The Sun.
London, England, 1845-03-31 00:00:00

OF LIFE AT BLACKWALL.

On Saturday evening, and just at the hour when the
men engaged in the extensive works of Messrs. Ditch-
burn and Mare, iron steamboat builders, Orchard-yard,
Blackwell, were assembled to be paid, a report was cir-
culated that a frightful loss of life had ensued from a
portion of their massive buildings having given way,
buring in its ruins a number of workmen. As might be
expected, the premises were instantly surrounded, not
only by the immediate inhabitants, but also by the wives
and children of the men employed in the varied depart-
ments of the works, whose horror-stricken countenances
added greatly to the terror that prevailed. The spec-
tacle that presented itself upon their arrival at the spot
where the awful catastrophe took place was aught but
calculated to allay their alarms. On all sides were to be
seen immense piles of iron scattered about in the most
frightful confusion, while great crowds of men were en-
gaged removing them for the purpose of " disengaging,"
as they said, the mangled bodies that were buried under-
neath. Some idea may be formed of the powerful ex-
ertions made by the men to remove this heap of iron
ruins, from the fact that they actually, in their
struggle, bent the iron into a thousand forms, as if
it were only so many pieces of soft wood. We are, how-
ever, happy in being enabled to state that the loss of life
and the injury of limb were not of the frightful extent
that was at first anticipated. Eight bodies—two lifeless,
and six more or less mangled, were found under the
ponderous weight that crushed them. Upon examining
them it was found that Thomas Bates, aged twenty-
seven, and John Payne, aged twenty-five, having a wife
and two children, were unfortunately-killed, and that
one of the wounded ;men named Hayes had• his ankle
fractured, and another his thigh broken. The injuries
of the other sufferers could not be precisely ascertained,
although they were severe, in consequence of an order—
and very properly so—having been issued for their in-
stant removal to the Dreadnought. Messrs. Ditchburn
and Mare, with their clerks and foremen, were imme-
diately upon the spot, and rivalled each other in afford-
ing assistance. Mr. Bayne, a surgeon, residing .at
Poplar, was also present, and was to be seen hurrying to
and fro, seeing where his aid was required. In less than
a quarter of an hour after the melancholy occurrence it
was calculated that there were not less than a thousand
gersons present, amongst whom there was a large body
of police, whose conduct was the theme of general
praise.
Within the large gateway there was a great quantity
of inch iron rods, raised ten feet high, which, with the
exception of two-thirds that rested on the ground, were
supported by nine-inch thick wooden sleepers, and were
further strengthened by a strut extending from the gate
wall to the iron rods. About half-past five o'clock on
Saturday evening, without any assignable cause, the iron
heap fell down with a frightful crash, carrying away in
its fall an iron cistern, having plates of three-sixteenths
thickness, and capable of holding ninetygallons of water;
and also the large gates leading to the yard, which were
swung from their hinges, and their immense holdings in
the massive stone wall. At that moment there were
close to the iron rods the two deceased. and the six
wounded individuals, but by an interference of Provi-
dence, the great bulk of the men (upwards of sixty in
number) were outside of the gate, and thus escaped a
frightful and a sudden death. Had the accident occurred
at an earlier hour in the day, the loss of life must have
been dreadful, as there were constantly passing to and
fro, and close to it, between 500 and 600 men. Payne
was crushed to atoms, and was a complete mummy, his
body being doubled ur. Bates's skull was fractured,
and both his thighs were so smashed that they could be
turned into any form. It appears that not the slightest
blame is attachable to any party, as the sleepers upon
which the iron rested had, until recently, 40 tons weight
to support. The general impression is that the late
variety of season had an effect upon the wooden sleepers,
and caused a giving way that led to the appalling
occurrence.

