Terrible Accident on Board a River Steamer.

Cromwell Argus, Volume 1, Issue 49, 19 October 1870, Page 7

Terrible Accident on Board a River Steamer.

The following shocking occurrence is related by the Eourke correspondent of the Dubbo Dispatch .—On Sunday, August, 14, a terrible accident occurred on board the steamer- Princess Royal, She was preparing for her cruise down river when a cry was raised that a man was entangled in the machinery. On stopping the engines, it was discovered that one of the crew, named Pilcher, had got his leg in the cog-wheels, and before any help could be given the limb was ground to mincemeat : bone, sinew, and tiesh were reduced to one pulp. On making enquiries, it transpired that the engine was on its centre, and to start it the unfortunate man had, as is the foolish custom, put his shoulder to the fly-wheel. As it proved, tho eugine was a little off its centre, and yielding to the driver's touch, he was hurled to a terrible doom, It could not but be observed by the excited crowd, whose sense of prudence had thus been startlingly aroused, that the machinery of all steamers was in a most reckless state of unguardedness. In 1870, the engineer of the Kelpie. Captain Symington, had his arm wrenchtd from its socket by these feaiful wheels. Later still, at Wentworth, a young ladv passenger on board the Jolly Miller, Captain T. Johnston, sustained a horrible rending. This is not four months past. These cases are only picked out of about a dozen. Pilcher died sixteen hours after the accident.