The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-01-20 00:00:00

FURTHER PARTICULARS

The Conqueror, a fine vessel of 600 tons, belonging to Mr.
Richard Greefl of the firm of Wigram and Green, bound
from Calcutta to London, and commanded by Capt. Duggan,
l after beating ala t in the channel during the heavy gale on
Friday night, w driven on shore, off Lorel, a small town
on the French co st, only six miles distant from Mirlemont
(where the Reliance struck), at about half-past ten o'clock
p.m., and almost immediately went to pieces, every soul on
board being lost, with the exception of a boy named Henry
Abchurch, one of the caddy servants. The crew consisted
of about 45 seamen, exclusive of officers, and the vessel had
no less than 18-passengers on board, including Mrs. Thomp-
son (the wife Of an East India captain), and Mrs. Jenkins,
both of whom w'bre accompanied by a family of four children,
and three officers of the united services. The ship was
freighted with a valuable cargo of silk and general mer-
chandise: and it is supposed that she must have suffered
severely from the late hurricanes, and become unmanageable
as she neared the channel. No authentic statement of the
circumstances has vet been received from the poor boy, who
is the only one saved. He is under the care of Mr. Hamil-
ton, her Britannic Majesty's Consul at Boulogne, and will
remain for the melancholy purpose of identifying any bodies
that may come ashore. _ _

A letter announcing the wreck was received yesterday
morning by Mr. W. Dobson, secretary to Lloyd's, from Mr.
A. Adam, the agent at Boulogne. Of the entire cargo only
a few puncheons of rum have as yet been recovered. The
wreck is entirely gone to pieces. Mr. Green, the owner, de-
spatched his agent last evening to Lorel, for the purpose of
protecting his property, and Captain Thompson, the brother-
in-law of Mrs. Thompson, and other connexions of the
deceased passengers, accompanied
Mr. Hamilton has been unceasingly engaged on the spot.
The Conqueror was built at Newcastle, and purchased
only last year by Mr, Green. Captain Duggan was an ex-
perienced officer, forinerly in the company's service, and had
made several voyages to _lndia. The first officer's name is
Mr. Harvey.

The foll Owing is a correct list of the passengers :—Mrs.
Thdmpson and fair children, Mrs. J. Jenkins and four chil-
dren, Mrs. Major Johnson, Mrs. Turton, Major Johnston,
Mr. Marshall, Lieutenant Marshall, Captain Milner, Master
Blake, and Master Reeves.

A private letter dated Boulogne, January 14, gives the
following particulars :—" I beg to inform you, that an East
Indiaman, of GOO tons, came ashore, near Etaples, this morn-
ing. It is reported that eighty persons were aboard, of
whom some where soldiers, their wives and children; only
one person has been saved; but he is in such a deplorable
state as not to be able to afford, any information. A Nor-
wegian, laden with salt and oranges, from St. Übes, become
a total wreck within four miles of this port ; the crew is lost.
When this vessel came ashore at low water assistance was
offered from theihore, but the crew would not abandon the
vessel ; when it was impossible to receive any, as the tide was
coming up, they requested assistance ; it was then too late to
render them any. A collier is also a total wreck in this
neighbourhood."

About the same period a Swedish vessel was wrecked near
the same spot, and all hands perished ; and also an English
fruit vessel with the whole of her crew. Three other vessels
were also wrecked, and The crew of one of them drowned.

AWFUL LOSS OF LIFE—EIGHTY MEN
DROWNED.
(From the Dublin Evening Mail of Monday.)
It has seldom fallen to our lot to record so melancholy a
catastrophe as that which will be found detailed in the follow-
ing statement, being an extract from a letter this morning
received from a private correspondent at Dundrum, in the
county of Down. Eighty poor fishermen have fallen victims
to the snow-storm of Friday, many of them leaving widows
and helpless families to deplore their loss, and mourn over
the untimely fate of brothers, fathers, husbands, and other
relatives :

" DUNDRUM, 15TH JANUARY, 1843—THREE O'CLOCK,
P.m.—Friday morning was so very fine that almost all the
boats from Newcastle to Analong went out to their fishing
in the bay, where they had quite an uncommon take of fish.
About noon it came on to blow, with snow. Up to this hour
there are, I believe, seven boats from Newcastle and four
from Analong missing. They were skiffs, manned with
about six hands each. Some of them were seen to go down
by the crews of the boats which got in. One made Killough,
and sold five or six and twenty shillings' worth of fish there;
in fact, I believe they were all heavily loaded. One boat
drifted in with two dead men in it. I think they reckon on
a loss of 48 souls at Newcastle, and about 30 at Analong, or
SO altogether; but I do not pretend to give you an official or
authentic account of the numbers, only what appears to be
the best and least exaggerated. You can easily picture the
state of the unfortunate widows and children along the coast.
It is the most afflicting event that has ever occurred in this
quarter.
__

