WRECK OF THE ROYAL ADELAIDE STEAMER, OFF MARGATE.—SUPPOSED LOSS OF TWO HUNDRED LIVES. [From the " Altas," April 6.]

New Zealander, Volume 6, Issue 457, 31 August 1850, Page 2

WRECK OF THE ROYAL ADELAIDE STEAMER, OFF MARGATE.— SUPPOSED LOSS OF TWO HUNDRED LIVES. [From the " Altas," April 6.]

"We regret to announce one of the most melancholy casualitiei which has occured upon our coast for lome years past, The Royal Adelaide, plying between the ports of Cork and London, left the former city on Wedneiday afternoon with a full cargo o\ goodi and about 250 passengers— touched off Ply mouth on Thursday evening— left that port for London on Friday morning at three o'clock end was totally lost on the Tongue Sand off Margate at eleven o'clock on Saturday night, when there is two much reason to fear every soul on hoard perished. Charles Gilmun, a Deal pilot, saw on Saturday evening a large black steamer with a great many passengen on deck passing his ship steaming up channel At eleven o'clock the same night shortly after having passed tfie Tongue light ship when about fifteen miles from the coast off Margate, his barque again paised a large steamer about three-quarters of a mile distant, from which signals of distress were firrd in rapid iuccession. The steamer, from her position, was evidently on the sand but as the wind blew a perfect gale it wai quite impossible to render any assistance, They threw up rockets in reply to the signali in the hope that they might be observed from the shore ; but the night was coming on thick at the time, and he believed there was too much reason to fear they had never been teen. The Royal Adelaide was between 400 and s*o tons burthan, nnd had two engines of 450 horse-power each. She was commanded by Capt. John Batty, of Cork, who has been in the service of Dublin Steam packet Company upward of twenty years. The crew, in addition to the captain, consiited of three niatei, one carpenter, two engineers, two coal trimmers, six firemen, six men before the mast, a steward and stewardess, and cook. The name of the first engineer was William Reilly, and that of the carpenter Handy Turner. The names of the rest of the crew are not known — no record of them being 1 kept in London, As to the number of passengers on board at the time of the wreck no certain clue can be obtained until intelligence reaches London from the company's agent at Plymouth, where a gieat many of the deck paisengers frequently land. The majority of the passengers brought by this route are of the poorer class, and in some voyages nearly three hundred are brought over.