EXPLOSION OF THE ADA HANCOCK, AND FEARFUL LOSS OF LIFE.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVIII, Issue 1897, 21 July 1863, Page 3

EXPLOSION OF THE ADA HANCOCK, AND FEARFUL LOSS OF LIFE.

(From the San Francisco Bulletin.) By the arrival of the steamer Senator, we receive intelligence of the occurrence of one of those terrible catastrophes which burst upon communities unheralded asHghteniogbolta,scattering desolation &nd death on every side, and carrying mourning to a hundred homes and households. As nearly as we can gather from the surviving officers, and from passengers of the Senator, the particulars of the disaster are as follows .—The Ada Hancock was a small propeller used in the roadstead of San Pedro, for the conveyance to and fro of passengers and their baggage from the steamer's side to the town of San Pedro, distant about .fire miles. Owing to the low depth of water, 4 ; the employment of the smaller vessel was necessary. On this occasion the Senator was lying at bet anchorage, and her freight and baggage bad been safely conveyed to her b\ the propeller. It was on her first trip with the 'passengers that the explosion occurred at a time when she was only 2000 or 3000 feet distant . from the San Pedro wharves. This is decribed by those who witnessed the sad scene as having been terrific. 'It was like the explosion of a bombshell,' says an eye witness. Several on the Senator's decks weie watching the progress of the little steamer, and calculating the probable time of her return, when a vast cloud of mingled smoke and steam shot up in the air, mingled with flyin j timbers and bodies, and accompanied with a crash and roar like the discharge of a whole park of artil'ery. One moment the boat was seen on the water gliding smoothly and swiftly to her destination, the next instant her flyiogfragments filled theair — death burst from her overladen boilers upon the unhappy passengers without the slightest warning. Those who - escaped instantaneous destruction by the explosion were scalded tof death by the escaping steam. An eye-witness at the scene tells us that a more terrible one he never witnessed. Nothing of the boat remained but her hull, and this was sunk to the water's edge. Bodies and fragments of bodies were floating in every direction, mingled with splinters of -the wreck. Some of the bodies were blown from the boats deck to a near island — a distance of thirty or forty feet. Ou board of the Hancock at the time of the explosion there were some sixty passengers, of whom more than half were either killed or so severely wounded that they cannot - survive. The cause of so terrible a fatality occurring may be traced to the smallness of the boat and the fact that her boiler was located neatly amidships, directly under that portion of the deck where the passeogeis most naturally would congregate. The effect of the explosion of so gigantic a bombshell under the feet of sixty passengers closely huddled together may be readily imagined, and the wonder becomes oat that so many were killed, but that any at all escaped. Captain Seeley, of the Senator, was among the killed. He was standing, in com* pany with Mr Banning, laughing, and chatting with a number of ladies when the explosion occurred, and was evidently struck by a frag- [ ment of the boiler iron, which nearly cut his body ia twain, and must have caused instant d6atb. Of all the passengers on board the propeller, I only two escaped entirely uninjured. The bodies of those found were in some cases frightfully mutilated, the clothing being literally blown off them. Tbe bodies of Thomas H. Seeley, William Ritchie, express messenger of Wells { Fargo and Co., and Charles King, FortTejobn, have been found. Mr L. Cohu, two children, and servant, of Los Angeles, were on board the 1 Hancock. Mrs Cohn recovered her eldest child, about two years of age, from the water among the fragments of the wreck. Two child* ren were saved from the wreck by " Darkness," a colored servant girl of Mrs Banning, who displayed undaunted courage, and rendered great assistance to numbers of otters.. During , the whole excitement she remained perfectly calm, and was the means of keeping sbyeral of the ladies' heads above water for some time aftsr the vessel had gone down.