August 1876 – Severe Gales, Theft of Feathers and the Days of Coaches
The Courts
Theft of Feathers – Armagh Guardian 25th August 1876
The Armagh Guardian reported on an embezzlement case underway at the Guildhall Police Court in London.
Mr. John Girtler, a well dressed man residing at 5, Clanricarde Gardens, Kensington, was charged with the theft of approximately £193 worth of feathers, and embezzling a sum of £6 10s from Mr. M. de Pinna, a feather merchant of Wood Street, Cheapside.
The court was told that the prisoner was employed by Mr. de Pinna twelve months previously as a travelling salesman. He earned a basic salary of 30s a week plus expenses and 21 per cent upon accounts paid.
On the 13th March 1876 he traveled to Belfast with feathers valued at £225. During April two further deliveries were sent to him at the Commercial Hotel in Belfast. The goods sent were valued at £50 and £52 bringing the total value of goods to £357.
However, when his accounts were checked it was found that, although the goods & feathers were no longer in stock, he had only recorded £121 in sales. The police were immediately contacted and when he was taken into custody, a search of his warehouse revealed goods to the value of £32.
He was charged with theft on the 9th May but then brought an counter action against M. de Pinna for £10 for slander and commission earned.
Further investigation revealed that he had received the sum of £6 10s from Mr. Keough of Belfast, and that amount had been omitted from his business accounts. A large quantity of the missing feathers were subsequently discovered at the Girtler’s London warehouse.
After some further evidence the defendant was remanded, but later released on a substantial bail involving two guarantors offering sureties of £150 each and the feather thief, Mr Girtler, paying the substantial sum of £300 (presumably to mitigate the risk of flight).
Willful Damage of Clothes – Armagh Guardian 18th August 1876
The Armagh Guardian reported on a Petty Sessions case heard before W. M. Miller, Esq., R.M., and F. Lochrane, Esq., J.P.
The plaintiff, Mary Brannigan, alleged that the defendant, Patrick O’Neill “did wilfully and maliciously injure clothes, which were entrusted to plaintiff to wash.”
In evidence the plaintiff testified that she witnessed the defendant “taking clothes off hedge, and then tearing of some“.
The son of the defendant, John O’Neill (described, strangely, as “a comical looking genius“) attempted unsuccessfully to defend his father but his evidence was discounted.
Although the plaintiff had no obvious signs of injury she explained that she had been hurt and had to rewash some clothing with other items torn. She produced a torn shirt in evidence.
The Court ordered O’Neill to pay 2s for the injury, a 10s fine, and 10s costs.
Local News
Severe Storm – Belfast Weekly News 5 Aug 1876
The Belfast Weekly News reported on the impact of a storm that struck overnight on Wednesday 2nd August, described as “one of the most severe ever experienced along the north-east coast.”
Ardglass
The fishing port of Ardglass was impacted most heavily where the ill-maintained harbour walls offered little protection or shelter from the severe weather. Several vessels were ship-wrecked in the harbour.
A Mr. Kinney, unwisely, attempted to put his fishing boat to sea but had hardly escaped the harbour before being driven on to the Ledger Rocks. The boat was shattered beyond repair. The crew were fortunately rescued by those manning the local coastguard station. It was to be a very busy night for those coastguards.
As the gale increased in intensity towards nightfall, a number of the boat owners attempted to sail their vessels to the upper quay which offered some shelter from the storm. One boat, the Olive Branch, of Arklow, while mooring got tangled with a Scotch vessel before sheering around into the rocks. The boat was totally wrecked. Again the coastguards were able to rescue the crew from the water.
Meanwhile another vessel, the Margaret, of Campbeltown, attempting to make the upper quay was struck by a huge wave that tore off the rudder leaving the vessel adrift. A following wave drove the stricken boat against against the pier-head. It was totally destroyed with the crew lucky to survive.
At the upper quay the Jane, of Killyleagh, was crushed between the other boats and immediately sank.
A boy named Chapman was the only person on board, but, after a good deal of effort, he was safely got off.
Other boats that had set sail before the storm escalated were unable to return to Ardglass and sought refuge in Carlingford Lough. No other casualties were recorded though the fishermen were united in the belief that they had never experienced such a terrible night
Elsewhere
The impact of the storm in Belfast and elsewhere was much less severe:
Slates were blown off many of the roofs of houses in town, but, fortunately, as far as can be ascertained, no person sustained any injury.
In the suburbs many of the taller trees were blown down, and other damage of a light description was done.
The Ormeau Park was quite strewn with branches that had been blown off the trees there.
It was highlighted that most people remained at home for the duration of the gale with the streets deserted for the most part. Cross-channel steamers did not experience as much difficulty in making their passage and, without exception, they arrived here yesterday morning at their usual time. The Harbour Office, however, advises vigilence over coming days.
Railway Accident – Belfast Weekly Examiner 26 August 1876
On 26th August the Belfast Weekly Examiner reported on a railway accident involving the Bangor to Belfast train. As the train approched Holywood a number of carriages at the rear of the train came off the rails due to the last two carriages remaining on the main line having missed the points.
Great excitement prevailed among the occupants for some time owing to the fact that a number of ladies were amongst them, but we believe there were no serious injuries beyond crushing at the carriage doors to get out.
