967
13.
lbs. of powder and was discharging a portion of this into a three-masted schooner called the Themis, bound on a voyage up the coast, when at about half past one in the afternoon a terrible explosion startled everyone in Hongkong, shaking the ground, as if an earthquake were going on, blowing in windows, and window frames even in a great many cases, and rolling its echoes amongst the hills till it seemed as though the thunder would never cease.
From the spot where the two vessels referred to had been lying side by side a moment before, a gigantic column of smoke, the magnitude of which baffles description, had risen up into the sky, but of the vessels there was nothing more left. Of all the men and women on board, from twenty to thirty in number, some European and some Chinese, not the faintest sign or trace has been since discovered, and even the vessels have been, as it were, annihilated. Fragments of the wreck, bits of timber, and twisted iron bolts and stanchions, were picked up miles away on the Kowloon Peninsula, but on the water, when the smoke partially cleared away from the surface, there was nothing but a wide expanse of blackened debris reduced to something more like powder than anything else, and all round there was no fragment of anything so large as the back of a sofa.
The vessels near were deluged with a shower of blackened water, and minute fragments of wreck, but escaped without injury, though some native boats which had been lying close alongside the powder hulk shared the utter destruction of the two vessels which were blown up.
Of course it is vain to offer any conjectures as to the cause of the explosion; nothing can ever be known of this. It is felt, however, that the Colonial Government has been altogether too lax in regard to the regulations affecting the storage of powder, that no part of the harbour is a fit place for a hulk full of that cargo to be lying. It is said that a day or two before the explosion the Zephyr was anchored within a mile of the town, and had the explosion taken place then, not only the windows, but the houses themselves would have been blown down, half the town would have been in ruins, and the loss of life something frightful.
This briefly describes one of the worst mishaps of the kind on record; and one which presumably served as a warning to the authorities regarding the storage and handling of large quantities of explosives.
967
13.
lbs. of powder and was discharging a portion of this into a three masted schooner called the Themis, bound on a voyage up the coast, when at about half pest one in the afternoon a terrible explosion startled everyone in Hongkong shaking the ground, as if an earthquake were going on, blowing in windows, and window frames even in a greet, many cases, and rolling its echoes amongst the hills till it seemed as though the thunder would never cease.
From the spot where the two vessels referred to had been lying side by side a moment before, a gigantio column of smoke the magnitude of which baffles description had risen up into the sky, but of the vessels there was nothing more left. Of all the men and women on boerd, from twenty to thirty in number, some European end some Chinese, not the faintest sign or trace has been since discovered, and even the vessels have been, as it were, annihilated. Fragments of the wreck, bits of timber, and twisted iron bolts and stanchions, were picked up miles away on the Kowloon Peninsula, but on the water when the smoke partially cleared away from the surface,' there was nothing but a wide expense of blackened debris reduced to something more like powder than anything el se, and all round there was no fragment of anything so large as the back of a sofa.
The vessels near were deluged with a shower of blackened water, and minute fragments of wreck, but escaped without injury though some native boats which had been lying close alongside the powder hulk shared the utter destruction of the two vessels which were blown up.
Of course it is vain to offer any conjectures as to the cause of the explosion, nothing can ever be known of this. It is felt, however, that the Coloniel Government has been al- together too lax in regard to the regulations affecting the storage of powder, that no part of the harbour is a fit place for a hulk full of that cargo to be lying. It is said that a day or two before the explosion the Zephyr was anchored within a mile of the town, and had the explosion taken place then, not only the windows, but the houses themselves would have been blown down, half the town would have been in ruins, end the los S of life something frightful.
This briefly describes one of the worst mishaps of the kind on record; and one which presumably served as a warning to the authorities regarding the storage and handling of large quantities of explosives.
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