Nineteen persons were seriously, and two dangerously hurt, on the
6th instant, by an explosion of fire-damp in a colliery belonging to Mr. Blundell, near Blackrod.
In the neighbourhood of Northampton, on Wednesday morning, the wind blew quite a hurricane—sweeping away stacks of bay and corn, cattle, horses, and trees.
In the South of England, at Bath, Bristol, Devizes, Barnstaple, Tiverton, Wellington, and Bridgewater, the wind did much damage. The Taunton Courier says that nine vessels with their crews were lost off the Gore, near Bridgewater. A West Indiaman, the Clarendon, was wrecked off the IsIe of Wight ; and all on board perished, except the second mate and two sailors. Among the passengers by this ves- sel, were a Lieutenant Shore, his wife, four daughters, and a servant— all drowned. The Duke of Marlborough, another ship, was lost off Torquay ; and only the master and mate were saved.
One of the survivors gives the following account of the wreck of the
Clarendon. " They made all the lights coming up the Channel ; and about twelve o'clock on Monday night they saw, as they thought, the Needles light ; but this must have been an error, as, soon after four o'clock on Tuesday morning, they became aware of their dangerous situation ; it must have been the Portland lights they took for it. The Captain felt confident, till a few minutes before she struck, that he should be able to weather Rocken End, the eastern extremity of the bay ; but the gale increased to a hurricane, at the same time chopping to the southward, and drove them with tremendous violence on the fatal beach. All the men were at this time on deck ; the ladies in the companion. The Captain now gave up all chance of saving the ship, and called to the men to save themselves and the ladies, himself taking a rope to lash Mrs. Shore to; but the next sea took the poop, with all the unfortunate beings who had sought refuge on it. Many were killed, or wounded, by the falling of the masts and rigging; others were drowned by being entangled in it. The three that were saved leaped overboard within a minute or two after the ship struck, and were carried on to the beach by the waves, and drawn tip by a young man of the name of Wheeler, %%hose daring con- duct is beyond all praise. Two or three persons, who saw the ship strike, tied a rope round Wheeler's body ; and, on the first man being thrown on shore, be rushed down t4 beach and gut hold of him : but the next sea overpowered them both; yet Wheeler bravely held the poor fellow till, with the assistance of the rope from his friends on the beach, be was dragged beyond the reach of the coining wave. What Was his gratification to find in him an old friend and shipmate, both having sailed in Lord Yarborough's yacht the Falcon ! The others were saved in a similar manner by this brave fellow ; who bad a nar- row escape himself; for so near was the ship to the shore, that when the mainmast fell, it was not three yards from the place the receding wave had allowed him for a moment to reach. Indeed, one of the men, (we think Byrne), said he thought he could have leaped from the ship to the shore; but the waves dashed over the ship, and far in on the beach, on which there is not a whole plank or spar to be found, though for miles covered with splinters and staves, and the mainmast is in three pieces. Seven puncheons have been got up the beach, but only one is full ; the others have more or less rum in them. There is a little cabin furniture, clothes, &e.
There were no rocks where the ship struck, and about thirty feet water outside of her. Part of her keel, and some of her floor-tim- bers, in a broken state, are on the beach ; but the most of it is buried many feet deep in the shingles." An inquest was held on twenty of the bodies, on Wednesday. That of Lieutenant Shore's youngest daughter—a pretty, plump little girl, about three years old, in its nightcap and gown—excited much interest.
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