Alexandria gazette, commercial and political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1812-1817, 1816-03-18
From late London Papers.
Dreadful Explosion.

Dreadful Explosion
The Hamburg papers received
8 .ssser,Iay comtain the following par
q ';.uIars ofthe tragieai event which
Aaopeued a. Dantzie on the 9th in
slant -
Dantzic, Dee. 10.
On Wednesday, the 9th Of Dee
s,,oai in the morning. The remain
;ss gnnponder. consisting Of abont
co ewt. hesides the filed bombs, d
s ,beils. were TO DO remaved from the
novder magazine close to the ram
mart within the city, near St.
Ssmcs's gate. Fer this purpose 1s
! eannoneers. a subaltern officer, and
an. aPiiiieer, went into 1t when
inst as Inc last man was going IN Gas
il is peparted) the magazine blew
mp. The effect of the explosion was
dreadful, Those who lived at a
distance took ii for an earthquake !;
for the doors and windows fiewSoPen
The furniture was thrown down and
The bells setf moiion by the pres
sure of the air. rang OF themselves.
The kissing of The balls in the air
confirmed the idea that it was an
earthquake hut the true cause was
soon discovered by the balls thatfell
inlhe remote parts of the city. and
By the lamentations Ofthe wsunded
"A third part of the city, and pre-
cisely that Inhabited by the p0ore g. IS
tetween 61& roo houses. the Church
Is of St. James and st. Eartholo-
new, the Schusseldam, the market
place, the Pleifferstadt. and the ad
jacent street have particularly sui
fered. Corpses. which, from mutula
lion anddrst, were hardly to be re
eOgnized as human. lay in heaps a
round, and envied by the half living,
who with their limbs crashed and
bowling with pain. endeasored to
crawl from beneath The rains
Those who had escaped with me-
deraIe wounds were asking or dig
ging, with their faces & hands cover
ed with blood (which the cold made
freeze upon them. after their friends
and their property. There lay, still
e0nyulsed, the torn members OF a
human body. A mother lamenting
over three children whom she missed
the children were found, but none of
them were alive Still more shock
log was the sight in long street
leading to the powder magazine
which served as a market place for
the country people who came here
with Hills sledges loaded with wood
from Casaanben. 1t happened to be
market time. Twenty ofthese poor
people lay crushed under siseir hors-
es and oxen, which were likewise
crushed, aud under their overturned
sicdges. Round the stump of 8 lamp
post, was horse, whose bones
were broken, twisted round like al
cord The Instances Of almost mi
faculous escapes arc many. Some
persons we're saved merely by the
falling beams, &c. forming a kind
etan arch over them. The extent
Of the damage may be conceived
from The circumstances, that for the
distance Of a league round the mia.
gazine, in every direction, itrained,
as one may say, balls, bombs. shells,
canister shot, pieces of brick work,
&c. The nuMber of killed and
Wounded is between three and four
hundred, and that of the houses da-
mayed six or seven hundred, and
The loss sustained not 90 be made
good for half a million of dollars.
GLASS is wanting TO mend the vim
aOws, which are almost universally
Broken by the pressure of the air."
THE DTEL. PARTISAN STO.
RY.
- cx..sIo.. - CLaC Z ~ =,