878
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
AN ENGLISH MAN-OF-WAR BUAT two days overdue. The cause of the delay was
CAPSIZED.
FORTY-EIGHT MEN DROWNED.
On Friday morning a telegram was received by Admiral Buller stating that a pulling launch belonging to H.M.S. Edgar at Chemulpo had capsized and forty-eight men who formed a landing party were drowned. Beyond this brief message
no further information about the sad occurrence has been received,
FURTHER PARTICULARS.
The Commodore has since received the follow- ing telegram
Landed for drill under the Gaunery Lieu- tenant.-Weather being quite fine at the time, started pulling back, but tide being strong anchored and made sail, double reefs. About this time wind and sea increased, but
no
danger was anticipated in proceeding. Bost ran under and filled seven cables from ship. Prompt assistance was rendered, and twenty-three men were saved."
NAMES OF THE DROWNED.
-
The following list gives the names of those who were drowned
Gunnery Instructor-Bailey.
Second Class Petty Officers--Elton, Rieb. Leading Seamen-Gilding, Cook. Signalman-Burtenshaw.
Able Seamen and Ordinary Seameu-Chap- man, Kay, Lininord, Fancott. Sobey, Gregory, Jennings, Johns, Hearle. Bowden, Hancock. Smith, Harrington, Nash, Murray, Devlin, Mahony, Manning, Sibley, Long, Greasley Doran, Martyn, Black, Cook, Davies, Andrews, Harland; Gough, Avery. Webb, Moss, Cuttings. Pettit, Wille, Drake, Cunnington.
Boys Twidale, Pratt, Hathway, Brown. Bugler, R.M.L.I.—Warren.
THE HEAVY MONSOON.
the voyage.
on Friday, having taken fifteen days to complete The Phra Chum Klao from Bangkok arrived She left Bangkok on the 30th October and had fine weather as far as Padaran. After passing Padarain a strong monsoon was encountered with heavy sea and violent squalls of rain, and the vessel shipped a lot of water. On the morning of the 4th iust. a Chinese sailor was thrown down and one of his ribs was broken. On the 6th a moderate gule blew, and this weather continued until the 12th, when the quadrant of the steering gear snapped and steering had to be done by hand. The fair was weather moderated on the 13th and it to port. The fresh provisions were all used up and for three or four days the officers had to subsist on tinned meat and rice.
The steamship Sishan, Captain A. Murphy, which arrived here on Friday from Saigon, re- ports that from Padaran to Hongkong she en- countered continuous gales from the northward, with very heavy sea, which did considerable damage to the fore part of the vessel, the galleys being completely gutted out and rice boilers, etc., washed away. On the 11th inst., during a heavy gale, a sailor, whilst securing the port life-boat, which had got washed adrift; fell over- board. The ship was hove-to, and life buoys, etc., thrown over and with considerable diffi- culty, owing to the heavy sea which was run- ning at the time, a boat was launched and for- tunately managed to rescue the man and get back on board without any further damage. Another member of the crew was knocked down by a sea and had his head severely cut and was otherwise bruised. The heavy weather con- tinued throughout the remainder of the voyage. The Maria Valerie also has the appearance of having had a dusting, but she has made no special report of her experiences.
The Pakhoi, a new ship belonging to Messrs. Butterfield and Swire, left Singapore last Sunday week for Hongkong, but she has had to put in at Saigon for coal.
The anxiety which was occasioned by the non- arrival of the French mail steamer Saghalien was relieved on Saturday morning when the vessel was signalled from Gap Rock. The steamer left Saigon on Sunday evening and was que here on Thursday morning, so that she was.
happily not of a serious nature, a fierce gale and tremendous seas alone being the source of the trouble Happily no damage whatever was done to the vessel and none of the crow or passengers, among whom were upwards of four hundred Chinese, were injured. The bad weather was first met with at mid-day on Monday when a strong north-west gale blew, and north, north-east, and east seas were encountered and the decks were continually flooded. The passengers were kept below and everything was battened down. On Wednesday and Friday the force of the wind and sea was so great that only four knots an hour were made, and it was not until St. John's Island was reached that the storm mode- rated. Then the weather was very foggy. but it cleared as Gap Rock was approached. During the eventful voyage scores of capsized junks were sighted-a sad testimony of the terrific weather which has been experienced during the past week in the China seas.
[November 21, 1895.
reported. had been ordered away from the Sandwich Islands for conspiring against the Government there, so had taken up temporary residence in Canton. The reason for his hasty departure can only be surmised.. Part of the time he had a partner, but the latter left some weeks previous to the closing up of the business.
It may be remembered that some months ago certain foreigners who arrived at Hongkong were reported to be engaged in a scheme for wrecking the Hawaiian Government and in pursuance thereof were said to be about to manu- facture dynamite bombs in China. Whether there was any connection between these men and the Honam factory we do not know, but the coincidence is peculiar.
!
