The Sun.
London, England, 1868-12-17 00:00:00

SIX MEN DROWNED.

A correspondent in Douglas, Isle of Man, writes
" There is at present in course of construction in our bay a
low-water landing pier, running parallel with the present
red pier. When there is a heavy sea, accompanied by an
in-shore wind, the water rushes with extreme violence
into the space enclosed between the two piers, and the
result is that a kind of maelstrom is created, exceedingly
dangerous to any small craft. On Saturday night the
schooner Three Janes, Jackson master, of and from
Preston to this port, with a cargo of coals, came round
Douglas Head, and anchored off the red pier. The wind
was S.S.E. at the time, and there was a heavy sea
in the bay, and the schooner commenced almost
immediately to drag her anchor. Unfortunately, at this
moment the wheel chain snapped, and all control over
the vessel was lost, and after some little time she drifted
into the space between the two piers. In the meantime
the members of the Douglas rocket brigade assembled
on the old pier, and a crew of one of the harbour boats
also went out to her assistance. The rocket brigade
fired two rockets, and thus conveyed two lines to the im-
perilled vessel, but the harbour boat having also reached
her, the captain and crew came ashore therein. The
captain at once proceeded to the office of the Isle of Man
Steam Packet Company, and applied for the services of a
steamer for the purpose of towing the schooner into
the harbour. This request, however, was refused, as it
was deemed that the steamer might suffer injury by
going out. The master thereupon engaged a crew of
harbour boatmen. A four-oared boat, containing, himself
and five of the harbour boatmen, put off from the red
pier. When it was about 100 feet from the schooner
a huge wave struck the boat with so much violence that the
oars were carried out of the hands of the men on the lee
side. The men on the other side soon after-
wards lost their oars also. The boat was then entirely
at the mercy of the waves, and before any means
for their rescue could be adopted the whole of the poor
men perished. Their names were Alfred Jackson, of
Preston, the master of the schooner ; Milan, James
Lace, Robert Caren, James Lyncher, and George
Dagleish, of Douglas. On Sunday the body of Lace was
washed ashore, and since then the bodies of Jackson,
Hillan, and Dagleish have been recoverel ; but up to the
_ urenent 4heAttkier.two

AN INDEPENDENT ELECTOR. HOAXED.

good story, and one which has the advantage of
being true, is told in Shrewsbury at the expense of a free
and independent elector of this irreproachable borough.
The elector in question exercised the privilege of the
franchise for the first time during the recent
election, and having been induced to give one of his
votes to Mr. Figgins, the Conservative candidate,
he appears to have lived in the daily expectation of having
conveyed to him, from some unknown and mysterious
source, a substantial acknowledgment of his support.
Ho did not make any secret of his expectation,
but frequently opened his heart upon the subject to some
of his fellow-workmen, and after indulging in wild hopes
of receiving £lO from " The Man in the Moon," he gra-
dually came down to £2, a sum which happened to be
urgently needed in his domestic economy, and the
lack of which he daily lamented. One morning his
waning hopes were suddenly revived by the receipt of a
letter, couched in guarded terms, but from which he
clearly gathered that the expected guerdon was at length
forthcoming, and was to be obtained from a stranger
who might be met that night at eight o'clock on
St. Chad's-terrace, and who was to be recognised and
approached by a stated code of signals. The night proved
wet and stormy, but the free and independent elector
was faithful to the appointment ; and, after waiting
twenty minutes, and getting wet through, he beheld

e man whom he was to meet—a, man with a care-

fully muffled-up face, a man who whistled to the free
and independent elector, and who, when the free and
independent doffed his hat, beckoned him to approach
by three distinct motions of the extended forefinger of
the left hand. The colloquy between the briber and the
bribed was brief. Mildly reproaching the elector for
" splitting his vote with Clement," instead of plumping
for Figging, the man with the muffled-up face dropped
into his hand two bright coins, which the agitated
elector, hurriedly glancing at in the lamp-light, recognised
as the two sovereigns for which he had so long looked in
vain. With a hasty promise that he was "right for next
time," he followed the advice of his interlocutor, and
made the best of his way home, where upon furtively
taking out the price of his vote he found that the coins,
though new and bright, and bearing the impress of the
Mint, were not sovereigns but—farthings.