Supplement To The Isle Of Wight Mercury, March 25, 1878. [&] March 27, 1878.
[Isle of Wight, 1878.]
Two letterpress broadsides, each c.505 x 375mm. 19¾ x 14¾". Folds, tearing in places. Staining and tatty extremities.
Two special supplements to a local newspaper describing events surrounding the loss of HMS Eurydice, a 24-gun frigate which was the victim of one of Britain's worst peace-time naval disasters when she sank in a heavy snow storm off the Isle of Wight on 24th March 1878. The first supplement, issued the following day, describes how the tragedy unfolded, lists some of the dead officers, and quotes eye-witness accounts. The second, two days later, reports on the inquest. After being recommissioned as a training ship under the command of Captain Marcus Augustus Stanley Hare (1839 – 1878), the Eurydice sailed from Portsmouth on a three month tour of the West Indies and Bermuda on 13th November 1877. On 6th March 1878 she began her return voyage from Bermuda for Portsmouth. Only two of the ship's 378 crew and trainees survived the sinking, most of those not carried down with the ship dying of exposure in the freezing waters. One of the witnesses to the disaster was a young Winston Churchill, who was living at Ventnor with his family at the time. The wreck was refloated later in the year but had been so badly damaged during her period submerged that she was then broken up. Her ship's bell is preserved in St. Paul's Church, Gatten, Shanklin, Isle of Wight. There is a memorial plaque recording the names of the officers and crew who died in the disaster in St. Ann's Church, Portsmouth.
[Ref: 12228] £120.00
Two letterpress broadsides, each c.505 x 375mm. 19¾ x 14¾". Folds, tearing in places. Staining and tatty extremities.
Two special supplements to a local newspaper describing events surrounding the loss of HMS Eurydice, a 24-gun frigate which was the victim of one of Britain's worst peace-time naval disasters when she sank in a heavy snow storm off the Isle of Wight on 24th March 1878. The first supplement, issued the following day, describes how the tragedy unfolded, lists some of the dead officers, and quotes eye-witness accounts. The second, two days later, reports on the inquest. After being recommissioned as a training ship under the command of Captain Marcus Augustus Stanley Hare (1839 – 1878), the Eurydice sailed from Portsmouth on a three month tour of the West Indies and Bermuda on 13th November 1877. On 6th March 1878 she began her return voyage from Bermuda for Portsmouth. Only two of the ship's 378 crew and trainees survived the sinking, most of those not carried down with the ship dying of exposure in the freezing waters. One of the witnesses to the disaster was a young Winston Churchill, who was living at Ventnor with his family at the time. The wreck was refloated later in the year but had been so badly damaged during her period submerged that she was then broken up. Her ship's bell is preserved in St. Paul's Church, Gatten, Shanklin, Isle of Wight. There is a memorial plaque recording the names of the officers and crew who died in the disaster in St. Ann's Church, Portsmouth.
[Ref: 12228] £120.00