The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-12-13 00:00:00

SHIPWRECK IN THE MEDITERRANEAN,

The English brig John and Ann left Newcastle for Toulon
on the Ist of August, with a cargo of chains, cables, and
coals. Having discharged her cargo, she proceeded to Malta
in ballast, seeking for freight, and she left Malta for Alexan-
dria, also in ballast, on the 27th of October. On the Ist of
November, the brig being in about longitude 25 deg. east,
she struck upon a rock at eight o'clock p.m., between three
and four miles distant from the shore. The weather at the
time was not bad, there was a strong breeze blowing, and the
vessel was going about eight knots an hour before the wind ;
it is supposed it must have been some strong current that
drove her out of her course. Ten minutes after the brig
struck, the masts went over, and in half an hour she parted
right athwart the gangway, the fore part of the vessel remain-
ing on the rock, and the stern sinking in deep water. The
crew at the time of the accident consisted of six seamen and
the master, an elderly man between 60 and 65 years of age.
They all clung to the fore part of the vessel, and remained
there several days without any nourishment whatever, and
unable to use the least exertion to save themselves on ac-
count of a heavy swell that had risen, and a strong wind
blowing from the land. On the fourth day five of the crew
got together some spars and pieces of the wreck, on which
they managed, after great fatigue, to get ashore, but in land-
ing one of the seamen disappeared, and he is supposed to have
been drowned. On the sixth day the two men who had re-
mained behind followed the example of their companions, and
got on shore on some spars. When they were all united they
walked a few miles, and were met by a party of Bedouins.
who stripped them of their best clothes, and it was only after
great entreaties that they obtained from them a handful of
barley a-piece, which they ate with the greatest relish.
The day after they landed the master died, overcome by
exhaustion and fatigue. After walking about 80 miles along
the coast, obtaining here and there a small supply of barley,
the remaining five men reached an encampment of Bedouins,
who received them well, gave them bread and water, and kept
them in their tents for two days to rest themselves. Two of
the Bedouins then undertook to bring them to Alexandria,
and they started on three camels, and arrived there on the
morning of the 19th of November, being seven days on the
road. The Bedouins treated them all the while very well,
and supplied them with as much food as they wanted.
The Bedouins who brought the mate and four seamen from
the wreck demanded 50 Spanish dollars for their remunera-
tion, but the British Consul, it appears (and by this supposi-
tion we take the matter in the most lenient light), did not
consider himself authorized to pay them more than £4 ! which
the Bedouins indignantly refused. Is not the life of a British
subject worth even .£1 ? In order to encourage these people
in rescuing shipwrecked mariners and treating them with
kindness, Messrs. Briggs and Co., as Lloyd's agents, paid
the Bedouins the difference, viz., 30 Spanish dollars, con-
sidering that their claim was very reasonable; and a subscrip-
tion, very liberally responded to, is now in circulation amongst
the English at Alexandria, with the proceeds of which they
mean to make the Bedouins a further present, and provide
the poor shipwrecked seamen with more suitable clothing and
lodgings than the Consulate has furnished them with.

SINGULAR AccioENT.—On Sunday week, the guard of
the omnibus which was on the point of leaving the Old Legs
of Man Inn, at Preston, to fetch the passengers from the
railway, cried out the accustomed all's right," supposing
the driver was on his seat, when the horses started off, and
knocked down and killed one of the hostlers. The boots
seeing the accident, ran after and stopped the horses, when
it was discovered, (but not till then,) by the guard and
passengers, that the horses had been running without a
driver.

InviNE.—TRADE.—A considerable improvement has
taken place here within the last few weeks. Houses in the
weaving line have increased the number of their hands, and
there is a prospect of still further augmentation. In the sew-
ing department many of our old respectable firms have com-
menced to increase their fancy goods, in order to meet the
spring trade; and, from the favourable symptoms already
evinced, we may expect such a revival as will keep our femala
population fully employed during the whole winter.—Ayr
paper.

PERILOUS FEAT.—On Wednesday morning a crowd of
persons were assembled in the neighbourhood of the Monu-
ment, their attention being drawn to a man standing on the
summit above the gilt part, which is intended to represent
flames. It appeared that some portion of the iron work at
the ball at the top required repair. and some workmen were
sent up to do it, when one, more venterous than the rest,
got through the trap door, and, after shutting down the
opening, stood upright at the top, to the astonishment of the
spectators. He remained there for some minutes, and then
descended in safety.

MELANCHOLY EVENT.—Upon Thursday, the 24th ult.,
towards evening, a poor girl applied for, and obtained a
lodging for the night at the house of a respectable family in
the parish of Tullynessle and Forbes. She appeared to be
labouring under a great difficulty of breathing; and it was
observed that during her stay she partook but sparingly of
the food which was given her. Next day, she called at a cot-
tage about 150 yards distant, and very shortly afterwards the
sole occupant found her dead, in a half-reclining posture,
within the " mouth of the peat-stack." She made no appli-
cation here for lodging, but asked for a little hot water to
relieve her breathing, which was given her. Although de-
cidedly unwell, there was nothing in her appearance, or in
what she said regarding her illness, to indicate that her death
was so very near. Her clothes, and a single half-penny,
constituted the amount of her earthly possessions.—Aber-
deen Journal.

A SUICIDAL BRIDE.—On Saturday night week, a girl
named Georgiana Mary Hope, belonging to Roxburghshire,
and who has for some time been in the farm service, came to
town to stop a day or two with a friend. On Sunday. after
being three or four times at the Latterday Saints' place of
meeting, she went home and complained of a pain in her
stomach. Retiring to her room, she drank the contents of
a phial of laudanum, which she had purchased the night be-
fore, and which was conspicuously labelled "poison." At
7 o'clock next morning she expired. It appears that she was
betrothed to a young man named Cochran, a fellow-servant,
and that they were proclaimed, for the first time, in Houston
Church on Sabbath. The arrangement between the decea-
sed and her bridegroom was, that she should come to Paisley
on Monday morning, and that they should set out together
on an introductory visit to her friends in Roxburgshire. The
bridegroom did come to Paisley on Monday, but instead of
finding his betrothed ready to join him in the arranged ex-
cursion, he found that the ceremony had just been completed
of wrapping her in her shroud—a shroud, moreover, which
she herself had brought to town—and instead of accompany-
ing her to the residence of her friends, he had the melancholy
duty next day to perform of laying her head in the grave.
Rumour assigns the cause of the fatal act to be that the
young woman had not truly represented herself and her cir-
cumstances to her intended husband, and that the fearful
step was taken to avoid the detection, exposure, and disap-
pointment, which a visit to the south would have occasioned.
Paisley Advertiser.