The Sun.
London, England, 1842-01-31 00:00:00

HURRICANE IN THE BRISTOL

CHANNEL.

BRISTOL, FRIDAY.—The Mercury cutter was towed
into this port last evening by the Countess Pembroke
steamer, having had a most miraculous escape from total
loss in the tremendous hurricane of Tuesday and Wed-
nesday last.
The Mercury cutter is a tender to the St. Vincent,
now lying at Portsmouth, and she sailed from this port
on Saturday last, to take some supernumerary seamen
for her Majesty's ship the Queen, now lying at Spithead
for orders. The following is the account of the occur-
rence given by Captain Scarlett, who is an acting second
master in her Ma-jesty's service :—On Wednesday last,
the 26th inst., the cutter was lying-to about thirty miles
west of Lundy Island, under a close reef try-sail and
storm jib, in a heavy sea, the wind blowing a gala from
W.N.W., when a tremendous sea took her, which wash-
ed away her main-sail, the companion and the boat oft*
her deck. She went down on her beam-ends, and
was immediately half filled with water. The bal-
last in the- hold was shifted, and broke up the
lower deck,. and the whole of the crew, six seamen, who
were on deck, were washed overboard, and two of them
were lost ; the other four recovered the ship. As soon
as the confusion would admit, they set about cutting
away the bwm and the gear, working the pumps, and
baling the water, and by these means the ship was
righted. When they came to muster the hands they
found that out of the twenty-two supernumerary sea-
men, who were below in the hold, together with' Mr.
Molesworth, mate of the Queen, and Mr. Francis Peel,
nephew of Sir Robert Peel, who had charge of the men—
it was discovered that two of the unfortunate men were
killed, and six others wounded, one of them having his
right leg and left hip broken, and who is now in the in-
firmary. As soon as she was righted, she was put right
before the wind, and fortunately made the Bristol Chan-
nel and anchored in l'ennarth Roads, about half-past
five o'clock the following morning. They were proceed-
ing on to Bristol when they fell iu with the Countess
Pembroke steamer, and were towed by her up to Bristol,
where she arrived on last night's tide (Thursday).
This afternoon an inquest was held on the bodies of
the two supernumerary seamen, Alexander Mackay and
James Reed—who are lying on board the cutter, in
Cumberland-basin—before J. B. Grindon, Esq., Coro-
ner for this city. •
Mr. Montague Trevor Molesworth, mate of her Ma-
jesty's ship Queen, deposed to the above facts.
Joseph Hollis, one of the supernumeraries, deposed
that he and the other supernumeraries were lying down
at the time of the occurrence, as the sea was too rough
for them to stand up. Mackay's (the deceased's) head
was on witness's feet, and Reed was lying close by on
the leeward side. He (witness) was the first to get out
of the hold by the companion way, and in two or three
minutes the cabin deck was forced up by the water tank,
which was full of water, and by the bars of pig iron,
used as ballast, weighing about half a hundred weight
each, and which were underneath the cabin floor. As
soon as a light was procured they found Mackay dead
and cold in amongst the ballast, and he afterwards saw
Reed dead in the cabin.

Joshua Newman, one of the seamen who Was-washed
overboard, also described the accident ; and in reply to
questions from the jury stated that he had been a sea-
man twenty years, and in his opinion no vessel was ever
managed better. The witness also said he should never
forgot the conduct of Mr. Molesworth, to whom he
thought the survivors were mainly indebted for their
safety.
Mr. J. B. Prowse, surgeon to the Admiralty for the
port, deposed to the death of the men being in all proba-
bility caused by such occurrence as the witnesses described.
The Jury immediately returned a verdict of " Acci-
dental Death."

The recent dreadful weather naturally causes consi-
derable apprehension for the safety of other vessels, and
several small craft have been picked up disabled. A
notice at the Commercial Rooms is the following :
" The Captain of the BillOw reports having seen a
vessel bottom upwards, and a large quantity of wreck off
the Foreland, near the Naas Sands."
I am sorry to say that the Shamrock, belonging to the
Bristol General Steam Navigation Company, which
sailed from Dublin on Tuesday last, has not yet been
heard of. Her usual time is about 26 hours, and she has
now been out about 70 hours. It is hoped, however, that
she may come up by this evening's tide.
P.S. I have called at the Company's office at the last
moment (four r.m.), and they have not yet heard any-
thing of the Shamrock.
BRISTOL, SATURDAY, ONE A.M.—Up to this hour, I
regret to say, nothing has been heard of the Shamrock.
The barque Mischief, trading between Lisbon and
Liverpool, lost five men during the late gales.