The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-01-24 00:00:00

off Ostend

The intelligence was brought by Captain Lewis, who with
the chief mate, Mr. Clark, and the ship's cook, arrived off
the Custom-house at eleven o'clock on Thursday night by
the Belgian steamer.

The England was of 425 tons burden, and belonged to
Messrs. Ward and Son, shipowners at Shadwell. She was
not insured. Her crew, besides Captain Lewis, consisted of
first and second mates, carpenter and carpenter's mate, and
16 seamen. On the 7th inst. she left the River Thames for
the coast of Africa, with about 200 tons of ballast, and ar-
rived safe in the Downs on the following Thursday. They
proceeded on the passage the same evening, having fair
weather, the wind blowing a fine breeze from the east. How-
ever, at about one o'clock on Friday morning, when the ship
had arrived between Fairley and Beachey Head, it commenced
blowing a heavy gale,- which increased to one of the severest
hurricanes ever experienced by the oldest seaman on board.
Captain Lewis, upon the storm advancing, had the ship se-
cured as snugly as possible ; all sail was shortened, and every
man was upon deck ready in case of emergency. At about
two o'clock the appearance of the weather was awful ; hail,
snow, and rain descended in torrents, the sea appeared like
a boiling surf, the waves rising a terrific height, and making
a clear breach over the vessel. Most of the crew had lashed
themselves to different parts of the vessel. During the morn-
ing the ship laboured very hard, and by her continually pitch-
ing shifted her cargo of ballast; so much so, that by day-
break she was completely upon her beam-ends, and making
a considerable quantity of water. The crew made signals of
distress, but no vessel made its appearance during that and
the following day ; but at seven o'clock on Sunday morning
a Dutch pilot-boat hove in sight. In the meanwhile the ves-
sel had become worse, the crew suffering from cold and ex-
haustion. During Friday they made several attempts to work
at the pumps ; but the storm still continuing with unabated
violence, although several were lashed to the handles, they
were unable to keep a footing. Friday night and Saturday
passed without any further success, and they remained lashed
to the rigging until late on Saturday night when the weather
became somewhat fine, which enabled them to free them-
selves from the quarters where they had been tied nearly 48
hours. Such was the situation of the ship then, that it was
impossible to work at the pumps, or even to launch the long-
boat ; she lay on the water with her gunwales completely
under, and her destruction was expected by all. At daybreak
the following morning (Sunday) Captain Lewis and the chief
officers determined upon cutting away the mainmast, in the
hope of throwing the vessel more in an upright position, and
in order to construct a raft. In a few minutes after the order
had been given the mast fell overboard, but it had little effect
upon the ship. She lay with the bottom of her keel partially
out of the water, and the gunwale some feet under. There
was then upwards of ten feet of water in the hold, which was
fast approaching the deck. Just as they commenced con-
structing the raft the pilot-boat, to their great delight, hove
down towards them, and succeeded in reaching the England,
and taking them safely off the wreck.
The Dutch pilot-boat, at the desire of Captain Lewis, re-
mained alongside of the ship until she sank, which took place
in about two hours afterwards, about three leagues from the
shore.

The crew, upon their arrival at Flushing, were most kindly
treated by the authorities, who afforded them every comfort
and assistance they could wish. The British Consul at
Flushing then forwarded them to Rotterdam, which place
they left for London.

LOSS OF THE " CONQUEROR."