C HRO NICLE. 



127 



7. A fatal duel took place on 

 South Sea common, near Ports- 

 mouth : the parties were lieutenant 

 Stewart and lieutenant Bagnall, 

 of the royal marines, and most 

 intimate friends : the quarrel arose 

 concerning a female with whom 

 both were intimate. In the first 

 case of pistols, lieutenant Stewart's 

 missed fire; in the second dis- 

 charge his ball entered behind 

 lieutenant Bagnall's right shoul- 

 der-blade, and came out at the top 

 of the other shoulder : every at- 

 tention was instantly procured, 

 but he expired on Saturday even- 

 ing. 



The Centinel gun brig, with 

 part of the homeward-bound Baltic 

 convoy, was, on the 11th of Octo- 

 ber, wrecked off the north-east 

 point of the island of Rugen. A 

 letter from Yarmouth estimates 

 the loss at 20 merchant-men ; but 

 the French papers, received on 

 Saturday, reduce it to sixteen. The 

 division of the convoy which got 

 on shore, according to the French 

 journals, amounted to 22 sail ; a 

 frigate and five vessels were floated 

 before the morning of the 12th ; 

 the crews of eight merchant-men, 

 despairing of extricating their ves- 

 sels, set them on fire, and were 

 taken on board the ships that 

 escaped the danger. Eight other 

 merchant-men^ which were within 

 range of guns from the coast, fell 

 into tiie hands of the enemy. Un- 

 der all the circumstances, we are 

 happy to find boih the English and 

 French accounts concur in stating, 

 that the crews of the different 

 vessels were all saved. 



On the 11th instant, Hobert 

 Armstrong, a joiner, at Martin, 

 in Cleveland, thought proper, un- 

 solicited, to ask a companion to 

 let him down by the bucket, into 



a well, which is about sixty feet 

 deep, but only two in water, to 

 bring up two wooden dishes which 

 had been in the well for near 

 five months. He had not been 

 lowered more than thirty feet, be- 

 fore he fell out of the bucket into 

 the well ; his companion continued 

 to lower the bucket to the water, 

 and called to him, but obtained no 

 answer. An alarm was given, 

 when James Ingledew, a black- 

 smith, was lowered down in the 

 bucket without being tied to a 

 rope, which he refused to have 

 done, in order to save Armstrong, 

 if possible. He was scarcely low- 

 ered twenty feet before he fell ia 

 like manner. A ladder was thea 

 procured, and Joseph Tenison, a 

 labourer, was immediately, at his 

 own repuest, lowered by the ladder 

 into the well, to endeavour to save 

 the other two ; when he had been 

 lowered a few yards, he was 

 observed to foil on the side of the 

 ladder, senseless. It now occurred 

 to the by-standers, that the cause 

 of these disasters arose from foul 

 air in the well ; when a fourth 

 man, William Hard wick, a la- 

 bourer, went down on the ladder 

 from which Joseph Tenison had 

 fallen senseless into the well, 

 with a rope tied round him, 

 Hardwick had not gone down 

 more than twelve feet before he 

 became senseless, and fell, whea 

 he was immediately hauled up, 

 and on his arrival at the top of 

 the well was black in the face, 

 and apparently dead, but soon 

 after recovered. Every effort was 

 now used by a number of men 

 with grappling-irons, but without 

 effect, to bring up the three bodies. 

 A well-sinker was then sent for, 

 who endeavoured to take out the 

 foul air with wliich the well was 



filled 



