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The following particulars concerning the wreck of the Heroine, emigrant ship, bound from London to Port Phillip, [Melbourne, Australia], on Monday last, have been forwarded to us by an eye-witness residing near Lyme Regis, the scene of the disaster:- It was about eleven o'clock, a.m., when the Heroine came ashore, a little to the eastward of the Pinhay Cliffs. As the papers have already stated, the crew and all the emigrants safely reached the shore in the ship's life-boats. Almost all the inhabitants, of the town of Lyme were down upon the beach watching the event, and anxious to render assistance to any persons who might gain the land. No less than between seventy and eighty persons almost by a miracle came safe to shore. Among the emigrants was one poor woman with twins at her breast only six weeks old : the little creatures were obliged to be thrown over the ship's side into the arms of the people in the boats below. Most of the unhappy creatures had only their night clothes on them when they landed. Within an hour afterwards the ship went down, being literally broken to pieces by the fury of the waves, and every particle of property on board was lost. The poor man, Bridle, who set out in an open boat, with four other gallant fellows, to render aid, was the only one of the five who came back to shore alive. His wife was standing on the beach among the crowd of anxious spectators when the boat was capsized ; but thinking that her husband was drowned before her eyes, she was carried home in a state bordering upon distraction, and the fright brought on a premature confinement, from which it is very doubtful whether she will recover. The weather on this coast since Monday has been very rough and stormy, and from the quantity of planks and timbers washed ashore it is clear that more wrecks than at present are known must have taken place in the lower part of the Channel. SG & SGTL Vol. 10 ; p 138. ^ back to top ^ |