The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-12-12 00:00:00

30 impediment to any

tine nature of the
He spoke of

Eliza Dl'Gow•an was in the steerage with her brother
„who was dragged from her side and killed" (as shf

tnought). utter the entrance was closed, t .„
complained of great heat and the want of water. Soma
threw off their clothes. Several children were then dead.
Her brother had money on him which he lost. Her
brother died, as the others did. She was bit on the
breast with a wooden block by some one, and some had

sitting beside her brother when the row con; menced ; it
was then she received the blow, and her brother was
dragged from her; he cried out to her " Oh, son are
killed:" heard her broth

Serieant M'Gee, of the constabulary, said he had
boarded the vessel on her arrival at Londonderry, and
went into the steerage. There be found only two spots
where he could put his feet without treading on human
bodies. All who were there were dead. This witness
went to Captain Johnston to enquire the cause of what
bad occurred, but he seemed to know little about it ; he
said he had been informed that the people had mutinied
on the passage, thrown sulphur, and stabbed and cut the
throats of one another; witness told him that he was
asking officially, and he might not answer, and he asked

whether he was present when the deaths happened ; he
replied he was not, but the mate was, and he could tell
him all about it; he then pointed out the mate to him,
and, on enquiring of him, the mate said, there had been
sulphur thrown among them, and they had begun to rob
and cut each other's throats, and be thought they in-
tended to take charge of the vessel ; witness asked what
the eantain and crew were then ahent - in rpnlv tr, which

he said there was a very great storm, and it took them all
to save the vessel ; witness then left him to see whether
the dead persons had their throats cut, and having
got a light, raised several heads, and found their throats
whole, and no marks of violence; two dead men he sup-
posed to be blacks, but was mistaken ; he returned to the
mate, and asked how they could have been killed with

but:n the vessel. He took the captain and crew into cus-
tody. There were 72 bodies, and it did not appear that
in any of them death had been caused by violence,_

Joseph Miller, Esq., M.D., examined the bodies. He
attributed death in all the cases to suffocation, arising
from want of room and air. There were 140'prisoners in
Calcutta Blackhole, which was 20 feet every way, and in
three hours a third were dead ; there was much less pro-
fyirti,mate space in the Londonderry steerage ; persons

iructed the. entrance

standing on the ladder must hav(
of air ; the wounds he spoke of were punctured : one

man had a puncture under the ear and on the breast ; and
a woman had one under the chin ; believes from their
peculiar appearance, that they were inflicted after death
and even if they had been received during life, they could
not have so soon terminated fatally.
H. Skipton, Esq..lll. D., gave similar testimony.

The jury, on Wednesday morning, returned the follow-

ing verdict

" We find that death was caused by suffocation, in con-
sequence of the gross negligence, and total want of the

necessary caution on t

aepak of the captain

lexander

Johnston, Richard Hughes, first mate,-and Ninian Craw-
ford, second mate •, and we, therefore, find them guilty of
manslaughter; and we further consider it our duty to ex-
press, in the strongest terms, our abhorrence of the in-
human conduct of the remainder of the seamen on board
on the melancholy occasion ; and this jury beg to call the
attention of proprietors of steam-boats to the urgent ne-
cessity of introducing some more effectual mode of venti-
lation in the steerage, and also affording better accommo-
dation to the poorer classes of passengers."
We now subjoin the

NUMBER OF SOULS ON BOARD

Cabin ditto -
Captain and Crew

A witness, named Michael Branan, from Sligo, stated
that on the night in question it became very stormy and
the sea broke over the deck. He was the last passenger
who remained on deck, and one of the crew called him an
Irish and made him go down. He with difficulty
made his way to his mother and sisters, the place was so
thronged that, while those at the sides were forced to sit
down, there was no sitting room for those in the centre,
and they were moved to and fro with every motion of the
Black Cattle, 44—died 13 • Sheep, 62—died 25; I
vessel; some time after, some of the crew came to close
We learn that -r ••Z•
down the hatchway, when the passengers became noisy.
and insisted that the hatchway should not be shut, as they
could not endure the heat as it was, but their remon-
strances, if heard, were not heeded ; in the row that en-
sued the light went out; sticks were going, and he re- LOST.
ceived one blow on the wrist, but thought it was not in- (From the Hull Advertiser of Friday.)
tended for him ; another blow struck the beam above his For many years no event has occurred in Hull, fatal
.to
head ; from the utter darkness it was impossible to see so large a number of human lives, and attended by cu.-
what was going on. He did not think robbery was going cumstances so melancholy, as was announced to have
on. His eldest sister became delirious, and struck his happened early yesterday morning. At first the report
other sister. She died at his side. The following con- could scarcel' be credited, but inquiry unfortunately
tinuation of this witness's evidence we give entire :—An proved it to be only too true. A ferry-boat plying on the
old hale man, who sat beside him, and had a peculiarly river Hull, between the Groves and Wincolmlee, over-
powerful voice which might have been heard over the turned at a few minutes to six o'clock, and precipitated
vessel, cried out " Captain, Captain, for God's sake come about thirty people into the water, of whom fourteen
and save us, and have_ mercy on us," and he continued so were drowned.

Of these died on board (all Steerage
Men

,ssengers)

Women .
Children

Remaining to be accounted for
Steerage Parsenger, surviving,
Cabin ditto, ditto
Captain and Crew

CATTLE ON BOARI
Black Cattle, 44—died 13 ; Sheep, 62—, , ..gs, 26—died L
We learn that the sum of X 124 has been found by the
constabulary on the persons of the:living and dead, which,
it is unnecessary to say, will be accounted for.

