| Citation |
BEP(F.767.048
7 Sep 1767:31 (1668)
Newport, Aug. 31. The following is a particular and
authentic account of the melancholy accident which happened
on board the brig Dolphin, Capt. John Malbone, of this town,
viz. Last Wednesday night she arrived off Point Judith, from
Jamaica, and when within about 5 miles of the land, at about
ten o'clock the same night, a Negro boy went down between
decks, among the rum, where there stood several puncheons of
water, and (as he says) with an intention to draw some
water, but mistook, and broached a cask of rum; at the same
time the door of the lanthorn in which he carried a candle
being open, and the candle falling into the rum, set it on
fire: This so affrighted the boy that he neglected to stop
the running of the rum, and in less than half a minute the
head of the cask flew out, and the flames were immediately
communicated to fifteen casks more, so that all possible
means used to extinguish them proved entirely ineffectual;
the vessel was in flames in a very few minutes, which
reduced 26 persons, being the number of people, including
passengers, on board, to a distress and horror that must be
left to the reader's imagination; among many of them
subsisted the tender and endearing connections of husband &
wife, parent & child, brother & sister, &c. between whom the
merciless flames were now effecting a cruel and inevitable
separation; and it was with the utmost difficulty that a
soul on board saved his life.--There were eleven passengers,
viz. Messrs. John Henry, William Brooks Simson, & Nathaniel
Green; Mrs. Storer, Mrs. Henry, Miss Ann Storer, Mrs.
Frances Storer, Miss Maria Storer, Miss Sarah Storer, and
Mr. Henry's two children, being in the cabbin, where
suffocated with the smoke before the two small boats could
be got out; Mrs. Henry was upon the deck, with her sisters,
and might have been saved with them, but, overcome with
maternal love and affection, on hearing her mother cry out,
the children--oh the children, she ran and threw herself
headlong down the companion, into the flames, & was
instantly consumed. The remainder of the people got ashore,
with difficulty, in the two small boats.--The vessel burnt
till 8 o'clock the next morning, and then sunk. The above
brig belonged to Messr. Evan & Francis Malbone, of this
town, was upwards of 200 tons, and valued with the cargo at
4000L. sterling, and the effects of the passengers at
2000L.sterl. more.
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