when their contents of charred and mutilated remains were
discovered about an hour afterwards. From the extent,
however, of the flames, the suddenness of the conflagra-
tion, and the absence of any power to extricate themselves,
no human aid would have been of any assistance to the
sufferers, who in all probability were instantaneously
suffocated by the black and foetid smoke peculiar to
paraffin, which rose in volumes about and around the
spreading flames. As soon as I had in some degree
realised the situation and placed my family in safety, I
ran with all possible spped for a considerable distance on
the down line to stop the Irish mail, which was expected
on the up line ; but I found that this had already
been done, I believe at Llandulas station, where,
possibly, they had knowledge of the escape of the
waggons which caused the calamity. On my
return I found some of the female passengers
collected in a neighbouring field, out of reach of the
dreaded explosion of the engine-boilers, from which, how-
ever, the engine-driver had the presence of mind to turn
off the steam before he jumped off it. The male Passen-
gers were assisting in every possible way, their efforts
being principally directed to saving the mails and detaching
carriages from the burning mass, and it was on comparing
notes with each other that the fearful extent of loss of
life was realised, and that the task of removing the
blackened and charred remains from the burning carriages
began. I saw eleven bodies, if such they could be
called, removed and carefully wrapped up in sheets.
Beyond the knowledge that poor Lord and Lady Farnham
were in these carriages, there was nothing to designate
them individually, except a watch with Lord Farnham's
crest and coronet. Various other watches, bracelets, rings,
and jewellery were picked up and taken charge of by the
police. The country people, who assembled in large
numbers, were very kind in their attention to the
sufferers by the collision. Most of the wounds, I aral
happy to say, were but slight, chiefly contusions and cuts,
about the h ead. After a delay of six hours the mail train again
started on its journey to Holyhead, the ghastly figures
and remnants of what so few hours before had been our
fellow passengers still remaining in shrouds and temporary
boxes where the accident occurred. The accident
happened from carelessness, which involves the highest
degree of culpability upon those concerned in it. Some
waggons, at the extreme end of which were one or more
laden with paraffin oil in casks, had been allowed to
escape down the line at the rate of thirty miles an hour
on the same line of rails up which the Irish mail
was proceeding at about an equal pace, the collision
which ensued, and which was quite unavoidable
by the engine-driver, threw the engine of the mail train
off the rails, and no doubt the escape of the paraffin from
the broken barrels and its contact with the fires of the
engine, as well as the concussion itself, formed the con-
tinuous stream of flame which enveloped the whole
fore part of the train. That an engine of
mischief so potent as paraffin should be placed without
any exceptional protection at the tail of a luggage train
subject to any shock or collision which may befall
it, and which alone of itself might cause its
explosion, is culpable remissness in itself ; but that by
carelessness the waggons should be allowed to detach
themselves down an incline and carry death to every living
thing obstructing them, is a most serious aggravation of
the evil. "Unless some powerful restrictions are put upon
the possibilities of such contingencies, travellers by railway
will have to inure themselves to the danger of a new form
of fearful, instantaneous, and inevitable death, to which
the ordinary perils of a collision by comparison appear
mild and unimportant."