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CONVICTr/ l e Journal.
ArsrA
FFORD.—STAF.
FORD, FRIDAY NIGIST.—The execution of the wretched
criminal, John Brough, for the murder of his brother
Thomas, at the village of Biddulph, in this county, and who
is at present lying in the gaol of this town, awaiting his
dreadful sentence, has been appointed to take place on Satur-
day morning at eight o'clock. The doomed man has made a
lengthened confession of his sin, and has said that he per-
petrated the dreadful act with a small hammer used for
breaking stones, but that he was exasperated to do it from
the unmanly andunfeeling conduct of his deceased relative ;
he, however, denies most positively meditating his destruc-
tion, even up to ten minutes previous to his death, and that
when he struck him he had not the slightest idea of mur-
dering him. The unhappy criminal pays the most devout
attention to the religious instructions of the chaplain of the
gaol, and appears perfectly resigned to the awful fate which
awaits him.
TRAVELS IN SEARCH OF A JOHN SMITH.--Some
twelve months since Mr. Turner, a solicitor, of Maitland,
posted a letter which be intended for Mr. John Smith,
solicitor, O'Connell-street, Sydney,, but which he acci-
dentally directed " London.' Now, Smiths are exceed-,
ingly plentiful in London, and John is by no means an
uncommon prefix. O'Connell-streets, however, are not
very plentiful, but it appears there are some ; and there
are three John Smiths residing in O'Connell-streets,
each of whom opened it, and finding it was not intended
for them, returned it. In Dublin there are several
O'Connell-streets, and lets of John Smiths, and. to
Dublin it was sent ; but after all the Smiths in the law-
list had been " tried," to use the technical expression,
without the right one being found, it was determined to
send the letter back to the writer, endorsed with the
certificate of seventeen different postmen, that they_ had
all searched in vain for the person for whom it was in-
tended. Last week it arrived in Sydney, and was sent
to Maitland, when the mistake was discovered, and Mr.
John Smith, O'Connell-street, received his letter, together
with four one-pound notes enclosed in it.—Sydrcy Morn-
lag Herald, Nov. 13.
A STOLEN BANK NOTE FOUND.—A workman, en
Tuesday last, whilst engaged in repairing an old tene-
ment at Highgate, in taking up some damaged boards
forming the flooring or the kitchen, among a quantity
of pieces of cloth, shavings and other rubbish, pulled out
a piece of paper, which upon examination proved to be a
one-pound Bank of England note, dated so far back as
the year 1810. About thirty-five years ago an old man,
named York, a whitesmith, occupied the premises in
question, who was much addicted to drinking, and who,
although possessed of some little property, lived in a state
of dirt and filth, so much so that the place literally
swarmed with rats, and there can be no doubt but that
one of these vermin had upon some occasion carried off
the recently-found treasure, among other relics, where-
with to construct a bed or nest for its young.
GUERNSEY.—ACCIDENT.—On Tuesday last, Mr.
John Moore Napier, son of his Excellency .Major-Gene-
ral Napier, was thrown from a one-horse carriage
which lie was driving, and dislocated his shoulder.
Mr. Napier, Nye understand, was, at the time of
the accident, turning into the gate of the Rev. Daniel
Dobree's residence at the Forest, when the horse took fright
at the report of a gun which was discharged at a short dis-
tance, and overturned the carriage. We have much pleasure
in being able to state, from the reports which we have heard,
that no serious consequences are apprehended from the acci-
dent.—Guernsey Star.
ACCIDENT IN REGEND-STREET.-011 Saturday
afternoon, between four and five o'clock, a gentleman's
carriage, with two ladies in it, was standing at a shop-door
in Regent-street, near Maddox-street, when a horse in a cab
up the street, at a furious rate, without a
The cab horse dashed with reatviolence
camee r galloping ot ien
bg
carriage horses, and the shaft of the cab entered
one of the horse's chests to a considerable depth. The poor
animal fell on the ground, and instantly expired. The ladies
dagriavinst
escaped unhurt.
On Saturday her Royal Highness the Grand
the car
Duchess Stephanie of Baden, attended by the Baroness de
Strumfeder, Baron de Sebreckenstein, and the Duke of Ha-
milton, visited the electro-telegraph, at the Paddington ter-
minus of the Great Western Railway where they remained
nearly an hour. Her Royal Higliness. expressed herself
highly at
with the workin of this extraordinary
eipatatuE, • -