OUR HOME LETTER.

Tuapeka Times, Volume I, Issue 48, 9 January 1869, Page 3

OUR HOME LETTER.

London, 31st October. The cliarge of manslaughter which was brought against the station-master at Llandulas, in connection with the Irish Mail, was heard before the magistrates at Abergele ; but the evidence not being sufficient to inculpate him, the summons was dismissed. The driver of the mail train, Arthur Thomson, died on the 15tL The London and North-Western Railway Company still continue to maintain albad preeminence for accidents. On the Ist a train suddenly left the rails, in consequence of the permanent way being W in a very bad condition. On the 4th the engine of a train ran off the lines ' and imbedded itself in the ballast, giving a severe shaking to the passengers. On the night of the 12th,. two goods trains came into collision. On the morning of the 20thi the Bangor mail train ran into a goods train ; and another passenger train, ran into a goods train in the Diggle tunnel — this last train having been previously in collision with the London mail train. The Company's steamer, the Du\e of Sutherland, came into collision with a tug-boat on the evening of the Ist, when entering Holyhead harbour. Two gentlemen were killed by the first accident, but no fatal cases occurred with the others. In addition to these an accident occurred on the Great Western Railway— an express train being allowed to run into a siding where a number of goods trucks were standing. Then, on the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway a goods train, laden with limber, which had preceeded a passenger train by about an hour, was ascending a steep incline when one oi the couplings broke, and a portion oi the train ran back with great speed, coming into collision with the passenger train, and doing great damage, about twenty persons being more 01 less injured. On the - same line 1 passenger train and a goods train rai into each, other at a crossing, the higl wind having blown out the signa lights. Then, at Doncaater, two pa*s, senger trains came intocolHsion^bi juring some five or altogether the present sy|§£j^^^H way management does-'^axK^^^^^H approach . perfection.

that she was making direct for the ship, and though she was hailed several times, no- notice appeared to be. taken, for she came on full speed, and struck the ship with tremendous force, on the port side, the whole of which was stove, with forecastle and deck, as far as her windlass, and cut down below the water-line. The ship began to fill fast, g and on the captain rallying his crew 1» get out the lifeboat, he found that bis chief mate and most of the men had got' on board the steamer, which was the North Star, bound for Norway.. He then called the passengers and set them to work aU. their might at the pumps, which fortunately were ready rigged. Finding that the North "St&r v showed mo. signs of rendering any help, he ordered the signal guns to be fired, as also rockets and; blue lights; and in the meanwhile, with the assistance, of the few hanids, he managed to launch the lifeboat safely, in which .he placed all the women and children, despatching it directly to -the North Star. Just at this time the Spanish steamer Beatrice, also outward bound, was passing between the" two vessels, and. the pilot brought her close up, and sent out two boats, which, with two from the North Star, pulled to the rescue of the remainder of the passengers and crew, just reaching in time to get them into the boats before the ship foundered. Strange to say, the North Star did not sustain any serious injury; and after a short delay put back to. Gravesend, where she landed the shipwrecked passengers the next morning. The agents of Messrs. Shaw, Saville and Co. were .in attendance to receive them when they landed, and provided temporary accommodation rfor them, until they could . communicate with their friends. The explanation given by the captain of the North Star, was that the steamer was in charge of his chief officer, Mr. Henry, who is also a pilot. He also says that he saw the ship at anchor ten minutes- before the collision, and the course of the steamer would then have taken her clear ; but while he was in his cabin consulting his charts, he neard a commotion on deck, found that the course of the ship had heen altered, and instantly the collision took place. The pilot, who was said to be in. liquor at the time, has since absconded. The North Star, when about to leave G-ravesend, was seized by order of the Admiralty ; but as she is not liable for damages beyond her value, £8 10s. per ton (her register tonnage not being more than 700), the prospects of the passengers receiving anything like the value of the property, lost is very small.