Fortunately the Belfast to Bangor train was at Holywood station and in short order its engine was attached to the carriages of the stricken train so that the passengers could be conveyed to Belfast, arriving only 20 minutes late.
Given that the derailed carriages were blocking the line, the passengers for Bangor will have to find another form of transportation or wait until the line was cleared.
Other News – Belfast Weekly News 12th August 1876
Incidents and Accidents
Gun Accident
A young man named Robert Caven suffered an unfortunate accident on Friday evening.
Robert, who worked for Mr. James Torbett, North Street, Belfast, was visiting his his father “a respectable farmer in the townland of Ballee, about three miles from Downpatrick“,
On Friday evening the young man left the house and wandered around the farmland with the intention of shooting crows. Seeing one crow Robert raised his gun, took aim and fired. Unfortunately the gun burst, and the unlucky young man’s left hand was completely shattered.
He was immediately brought to the County Infirmary and the hand was amputated a little above the wrist. The patient is said to be “progressing favourably”.
Boat Accident in Carlingford Lough
On 25th July, it was reported that two soldiers of the 94th Regiment left Greenore in a boat belonging to the Newry Rowing Club but failed to return. The alarm was raised the next morning but their boat was found keel upwards at Killowen Point. No trace of the two men could be discovered.
Sadly, yesterday morning, the body of one of the unfortunate soldiers, named Smith, was found floating in the bay, between Carlingford and Greenore.
Royal Victoria Hospital Cases
A man named Samuel M’Cracken was admitted into the Belfast Royal Hospital on Wednesday, suffering from injuries sustained by falling off a ladder while at his work.
A woman named Hall was also admitted into the same institution, having her forehead injured by falling against a table in her own house.
Both remain in hospital under treatment.
On Sunday evening in Mill Street, a boy named Moore was struck on the head with a stone. A savage blow, dangerous symptoms were evident and he, too, was conveyed immediately to the Royal Hospital, where he remains. Resident Magistrate, Mr. O’Donnell attended the hospital and took the injured boy’s depositions.
Slip Sliding
On the evening of 11th August a boy named James Henry, aged 13, playing at the Clarendon Dock, fell into the water. Captain Robinson, of the schooner Eliza, seeing the boy struggling in the water acted quickly in rescuing the boy in a small boat.
In a separate incident, the captain of the ship Pirate had an unfortunate accident on attempting to board his barque as it was being prepared to set sail. (A barque is a sailing ship with three or more masts). Misjudging his step, he slipped and fell into the river. The mate of the vessel immediately reacted, jumping in after him and rescuing him. The bedraggled captain sustained no injury in the incident.
Opinion
On Coaches- Belfast Weekly News 12 August 1876
One correspondent lamented the demise of coach travel…
“the good old days of coaching, when the great proportion of the passenger traffic was conducted by means of four-horse vehicles, have become times of the past. Even the younger portions of the grown-up people of this generation can hardly be able to form correct ideas of the system of travelling as it existed before the steam propelled locomotive, with its long train of carriages, all but monopolized “the run of “the road.”
The correspondent then gave a short history on those pre-locomotive days.
Before the introduction of the locomotive, the towns of Newry, Dundalk, and Drogheda had enjoyed the advantage of regular mail accommodation, conveyed by four-horse coaches. However Belfast had “no better mode of transmitting letters than that of a post-boy mounted on a dilapidated pony.”
Delivery of mail by coach had first been proposed 100 years ago, in October 1786, by the Hon. Henry Skeffington, one of the borough members. Other members and leading merchants supported this suggestion. Although the proposal was accepted it took nearly 3 years to complete the works required to the route to support travel by coach.
In April 1789, a mail coach was started on the Belfast-Dublin line running three days each week, completing the entire journey in about twenty hours. Thirty years later, day and night mail coaches could run from Castle Place, Belfast, to Sackville Street, Dublin, in fifteen hours. The service ran 7 days a week.
The success of the mail coaches encouraged one entrepreneur, John McCoy from Newry, to carry passengers from Newry to Belfast on alternate days with the return journey of the following day.
The great success of the project, and the increasing demand for such conveyances, led other men of enterprise to follow in the path opened up by Mr. M’Coy,and the result was that in 1819 nearly all the towns within a five-and-twenty miles’ circuit of Belfast had either coach or caravan on the road.
We may here state that, with a very few exceptions, the passenger coach was then and for many years afterwards one of the heaviest and most lumbering of vehicles. It was not unusual for one of these immense carriages to carry six inside, and on busy days, two-and-twenty outside passengers.
John Magee’s Hotel in High Street, and Dan Miskelly’s Commercial Tavern, corner of Rosemary Street, formed favourite locales for loungers, and the starting of the respective coaches from each place was a special attraction that seemed new every evening. (Royal Mail coaches set out from the Donegall Arms).
The mail coaches needed, of course, the protection of guards, particularly on the night mail coach to Dublin as highway robbers were an occasional hazard. County Louth was, apparently, a particularly dangerous part of the journey.
The correspondence ended on a note of nostalgia…
As we have already stated, the days of public conveyance by coach, and the once popular system of passenger traffic, when eight to ten miles an hour formed the average rate of speed, have long passed away; but travellers by rail have little idea of how much of the exciting, and even of the sensational, there was in being whirled along the common roads on the top of a well-appointed coach, listening to the lively gossip of the man of the many-caped greatcoat, and who held the ribbons with the air of an artist.
Correspondent
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