DESTRUCTION OF THE ROYAL MAIL NEW STEAMER AMAZON, AND LOSS OF 140 LIVES.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 709, 19 May 1852, Page 3

DESTRUCTION OF THE ROYAL MAIL NEW STEAMER AMAZON, AND LOSS OF 140 LIVES.

[From Bell’s Messenger.'] It is with feelings-of the deepest regret that we have to announce a most dreadful catastrophe which has befallen the Royal Mail new steam-packet Amazon. We have to deplore nothing less than the total destruction of the ship by fire, and the loss of 140 lives. This shocking intelligence was brought to Plymouth on the midnight of Monday, by the br’g Marsden, Captain Evans, bound from Cardiff to South Carolina, which ship also brought the only survivors, 21 in number,- of the 161 souls that left Southampton m the Amazon. The Amazon, of above 2000 tons measurement, was launched only a few months since, from the building-yard of Messrs. Green, at Blackwall, and having been fitted with her 800 horse engines, proceeded to Southampton, and on Saturday afternoon last started thence under the most favoui able auspices and in sight of most of the directors, on her first voyage, with 50 passengers onboard, and the mails for the West Indies, Gulf of Mexico, Spanish Main, &c. She wus commanded bv Captain Svmonds, one of the ablest of the company’s officers, and the Admiralty agent in charge of her mails was Lieutenant Bradv, who, in consequence of the illness of Lieutenant Wilkinson, was appointed to this vessel, at the last moment. She had on board £17,000 in specie, 5000 bottles quicksilver, worth above £SOOO, and otherwise a very valuable cargo, and was laden with 1100 tons of coal. The ship gallantly, ran down the Channel, and everybody on board was wrapped in the greatest self-security, when, 60 miles to the west of the Scilly Islands, about 20 minutes to 1 on Sunday morning, the ship was discovered to be on fire, and the awful catastrophe ensued.