102 PRISONERS OF WAR 



be equally as remarkable. The following is extracted 

 from the Times of September 12th, 1859 : — 



'' Explosion on Board the ' Great Eastern.' — The 

 ruin here would have been an instructive sight for 

 engineers to witness. It would be still better if medical 

 men could insjDect them, and solve the problem of how it 

 can possibly have happened that men who stood round 

 the case of the funnel when it exploded, and when tons 

 of iron were torn up and cast about, were not only not 

 killed on the spot, but scarcely one was unable to walk, 

 and not one has sustained a fracture or dislocation." 



Another occurrence which caused considerable excite- 

 ment in the town, and which was attended with lament- 

 able consequences, I cannot forbear relating, although 

 at the risk of being termed a narrator of horrors. 



Two French officers, who had broken their parole, 

 hired a boat on Gosport beach, pretending they were 

 going on board a vessel at Spithead. The waterman, 

 who was well known to the inhabitants as a steady, hard- 

 working man, had agreed for his fare, -without the least 

 suspicion of their character, or their dangerous enterprise. 

 When they had reached Spithead, it is supposed he refused 

 to proceed further at their desire ; upon which, to get 

 possession of the boat, they rushed upon him with their 

 knives, and after inflicting several wounds on his body, 

 threw him overboard. 



Fortunately the scuffle was not unobserved by one 

 of the ships at anchor, whose commander immediately 

 despatched a boat in chase, though too late to save the poor 

 fellow's life ; however, they succeeded in recapturing the 

 wherry, and bringing the two miscreants to Portsmouth. 



