Dreadful explosion of his majesty's frigate Amphion, in the Hamoaze, Plymouth dock, Sept. 22, 1796, including the melancholy consequences as communicated by one of the survivors. Also, the loss of a Spanish frigate, on the coast of Mexico, in 16781800 |
Common terms and phrases
afterwards Amphion blew appeared arrived boat boatswain bodies bowsprit broiled cabin Captain Israel Pellew Captain Pellew Captain Swaffield cause Chiriqui coast companions comrades Costa Rica crew dashed day-break deck dinner discover some habitation Dock-yard jetty Dock-yard stairs Don Domingo Don Juan Don Louis dreadful eggs of tortoises eight days explosion farm of Macotela farther fire five days following day fortune fresh supply fruits Genoese merchant Hamoaze Island del Cagno Juan de Salinas land leagues Lieutenant Campbell Lima lofty mountain maize mangled mast-head cried masts midshipman morning night notwithstanding obliged occasion ourselves passengers perceived pilot plantain Plymouth port of Caldera proceeded province of Costa provisions raft refresh rocks Royal Hospital sailors scarcely set sail shattered shock shore side Sir Richard King steered Stonehouse sun-set tain terror ther thing tion took town of Esparza trees vessel wind wine wood Yarmouth
Popular passages
Page 11 - This, however, the first lieutenant declared to be impossible, as they could not be drawing the guns, the key of the magazine hanging, to his certain knowledge, in his cabin, at the time. Some of the men likewise declared that the guns were drawn in the Sound, before they came to Harmoaze.
Page 10 - ... the cat-head, directing the men in rigging out the jib-boom, when he suddenly felt himself driven upwards, and fell into the sea. He then observed himself entangled among the rigging, from which he had some difficulty in getting clear ; and being taken up by a boat belonging to a man-of-war, it was found that his arm was broken. One of the surviving seamen declared, that he was below when the frigate blew up, and went to the bottom in the hull ; that he recollected having a knife in his pocket,...
Page 8 - ... event, though numerous reports were instantly circulated. The few survivors, who, by the following day, had, in some degree, regained the use of their senses, could not give the least account. One man who was brought alive to the Royal Hospital, died before night, another before the following morning; the boatswain and one of the sailors appeared likely, with great care, to do well.
Page 10 - It was likewise said, that one of the sailor's wives had a young child in her arms; the fright of the shock made her take such fast hold of it, that though the upper part of her body alone remained, the child was found alive, locked fast in her arms, and likely to do well. Mr. Spry, an auctioneer who had long lived in great respectability at Dock, with his son and god-son, had gone on board to visit a friend, and were all lost. About half an hour before the frigate blew up, one of her lieutenants,...
Page 12 - Richard arose from dinner, and went in his boat on board the hulk, where the sight he beheld was dreadful; the deck covered with blood, mangled limbs and entrails blackened with gunpowder, the shreds of the Amphion's pendant and rigging hanging about her, and pieces of her shattered timbers strewed all around. Some people at dinner in the Yarmouth, though at a very small distance, declared that the report they heard did not appear to be louder than the firing of a cannon from the Cambridge, which...
Page 12 - Amphion 121 some of the men's chests, chairs, and part of the furniture of the cabin. Some bodies floated out from between decks, and among the rest a midshipman's. These, and all that could be found, were towed round by boats through Stone-house bridge, up to the Royal Hospital stairs, to be interred in the burying ground. The sight for many weeks was truly dreadful; the change of tide washing out the putrid bodies, which were towed round by the boats when they would scarcely hold together. Bodies...
Page 10 - Thither bodies still living, some with the loss of limbs, and others having just 'expired, were also conveying; while men, women, and children, whose sons, husbands, and fathers, were of the number, flocked round the gates beseeching admittance. At the moment of the explosion, the sentinel at the cabin door happened to be looking at his watch ; he felt it dashed from his hands, after which he became insensible ; how he escaped he was altogether ignorant, nevertheless, he was carried on shore very...
Page 14 - ... another cargo of merchandise at Caldera, a port of Mexico, situated in the province of Costa Rica, I set sail for that place with several passengers. We left Panama on the 12th of May, and imagined that we should arrive as usual, in about nine days, at Caldera. At the end of a fortnight, however, we found ourselves under the necessity of coming to an anchor at the mouth of the Manglares, which descends from Chiriqui, a lofty mountain, celebrated for its gold mines. I there went on shore with...
Page 11 - ... board the Amphion. Captain Darby, of the Bellerophon, was also to have dined with Captain. Pellew, and had come round in his boat from Cawsand Bay ; but having to transact some business concerning the ship with Sir Richard King, it detained him half an hour longer at Stonehouse than he expected. He had just gone down to the beach, and was stepping into the boat to proceed up Hamoaze, when he heard the fatal explosion. Captain Swaffield was to have sailed...
Page 13 - ... dragged round to another part of the dock-yard jetty, to be broken up, the body of a woman was washed out from between decks. A sack was also dragged up, containing gun-powder, covered over at the top with biscuit, and this in some measure confirmed an idea which had before gained ground, that the gunner had been stealing powder to sell, and had concealed what he could get out by degrees, in the above manner; and that, thinking himself safe on a day when every one was entertaining his friends,...