DREADFUL CATASTROPHE-FOURTEEN LIVES

to call until his voice fell away and

sankie

LOWII CX

ed ; witness's legs were so wedged in with the bodies o
persons lying about him that he could not extricate them

The river Hull, as far as Stoneferry, a village upwards
of tWo miles from the town, is more commonly called by
the name of the OH Harbour. At the spot where the
accident occurred it is between forty and fifty yards
broad. A ferry has been established there many years,
and since the erection of cotton mills on both sides
of the stream, the number of persons crossing and re-
crossing from both sides daily is immense.
It appears that yesterday morning, when the boat-was
on the Groves side, at about a quarter to six o'clock, she
caught the ground, and a delay ensued, occasioned a lar-
ger number of persons to enter the boat than otherwise
would have done. The boat was built especially for the
ferry, and is said to have carried thirty persons safely on
numerous occasions. Those on board, in this instance,
were of both sexes, and of various ages, all, however, be-
ing work-people at the Kingston Cotton Mills, and who,
it is alleged are not from their manners the kind of persons
who would act with the greatest discretion w

Until by ti roll of the vessel they were so shaken that he
managed to get his legs out, and then in an inclined pos-

ture, with his nose to a dead light in the side of the -ves-
sel, he felt a little air come in at the side of the Holt,
which relieved him so much that he was able to make an
effort to get to the companion, upon the locality of which
he hid kept his mind fixed from the first, and so pre-
served some consciousness of it; in his attempt to gain it
he fell three times over the bodies of the dead and dying ;
when he got to the ladder, he found it occupied by three
men ; when he got up he found that a tarpaulin had been
put over the opening, and three coils of rope round it, so
that it was with difficulty he got through the coils ; when
he got through there was a dead bullock at the opening of
the door ; he then got to some bags of mussels that were
on the deck, and from them mounted to the bridge,
where he inquired of a sailor where the mate was ; the
sailor first d—d him, and told him to go back again, but
afterwards directed him to the mate on the quarter deck ;
he with difficulty got to the mate, and so terrible was the
rolling of the vessel, that he had to put his arms round
the chains in getting to the quarter deck ; he there told
the mate the state they were in below, and the mate said
he did not believe him ; witness then told him that, if he
did not attend to those people he would have him tried
for his life when he got to Liverpool; the mate then pro-
cured a light, and accompanied witness to the steerage ;
in going down the light went out, as witness believes,
from the foul air ' • the mate lost no time in procuring
another light, and got the tarpaulin and ropes removed
from the hatchway; the steam which came out of the
steerage was like that from a boiling pot ; the mate then
made his way down, and when he saw the scene before
him he wept, and declared that he would rather have lost
twenty pounds than not been twenty miles away; witness
succeeded in getting his mother and two surviving sisters
up ; and the mate and sailors did all that men could do to
relieve and assist all the sufferers who were still in life ;
they were taken to the cabin, and there treated with every
kindness and attention that it was possible to bestow
upon them.
The inquest was resumed on Monday. A female,
named Brady, said that the sea broke in several times
into the steerage. After that the companion was closed,
and her cousin, Mick M`Gowan, since dead, shouted out
not to do so, lest they should be smothered. A witness,
named Feely, said they were so crowded in the steerage
that he could only compare them to a batch of bread,
after it was some time in the oven. They were ordered
to go below, which would have been prudent if there had
been room enough, but there was not. He heard a per-
son on deck call out to them to pray for their souls, as
they were going to the bottom. He attempted to get
some water, but was .rudely repulsed and sworn at by one
of the crew„ -

en over-

crowded in iicOmparative-ly small boat. The ferryman,
who is a survivor, states that there would have been no,
danger had they remained perfectly still, and that
the accident entirely resulted from their disposition to
frolic, and their subsequent slighting of the caution with
which he admonished them. The concurrent state-
ment of the survivors is that an alarm originated bT
some of those on board moving to one side, which
caused the boat to slant over. Upon this, a move to
the opposite was instinctively, though foolishly made, and
the boat at once capsized. One or two had previously
jumped into the river, but all were now immersed in it,
and the scene which followed baffles all description. The
men and lads plunged and struggled to reach the shore;
the females, void of self-possession, uttered shrieks which
were heard long distances in every direction, but which
soon ceased to be raised. Many embraced each other,
and speedily sunk—and, after a few moments, nothing
was heard but a few splashes, which only made the silence
more awful; hundreds of workmen, who were going to
their respective occupations, thronged to the ship-yards
and staiths on the river-side ; but, amidst the darkness
and consternation which prevailed, no effectual help could
be rendered ; the State of the tide prevented boats being
launched with expedition, and, when they were floated,
the only service they could render was to assist some of
the survivors who had landed on inconvenient parts of the
shore, and to grapple for those whose lifeless bodies were
being floated away by the stream. Sixteen were saved,
without sustaining much injury. Of these, all were
males, with one exception, that of a young girl named
Bridget Durr, who, whilst floating down, was seen by a
person named Clarke, who had managed to get hold of a
pile, and sustained himself until taken out. He thrust
out his leg, and desired her to take hold of it, which she
did, and he then drew her up to him. This poor girl bad
three sisters in the boat, all of whom were drowned.
The boat, which has since been recovered, is a new and
strong one, about 13 feet long by 5i o: 6 feet wide, with

;sergeant inereuiLut ua 1.C6111./Vii W LIU un a very fiat bottom, and the terryman asserts is
board, and in the forecastle, heard the people in the ble of carrying over.thirty persons with safety, providing
steerage bawl out murder, and to have a light. The erica they were careful.