During the war between Japan and China an American on his way to China to sell to the Chinese Government an invention which was to blow the Japanese ships to pieces by means of dynamite was arrested while passing through The afterwards released. Japan, but was
of the invention was never The Agamemnon, from Singapore. was ten nature days coming up. She left Singapore on the disclosed, but perhaps the would-be rebels 6th inst, and two days later a heavy gale with at Canton may have purchased or other- high confused seas had to be contended with. wise have become possessed of the secret and The rough weather continued until Gap Rock hare intended to apply it when the projected was reached, and the vessel came into the har-rising took place, which would possibly explain bour with her fore topnast curried away. She the existence of the bomb factory on Honam,. in connection with which foreigners might be sustained no other damage.
engaged without necessarily being aware of the objects of their employers, but as to the latter. point it is unnecessary to speculate.
THE
NANKANG ON A ROCK.
A TOTAL LOSS PROBABLE. Messrs. Weiler Cb. have received in- formation of the standing of the Norwegian steamer Nanking. She was chartered by a Chinaman in Hongkong and despatched on the 31st October to Nowelwang with a general cargo. Captain Sorensen was in command. When off Port Arthur two of the vessel's propeller blades were lost and she at once proceeded to Port Arthur in order to have the repairs effect. For some reason the authorities there prevented her from entering, and Captain Sörensen was compelled to leave obwong the Nanking struck a rock and it is with a crippled propeller On the way to New. thought she will become a total loss. No lives were lost. The Nikking was built in Norway last year. She is 1 tons gross en! *44 tons .net...
་
In a copy of the San Francisco Chronicle find received
we by yesterday's mail an accdunt of what is termed & new method of warfare "projected by a Colonel McGlashan, which it was at one time in con- templation to introduce to the notice of the Chinese for the destruction of the Japanese and which may have had something to do with the visit of the dynamite agent who was arrested in Japan and also with the recent manufacture of bombs at Canton.
It appears that in Cuba the insurgents are going to use slings and bows and arrows to hurl dynamite among the ranks of the Spaniards.
idea, he being the one who discovered the pecu- Upon this statement being made Colonel McGlashan had no objection to explain the liar fitness of these weapons for discharging the higher grades of dynamite. Colonel McGlashan should be regarded as a public bene- furt cause dynamite is the agent which will anni ilate the armies of the future and when THE ATTEMPTED REBELLION AT a battle means the total annihilation of all who The United States participate war will cease. Government has adopted Colonel Zalinski's dynamite cruiser, two hundred thousand dollars ‹ are to be expended in erecting a dynamite gun to protect San Francisco harbour, and dynamite torpees are recognized by all nations in naval warfare, but until this Cuban dispatch came the public has scarcely dreamed that dynamite could become the principal demon of destruction on inland battlefields." Colonel McGlashan says:-
CANTON.
RUMOURED FOREIGN ASSISTANCE.
ACTORY.
A DYNAMITE POMB FACTORY.
Wong, the captain of the Chinese gunboat Chento, and Ching, the captain of the Chinese gunboat Anlan, have been arrested and are now detained in the city at Canton in connection with the late attempted rebellion. It is said they have been accused by enemies who wished to blackmail them and having failed to do so have revenged themselves by bringing this charge against them. It is expected, however, that they will be acquitted.
The three leaders who went up with the men ou the Powen on the 27th ultimo were executed on Flay, the 8th inst., as already reported. These men were traders who had been abroad to the United States and the Straits Settlements, and had the appearance of men of the better class
The Chinese hare taken up another foreign innovation, viz., to insure that the condemned men were really executed and did not purchase substitutes a very old and honoured custom- they were in this case photographed when con- demned and their heads were again photo- graphed when severed from the bodies. The heads have been publicly exhibited.
а np
A foreigner who located himself at Honam, business, and ostensibly to work resided there for some months, suddenly took a trip to Hongkong on the 28th ultimo and returning a fortnight later closed his establishment and departed for good. The house was afterwards found to contain a few empty cement casks, some dynamite fuse and detonators, and indications of the manufacture of dynamite bombs. The said foreigner, it is
The extreme cost of the engines aud com-. pressors necessary for the pneumatic gun, as well as their weight and cumbersome proportions, render it impossible that the air gun should ever be practical as an army weapon. There must be something light, portable, simple, and safe in the device that is placed in the hands of soldiers. The sling, the bow and arrow, the skyrocket, the spiral spring, and several similar devices are perfectly safe, are quite efficient, and a man of ordinary intelligence can handle them."
After references to the capabilities of bows and slings, their use in ancient warfare, and their modern development, the Colonel went on :--
$4
But the reason I speak so positively about. these things not revolutionizing warfare is that other inventions will supersede them. I have perfected a machine which might properly be called a Gatling gun in comparison with any of them, for I can shoot 1,000 dynamite bombs per minute and can send them far greater dis- tances than even a ballista or catapult can throw. A ten year old boy could load, aim, and discharge my machine without the slightest danger of being hurt.
[
Others will discover methods that are superior to the bow, and even if the Cubans make a success of it its reign will be short lived I would not have you ignore the bow
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