The Sun.
London, England, 1845-03-05 00:00:00

CHESTER

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DEE

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DREADFUL EXPLOSION.

LOSS OF FOUR LIVES, AND MANY OTHERS
SERIOUSLY INJURED.-(THIS DAY.)

This morning, shortly after ten o'clock, a dreadful catas-
trophe occurred, which has already occasioned the sacrifice
of four lives, besides, in all human probability, a much
greater loss. The scene of this disaster was the immense
factory of Messrs. Samuda Brothers, and Co., the engineers
of Blackwall, at Bow-creek. It appears, from the particulars
which onr reporter gleaned on the • spot, but which must
necessarily be inadequate in description, in consequence
of the universal confusion which prevailed, both at
the factory and the immediate neighbourhood, on the
occurrence of such a catastrophe, that at the above
hour a number of workmen were employed in the engine
building-room, testing a boilsr of the engine which had
been taken out of the steam-boat Waterman No. 11. The
men employed were endeavouring to get up the steam for
the purpose of driving the engine, when it suddenly exploded,
the violence attending which oompletely blew off the whole of
the roof of the engine-house, besides breaking nearly all the
windows of a large glass factory which adjoins, and minor
dwelling-houses in the neighbourhood. The force of the con-
cussion was so great, that a number of men who were
employed in various parts of the premises were thrown down.
Immediately after the evaporation of the steam, and the
consequent confusion had somewhat subsided, a search was
instituted, for the purpose of ascertaining the extent of the
injury and loss of life which. such a circumstance must
necessarily entail, when it was found that four men were
actually dead. their bodies being frightfully mutilated,
and 'Many others being more or -Tess injured. Several
medical gentleman resident in the neighbourhood were
promptly on the spot and rendered every assistance in
their power to alleviate the dreadful sufferings of those unfor-
tunate individuals in whom life was still in existence. A
light spring van was procured, in which a quantity of
straw was placed, and six individuals put therein, covered
with blankets, were removed to the London Hospital ; they
were immediately attended by the senior surgeons of the
establishment, but in the majority of the cases, it is feared,
that little or no hopes are entertained of their recovery, they
being mutilated in a most frightful manner.
The tremendous nature of the explosion may be antici-
pated from the fact, that the bade of one poor fellow was
picked up on-the opposite side of Bow-creek, a distance from
the factory of at least 120 yards.
It will be in the recollection of our readers, that on the 12th
of November last, Mr. Joseph Samuda, and nine other indi-
viduals, lost their lives on board the Gipsy Queen steamer,
at Blackwall, close to their factory, by the explosion of a
steam-pipe, on the return of the vessel from an experimental
trip.

1 (ANOTHER ACCOUNT—FROM AN EYE-WITNESS.)
A dreadful accident took place this morning, at ten
o'clock, at the factory of Messrs. Ssmuda, at Poplar, by the
explosion of a steam-boiler, by which three men were killed
and seven dangerously hurt. The boiler had been recently
fixed outside the engine-room on the premises, and con-
nected with the engine which was used for the purpose of
working lathes and various other machinery employed for
the construction of pipes, /sc., for an atmospheric railroad.
The scene just after the explosion took place, of which the
writer was an eye-witness, was most heartrending—the
screams of women, the groans of the wounded and the dying,
and the sudden change in the appearance of the place. The
engine-room, a building of considerable size, was levelled with
the ground, and part of the turnery and the roof blown up in
the air ; and nearly the whole of the windows on the premises
were shivered to atoms. Part of the boiler was carried over
the house tops into the street, a distance of 200 yards, and of
the rest scarcely two plates were left together. A. man named
Grimes, a labourer, one of the deceased, was standing on the
top of the boiler, and was blown over the top of a building
and over the Lea river, a distance of about 600 feet.
Mr. Lowe, the superintendent, was standing by, giving
directions to the workmen, and was struck on the head by
a piece of the boiler; he was taken to his own house insen-
sible, and bleeding profusely. They were at the time getting
up the steam in order to try the boiler. Perhaps it would
be premature to give a statement as to the precise cause of
the accident; but the boiler, although it had never before
been in use, was, nevertheless, totally unfit to stand the
pressure, as it had been lying out in the open air for a great
length of time, by which it became injured by the weather.
The names of two of those who were killed were Wright
and Grimes; the third was so mutilated that he could not be
identified.