Part of the
Acorn Archive
Hearts of Oak
SS Amazon
Destruction of
the Steamship by Fire with Great Loss of Life
Plymouth - A further report - Friday Evening
- 9th January 1852
The improper stowage of some tallow on board the
unfortunate Amazon a now given as the cause of the destruction of that ill
fated ship. The tallow was in casks, placed on bags of the coal, and it is
asserted that the tallow was to much heated by the engine fires that it melted
through the casks, on the bags and coal, and thus
rendered the whole easily ignitible.
One of the passengers, Mr Allen, of the West Indies, was
observed pacing the deck with his hands in prayer, patiently waiting that
inevitible fate from which he knew there was no escape. A gentleman and lady,
in their night dresses only, both on fire, came on deck, and with their arms
round each other, walked over to one of the
ship's hatches, and fell together into the flames.
After getting possession of the life-boat, no rowlocks
could be found, but Mr, Vincent, the young midshipman, who retained his
self-possession throughout, coolly took a spar, and with his knife soon cut
sufficient for their purpose.
If the strange bark, seen after leaving the Amazon had
borne down towards the life-boat, she could not have taken out the men, so
tempestuous was the sea, and the probability is that when the crew of the
life-boat thought the bark answered them she was replying to the gig, the crew
of which it now seems she has saved.
A Report from Southampton 11th January 1852
The Royal mail steamship Avon, Captain Onslow, sailed
this afternoon for St Thomas's Carthagena, Chagres and Grey-town with ship
letter bags for those places, but no mails for Jamaica, Demerara or the other
British West India islands and colonies. the Avon has been despatched as an
extra ship in place of the Amazon, to bring home mails from the Spanish Main,
West Indies and gulf of Mexico, due at Southampton on the 5th March next, and
will therefore fill the vacancy on the homeward route made by the disastrous
loss of the ill-fated Amazon. The Avon takes out only one passenger, and no
specie or cargo of any kind.
Nothing further has transpired since Friday relative to
the loss of the Amazon, nor has any fresh intelligence come to hand. Sermons
for the benefit of the widows and orphans were preached today in several of the
churches and chapels of the town to large and deeply impressed congregations.
Letter received by Mr George Mills, engineer in chief of
the Royal Mail Steam-packet Company
Brest, Jan 5th 1852
Dear Sir, I am very sorry to inform you that the
steamship Amazon caught fire about 1 o'clock on Sunday morning, in the Bay of
Biscay, burnt to the water's edge and went down. I think the captain and
officers, with all the engineers, except myself, are burnt or drowned. The
life-boats were burnt before they could be got down. There was a boat full went
away; but has not been heard of. We are 25 saved in two boats, and were picked
up on Sunday night at 6 o'clock, and the second boat at 7 am on Monday morning,
by a Dutch galliot and taken into Brest. I shall come to Southampton as soon as
I can, and shall be able to tell you all the particulars when I return. I remain,
your obedient servant, William Stone, 4th Engineer of the Amazon.
The packet brig Brilliant, Captain Caldbeck, arrived here
this morning from Madiera. Although she has crossed the bay of Biscay, she has
seen none of the Amazon's boats and no vestige of the wreck.
Raymond Forward