Maritime Newspaper Articles - 1823
27 May 1823 edition
Melancholy Shipwreck.
Whitehaven, May 12.--The schooner Supply, a constant trader from hence to Liverpool, sailed on Saturday with a valuable cargo, and about thirty passengers. All day yesterday she experienced a heavy gale from S.W. with thick hazy weather. An express reached here this morning, which states that the Supply ran on shore about nine, p.m. at a place called Drigg Scarr, about 3 leagues south of St. Bees' Head; that after st--king some time she filled with water; the crew and men passengers were all saved, but I am sorry to add, the women and children, about thirteen in number, with the exception of one were all drowned; the bodies have been found. The cargo will be got out in a damaged state.
5 August 1823 edition
Melancholy Catastrophe.
(From the Cambrian.)
A number of persons who had been attending divine worship at a Calvinistic chapel at Llansamlet, desirous of reaching home a less circuitous route than crossing the regular ferry, about 30 got into a small boat at Foxhole, a little above the town, and had nearly reached the opposite shore, when the boat came in contact with a vessel that was moored to the quay, contiguous to the pipe manufactory. This circumstance, though trivial in itself, so alarmed the women, that they all rushed to the same side of the boat, which was immediately upset, and the whole of the persons in it (with the exception of two, who were fortunate enough to jump into shallow water) were precipitated into the current of the river, at the time rendered more rapid by a strong flood that prevailed. The scene that now ensued was painfully awful; men and women were seen struggling to gain the shore, and the shrieks of the latter for assistance, were heart rending in the extreme.--Every exertion was made by the seamen and others present to save the unfortunate persons from perishing, and through their praiseworthy efforts, seventeen or eighteen were brought on shore; but, alas! ten of the number sunk to rise no more. The bodies of the unfortunate sufferers (with the exception of that of Llewellyn Thomas, a copper-man, aged 24 years) were found on the same evening and on the following day; they have since been interred by their sorrowful friends, and the regret felt for their untimely fate was evinced by the concourse of people who attended on this solemn occasion. One young lady was to have been married on Monday next to a young man named Owens, who in his attempts to save her life had nearly shared the same fate with herself[.] Inquests were held on the bodies on Monday by Dr. J.C. Collins, coroner, when the verdicts were of course the same in each instance, viz.--Accidental Death.
29 July 1823 edition
Distressing Accident.--Seventeen Persons Drowned.--Verbal information from several sources reached us Friday, of a most heart-rending calamity that occurred at Swansea on Sunday forenoon. The passage-boat, which plies across the river, had taken in as many as 30 persons, who had just left a place of divine worship, and were proceeding to Britton Ferry. There being a fresh in the river, and the boatman in the act of sculling, having accidentally slipped his oar, a gust of wind precipitated the whole under water.--Of the 30 only 13 were saved. One of the lost was a young woman of about 17 years of age, on the eve of being married. Her lover attempted to keep her above water, but was obliged to sacrifice his betrothed to self-preservation. One of the dead bodies was picked up by the Glamorgan steam-packet. Repetitions of the sad office throughout the afternoon, and the view of floating hats and garments upon the waves in the Bay, rendered the town an appaling [sic] scene of sorrow in surviving relatives, and sympathetic dismay in the spectators.
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