434 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1804. 



thpy approached the Romney, and 

 by their humane exertions, the lives 

 of 300 British seamen were saved. 

 Captain Colviile of the Romney, and 

 all his officers, iiave since arrived at 

 Yarmoutii. They were discharged 

 upon their parole, by the Dutch ad- 

 miral Kiikkert, who behaved to 

 them in the most humane manner. 



The following instance of intre])id 

 humanity in a British naval oliicer 

 at Plymouth, among many other 

 similar occurrences, deserves to be 

 -Benjamin Nelson, a 



recorded ; 

 seaman of the Colossus of 74 guns, 

 lying in Cavvsand Ba)', had been on 

 shore on liberty, and coming aboard 

 much intovirated, fell out of the 

 boat alongside the ship. Lieutenant 

 Lothian, walking near the gang- 

 way, saw the accident, pulled otF 

 liis coat, and with great intrepidity 

 jumped from the starboard main- 

 chains into the water : after swim- 

 ming a little time, he caught Nelson 

 by tlie hair, but in struggling to 

 bring him to the boat, Nelson be- 

 ing a powerful man, sunk, dragg- 

 ing the lieutenant with him : — lieut. 

 Lothian, by dint of superior swim- 

 ming, soon rose again, grasping 

 him lirtoily by the hair ; they were 

 then taken on board the ship's cut- 

 ter, but on taking Nelson to the 

 lower-gun deck, although every 

 means were taken to restore his life, ' 

 he breathed his last, more owing to 

 suUocation from his drunkenness, 

 than from his immersion in the wa- 

 ter. Lieutenant Lothian was some 

 time before he recovered from the 

 etl'e(^ts which the fatigue and anxiety 

 of his humane exertions had occa- 

 sioned. The coronet's jury return- 

 ed a verdict of — Accidental death. 



A pumpkin of most extraordinary 

 size and weight, and bsautifully 

 liwcd like the finest Cantaloupe m«. 



Ion, was cut in a garden, this daj, 

 at Bathwick, belonging to Mr. Gra- 

 ham, fruiterer, of Bath. It weighs 

 112lbs. the girt round is two yards, 

 and it measures two yards and a half 

 in length. The seed of this extra- 

 ordinary production was given to the 

 gardener by a French cook who was 

 at Bath last winter, and who highly- 

 extolled its excellence for culinary 

 purposes. 



20th. Mrs. Sowerby, the wife of 

 a pawnbroker, in Cannon-Row, 

 Whitechapel, threw herself into the 

 bason in the Crreen-purk. She was 

 taken out alive, ancf confessed that 

 she had just before drank a quantify 

 of aqua-fortis out of a phial ; being 

 farried to ^lount-street work-house, 

 she there expired in the evening ! 

 She has left three children. The co- 

 roner's inquest returned a verdi<5l of 

 — lunacy 



A poor woman of Cottitigham, 

 Yorkshire, having left a child a few 

 months old, in the cradle, alone, 

 while she went out upon some oc- 

 casion ; and omitting to shut the 

 door, on her return found the child 

 lying on the floor, with both its 

 hands nearly eaten off by a sow, 

 which had found her way into the 

 house. 



2 1st. Lord Eardley, on pa«sing^ 

 through Windsor, saw a crowd col- 

 lected ; and, on enqniriiiu.the cause, 

 found that it proceeded from a poor 

 clergyman's goods being seized for a 

 debt of 471. which suui his lordship 

 immediately disbursed, and thus re- 

 lieved the fortunate object of his 

 bounty from irreparable ruin. 



24th. This evening, the signal be- 

 ing made at Torbay for the whole 

 fleet to proceed to sea, the ships 

 were standing out of the bay, when 

 th« Venerable, captain Hunter, in 

 endeavouring to weather one of the 



ships 