The Ulster Times, published at Belfast, gives the follow-
ing further particulars of this distressing calamity :
Ten of the yawls or row boats, belonging to Newcastle,
and it is believed six to Analong, proceeded to their usual
employment of fishing, the morning being beautifully fine,
indeed, so much so, that they went many miles out to sea,
their crews little suspecting the awful doom that awaited
them, the weather indicating, to the most experienced in
nautical affairs, the most favourable day. Alas ! how
treacherous and deceptive such prognostics; for the wind
veered in an incredibly short time from due S. to N.W. and
W., accompanied by a tremendous snow storm, blowing
terrifically, and piercingly cold. The consternation and
anxiety which soon followed, may in some degree be
imagined ; but to convey an idea of the misery and affliction
which was depicted in nearly every countenance, defies all
power of description.
The shrieks and cries of wives,
parents, brothers, and sisters, running to and fro, abso-
lutely frantic with despair, for the dreaded fate of those so
nearly' and dearly connected with them, was truly heart-
rending. Reckless of the inclement weather, they sought in
every sea-ward direction for the consoling return of their re-
hlaatpivpeisoesasndwafs afforded:—for,riends out of the ten boats which left, but bow few the number to whom this
Newcastle harbour on that morning, but three returned, the
crews of which having had the most miraculous escape, are
left to mourn over the fate of forty-seven of their unfortu-
nate companions, that being the number belonging to this
small village alone, which have by this disaster met a watery
grave. It is computed that from twelve to twenty of those
are married, and all, or nearly so, leaving families, and many
of them large, to not only deplore their untimely death, but
to encounter the additional calamity of inevitable poverty.
And to this catalogue of suffering and woe may be added,
that many a son that day perished who was the sole support
and comfort of an aged and helpless parent. Nearly every
cottage of the humble classes presents a scene of the most
painful and distressing sorrow.
Between Analong and Newcastle, twenty-seven other lives
have been lost in the same way ; and, what renders it the
more pitiable is, that some of the persons on shore, perceiving
the exertions of their friends at sea unavailing to make bead
against the storm,
the poor brave fellows manned a boat,
with ten picked able men, and launched her amidst every
danger, in the hope of saving their fellow creatures' lives;
but, shocking to relate, they never returned, having perished
in the laudable and perilous attempt to render assistance to
their perishing neighbours. Such daring efforts deserved a
better fate. The crews of some of the boats being unable to
row any longer, it is conjectured, owing to, excessive cold and
exhaustion, cast anchor ; but many were soon washed over-
board : one was found quite dead, having foundered ; and
two others shared the same fate, from a similar cause, a short
time after being brought ashore.
Thus, in one day, and within a distance of six miles,
seventy-four fellow-ereatures have met a watery-grave,—
forty-seven belonging to Newcastle, and twenty-seven to An-
nalong and its vicinity.
There is a coincidence in many respects, of a very melan-
choly and remarkable nature attached to this unhappy cir-
tcwuemosttya.nncien,ewyheiacrlsl is, ,that,
thafot,rtoy fishermen belonging to then the 10th of this very month,
same places were drowned--thirteen to Newcastle, and
twenty-seven to Annalong—being the same number lost now
of the late, and by a snow-storm also, there being but three
days difference in the day of the month; so that, the snow-
storm, the month, and the amount of lives lost in one of the
n bear the most perfect similitude.
places,
Among the numerous casualities and accidents resulting
from the awful snow storm of Friday night last, the fc,flowing
melancholy case occurred :—A respectable old farmer, named
Isaac Macfarlane, and his wife, aged respectively, 63 and 60
years, were returning from the market of this town, with
their horse and cart, on the above evening, to their place of
residence in the neighbourhood of Collin mountain, about
six or seven miles from Belfast. As the did not reach home
at the usual time, their eldest daughter, who managed the
household affairs, supposed they had stopped at their son-in-
law's house, a few miles from the town, and she and the re-
mainder of the family, consisting in all of thirteen children
went to bed. The daughter had some warrant for coming to
this conclusion, as one of her brothers, who had gone to
school the same evening, did not come back—the teacher
having kept him at his own house, on account of the storm.
Next morning, the young woman alluded to, went out to see
about the lad, and at some distance from the house, she saw
her father's horse standing. beside the cart, out of which the
animal had struggled during the night, and disengaged itself ;
and a little farther on, the poor girl discovered her father and
mother lying on the ground, locked in each other's arms and
quite dead! ,
From all we have heard of this truly lamentable affair, it
would appear that the old couple had been riding in the cart,
and that such was the intensity of the cold, and the severity
of the storm, that the horse could not brave it, and they had
both got out of the cart to endeavour to make their way to
their own house, when they were overpowered by fatigue and
the numbness and stupor which usually accompany severe
coldher;e
tand,hey unhappilyin this s tateit is probable they had lain down
w
perished. During that night, and the
succeeding morning, the snow iu many places was six to eight
feet deep, but where the bodies were found it might have been
perhaps about three deep. The affectionate, but unfortunate,
couple had succeeded in getting into their own farm, and were
within about 200 yards of the dwelling-house, when death
overtook them. The old man held about one hundred acres
of land, and resided beyond Collin, in one of the bleakeit
parts of that mountainous district.