DREADFUL ACCIDENT. — TWENTYSEVEN LIVES LOST.

Otago Witness, Issue 715, 12 August 1865, Page 4

DREADFUL ACCIDENT. — TWENTYSEVEN LIVES LOST.

The " Overland Singapore Free Press," of the 22nd of April last, contains the particulars of a most melancholy accident — the boiler explosion on board his Highness the Tumongong's steamship Johore, in the harbor of Singapore — resulting in the death of twenty- seven persons. For some days preparations were being made on the Johore, to proceed round the Island of Singapore with his Honor the Governor and a party of gentlemen ; and on Saturday, the loth of April, between 12 and 1 o'clock p.m, the fires were lighted for the purpose of proceeding into the roads. Steam was got up, and begin to ro ir off from the safety valve about halfpast two, when an attempt was made to start the engine*!. It would appear that there was only one European engineer on boird; and while in the ac: of attempting to start the engines they got hot and destroyed the vacuum in the condenser, which rendered it extremely difficult to get the engines to go round ; this appears to have occupied the engineer's sole attention for some considerable time, and various means seem to have been tried to cool the condenser and restore the vacuum. At this time a boat was lowered, and the engineer of the Dock Company, "\ir Bain, was sent for ; and directly he got on board the explosion took place, hurling that unfortunate gentleman and the engineer of the steamer, Mr Miller, on to the forward part of the port paddle-box, and so seriously injuring both that they died shortly afterwards. It would appear that the after pare of the boiler gave way first, and was thrown into the sta. At the same moment the principal part of the same turned a half-summersault towards the engines, driving the furnace doors towards the bottom of the ship; and the outer shell of the boiler seems to have parted at the bottom and stretched out like a piece of paper over the engines, breaking and damaging them to a considerable extent, hurling the funnel and steam chest at the same time on to the port paddle-box. The shell of the boiler lay stretched out, with one end leaning partly on the portpad.lle-box, and the other end against the fore mast. The whole of the multitubular tubes were displaced and scattered about the ship with the exception of two, which still remained attached to the forwaid tube plate. All the internal stays of the boiler, which were about 1£ inch square, were carried away in various ways, some pulled in two with an apparent straight tensional strain, others stripped their screws, and some gave way at their connection joints. There are a great number of these stays. Each one of them must have had a strain of not less than about 30 tons before it broke; this, added to the strength of the boiler, which would peihaps at a rough estimate bear a strain of not less than 200 tons before it broke, will give our readers some idea of what the force of the explosion must have been; or what would still give a better idea would be to -visit the spot and see the iron bulk heads, strong decks, and beams, heavy castings, iron stanchions, masts, spars, ropes, partitions, &c, all smashed up into one conglomerated mass of scraps and firewood. The

following were among the persons killed kf the accident: — John Cle-ghorn, who wtfs captain of the Dock Company's small tug boat, went on board just before the accident took place, and appears to have been on the bridge looking down into the engine room below, when a portion of the boiler stiuck him on the left cheek, making a hrge hile in it. We have no idea how far the body was thrown into the air, or from the vessel, but it was not until the Sunday forenoon that the divers found it in connection with a piece of the boiler in the middle of the stream, with his arms folded and his legs a little bent, just as if he had never altered his position from the time he leant "over the rail of the gangway. John Young, the gunner, was found quite dead, jammed on the staircase a little a-head of the engine-room, in an upright position, as though in the act of making a determined effort to extricate himself ; the body was severely scalded. Henry Sanders, the Dock Company's boiler- ma leer, went on board to execute some kind of work ; the body was very much scalded from head to foot. The others, except Messrs Bain and Miller, were natives. Th9y were all apparently burnt and scalded in a frightful and heart-rending manner ; one poor fellow had the upper part of his head completely carried away from the mouth, the lower teeth appeared to be gone, but not the tongue. la all, 27 were killed Two Europeans and five or six other natives were laid up badly burnt and scalded. The Tumongong's brother, Tunku Abdulrahman, had a narrow escape. He was standing on derk on the starboard side, nearly over the boiler, when the explosion took place, and was thrown clown uninjured, with the exception of a slight scratch on tie wrist. He jumped up and sprang overboard, and was picked up_ Several men who stood near him were killed. On the boiler being torn away from the seacocks, water began to enter the hull of the vessel, and she was in consequence hauled up on the bank to keep her from sinking. The loss to the owner must be very considerable. An inquest was subsequently held on the bodies of Captain John Cleghorn and others; but the verdict of the jury as to the cause of explosion was not known at the departure of the mail.

The Bar at Hokitika. — The Ilokitika correspondent of the " Canterbury Press" says :— " The Titania has been driven ovtr the spit, and has sunk in mid-channel, and until a fresh opening appears in the bar is a very unsightly and dangerous obstruction to sailing vessels coming in or out." The correspondent ol the "Lyttelton Times" gives a different version :—": — " On Tuesday, an unusually heavy sea on the bar washed the steamer Titania, whose wreck hHs been reported before, into the channel, and, getting across the stream, an extraordinary and perhaps fortunate* state of things came about. The current being suddenly stopped, cut away a passage through the spit, c ose to where she lies, thus forming a new entrance, very much better in every way than the previous one, which has since filled up. In this connection it seems proper to remark upon a statement made in the ' West Coast Times' of to-day, which, if allowed to pass without eonti auction, may give a very false impression of the present state of the bar. In its commercial article it says that there has been a very fluctuating market during the past week, which it says is <: mainly due to the very impracticable state of thebar." In another column it says, " The harbor has become quite impassable for sailing vessels, tlnougfi the sinking of the Titania, and so on. This harbor is bad enough without exaggeration; it will always be a most dangerous phce for any class of vessel, but the above statement is simply a misrepresentation. The bar at this moment is actually safer, and the channel more favorable for sailing vessels than it has been for many months. It is not because the bar is impassable, that so many sailing vessels are detained in the offing, but because there has not been sufficient wind since their arrival to enable them to enter. With a good working breeze, every one of them, not drawing too much water, can come in with safety at high, water any day."

John M'lntosh, one of the five passengers belonging to the Lady Darling, who were drowned in attempting Ilokitika bar in a whaleboat, was for some time resident in Dunedin, where he had been a storekeeper and cab-owner. Having been for many years in the colonies, he was widely known and was much respected. Robert Turner, the young man whose father had the pain of witnessing the disaster fatal to his son, has also relatives in Dunedin. The other two persons said to be from Dunedin, were Edward Thomson and Henry Hearn. It was a fortunate circumstance that the Captain of the steamer resolutely refused to permit his own boats to be used in landing passengers, otherwise a more serious disaster might have had to be recordr-d. Being wearied with, the long detention off the port, the passengers had become clamorous in their demands to have the vessel's life boat, for the purpose" of landing them, but their request was refused. Subsequently, they subscribed LSO, which they offered for the boat, and afterwards increased the sum to LBO, but both offers weie declined, though the character of the weather at the time was such as to encourage an attempt to land. The boat to which the accident occurred belonged to Captain Ogilvie, who came off from the shore, and he was persuaded to take only a few, and those of men who might be accustomed to the sea. The great majority of her passengers were landed by the steamer Lyttelton at a cost of L3OO. On her next trip the Lady Darling is likely to be more fortunate in obtaining the means of landing her passengers.